Sit down Interview with Riley Knight Gee

[KnightRiley 72]

"My name Jeremy Bones From Prague Morning News and I am here with Riley Knight Gee of the Prague Phantoms. I'm going to asks Mr. Gee quite a few questions about his career so far within the VHLM and VHL, his personal life and his thought to the future, lets get it started."

 

  JB:  I would like to start with asking how you think your rookie season went with the Prague Phantoms?

 

   RKG:  For my rookie I think I did fairly well, I ended the season with 8 goals and 30 assists for a total of 38 points which I'm proud of.  I stayed out of the box for the majority of the season with 28 penalty minutes most of those penalties were stupid mistakes that I can easily fix. I'm not the biggest player on the ice so i don't use the body as much but for whatever reason I'm not scared of blocking the puck if it means helping our goalie out a bit with 149 shots blocked, two of the goals were a game winner and a shorthanded goal which is pretty good. Overall I think it was a pretty decent season but there is still a lot of work I can do to improve my game.

 

  JB: At the end there you mentioned that you have quite a bit to improve, care to provide on what that is?

 

  RKG:  I know I definitely focus more on my offensive game which leads to me making more mistakes in my defensive game. Defensively I need to be more aware whether it being fighting in front of the net or knowing where the puck and opposing team players are at. Improving on my speed and puck handling is something I want to improve on myself, when I'm in the play I can do my job but to keep up with the play or to take control of the play I need to be faster with my feet and hands. A big obvious for myself is I need to get stronger, like I said I'm smaller then most of the league so I get pushed around more easily.

  

  JB: This season Prague made it into the play ins for play offs and even though you guys lost what are your thoughts?

  

  RKG: Overall we're all disappointed with the outcome of it, it sucks that we couldn't even take a game off of Helsinki. I got 2 points in 3 games, glad I could somewhat help the team out on the scoresheet but feel like I should've played better defensively and helped out our goalie. It fucking sucks not much more to say.

 

  JB: Now that you've played with your team for a year how do you feel about them, whos your favorite team mate to play with or hang out with?

 

 

  RKG: I'm more of a quiet person so coming into the team at the start of the season was weird, a lot of them had already spent seasons together and know each other so to come into the team was harder, they're all friendly so it made it easy to mesh into the team easily. For most favorite to play with would have to be Cinnamon Block just because I have learned to play the game better playing alongside and watching from the bench. It was relieving I guess to have Poremba getting traded here I played with him in Houston so i was already familiar with him.

 

  JB: Now I would like to move onto the more personal side of yourself, What's your favorite thing about living in Prague?

 

  RKG: I think it would have to be the sightseeing for myself, I like learning about history so coming to Prague where there's tone of it has been great, and not just the history but the food is different so trying all sorts of it has been fun, I'm a picky eater so to try most of it has been hard and fun.

 

  JB: What do you do in your spare time?

 

  RKG: Like i said in the previous question i like history, I also like Pokémon so Pokémon Go has been great for me here, to just walk around collecting stops while sightseeing and learning while collecting Pokémon. My two favorite places to visit has to the the castles and the Astronomical clock. The castles are big and beautiful that it takes quite awhile to explore and the clock too is beautiful to look at. Other then exploring Prague its usually just playing hockey.

 

  JB: What are your plans for the off season?

 

  RKG: Main thing is go back to Laine's home and playin in his off season tournament, last year was fun and with this year adding more players I'm sure it'll be even more fun and better, I can't wait to catch up with everyone again. I can't wait to get back to Canada and visit my family especially when there is a big time difference where our schedules don't align right so its hard to at least facetime or call them when we can. Other then that just training to get better for the next season coming.

 

  JB:  What got you into professional hockey, what your first experience?

 

  RKG: My dad was what got me into hockey, he's the one that taught me how to skate and taught me how to play the game being my coach growing up, along with that he was also my brothers coach so all his home and most of the away games I'd get to go watch. Another thing is a few of my cousins were in my brothers age group so seeing them all play together made me want too play along side them all, which was also my first experience watching hockey in general.

 

  JB:  We've talked about what you liked about living in Prague, what about what's difficult about living here?

 

  RKG: Being so far away from my family is the hardest thing, worse so that I can't just easily call them when I want to or even in my own time when I'm available too because of there schedules, the time change between us makes it hard. The other two are language barrier along with food, as i said earlier I'm a pretty picky eater so eating here has been hard but its getting a lot easier, now that I've been here for awhile I'm getting used to the food but the language barrier is a little different and harder to learn to get acquainted with the locals, most of them have decent English but it'll be easier if I could speak there main language.

 

  JB: Who's been your favorite teammate to play with in the VHL or VHLM?

 

  RKG: Markus Schauer, without a doubt I felt playing alongside him in my final year of the VHLM is what allowed me to dominate as hard as I did then. Also a quick shout to Gregg Stallion who was a joy to play with in my first year with the Houston Bulls

 

  JB: Moving on from your life I'd like to ask a couple questions regarding the VHL, what's your thought on the upcoming draft?

 

  RKG: I think it's exciting watch the new players get drafted and especially with this draft it's supposed to be a deep draft with the amount of players there are, it will be fun to watch.

 

  JB: Thoughts on the upcoming season?

 

  RKG: Judging from this season I think we'll do better next year, hopefully we will be more competitive in the regular season mostly the play offs if we make it in. With the work I am putting in this offseason to get better for next year I'll hopefully be more effective defensively and offensively, i want to have a crazy year for myself.

 

  JB: And our last question of the night we'd like to know what you thoughts are on the recent re-signings of Prague with your own.

 

  RKG: So far anyway Gary Tarantino, and Cinnamon Block resigned, I'm excited to play another year with both mainly Cinnamon. Like the last question we'll hopefully be more competitive in the upcoming season for them and the team. As for my own contract I wanted to stay in Prague, I'm learning to love it here and when D_A contacted me about the re-signing he said it would be with a lower pay, i personally don't really care about the money the main thing I wanted out of the contract was the max amount of years I could get so that I'd be able to show and stay in Prague for the rest of my VHL career and hopefully end it here. Talks were short both sides got what they wanted and for the future I think it will benefit both sides of the deal.

 

   

   " And that's all the questions we had for Riley Knight Gee folks, we'd like to thank RKG for sitting with us tonight and answering the questions we've had for him and we hope you all have a good night, this is Jeremy Bones signing out!"

 

Word count: 1518   Claiming for Nov.8/Nov.15/Nov22

  

  

 

  

[Suzuki14 24]

Review: I love the length, most people can't make an interview this long. Love the different colours and the photos, makes it really easy to read.

9.5/10

[KnightRiley 72]

second claim

 

[KnightRiley 72]

3rd claim