Onde Sandstrom - A Champion

[fonziGG 1,065]

 

Champion. It's a word I never thought I could call myself before I came to North America. On the grandest stage, I was apart of something truly special. A championship squad is something I could never be apart of. I didn't just defy all of my critics, I also defied myself. I have a god damn ring. It's awesome as a feeling. It helps that I have such a fantastic group of teammates to help me settle in the country and enjoy the course of the season. At the beginning, none of us thought we could go this deep. We figured we were on the outside looking in and then next thing you know, we went 10 wins in a row. We were like a freight train that couldn't be stopped. It was after that where I thought we could really win it all. I mean, if we didn't, I wouldn't have been upset about it at all. We're all so young with a few leaders in the room so I had 0 expectations.

 

The @Emi, @BladeMaiden and @IamMOOSErookie group were huge to my development. Kevin kicked my ass into shape throughout the season and Venus taught me how to handle the puck so much more effectively. Don't forget, they played on thise sized rink for their entire careers. They were used to this type of play. I was not at all and they knew that. They would take extra practices to get me up to speed and watch close spaces. I know this season was a bit of a wash for me but I think theres going to be more minutes opening up, hopefully, so my point totals should go up in theory. Emi was always ready to practice for me as well. We had a partnership before practice to get some work in since we both could help each other down the line.

 

Our captain, @DarkSpyro, was such a goat throughout the season and post season. He was always in my ear letting me know that my time would come. Don't get dishearted and the such. He really was a huge motivating factor for a lot of the players here. It was his first season as captain and hes such a consummate professional throughout it. He kicked our asses all season long throughout practices. He made us practice our shots and set plays after hours just so we can improve. A lot of this cup is owed to a few players and he's one of them.

 

@Beaviss, @JeffD, and @Poptart would hype me up before games. They showed me that it's more then just serious focus all the time. We gotta have some fun while we do this otherwise we're going to go absolute bonkers. Huge jokesters in the locker room but man, they are the types of dudes you want to have in our corner because they put in more work then anyone I've ever met.

 

@Da_Berr, @jpsd, @SweatyBeaver and @Garshapart of that group as well. These dudes were fantastic to have on a long stretch of away games. They always brought games like Uno and Monopoly Deal (can't forget about cards)  to lighten the load on the bus rides. Always a smile on their face until they step on the ice. It's funny because, my favourite memory of them was preseason. They were all laughing and joking around up until we got on the ice. I had never seen Stallion not be smiling but the mad man was mean mugging every single opposition player. These dudes had chirps and it was only a preseason game. I think I heard Su tell someone that they look like something they drew with their left hand.

 

Sadly, I'll close on this note. This team has to be one of the top teams I've ever had in my entire career. Time to hope next season only gets better.

 

Lets taste silver again everyone!

 

Edited November 8, 2020 by fonziGG

[Garsh 1,100]

[Bayley 419]

Love you @fonziGG

[tcookie 717]

Review: I enjoyed this, very well written summary of the impact everyone had on a championship team. To nitpick, maybe a paragraph summarizing what went down between winning 10 in a row to start the year and winning the title would've been good, either as the second paragraph or right before the end, but all in all it was a great read. 9.5/10