Claimed:Slaughter Excited for Playoffs

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Slaughter Excited for Playoffs

 

After the New York Americans missed the playoffs last season by one point, much frustration and excitement grew heading into Season 38. The Americans had quickly completed their rebuild and they were ready to start contending for the Continental Cup. The media, the fans and even the team could all see it clear as day. The Quebec City Meute fell off into their own rebuild this past off-season and the time to strike was present. The Americans burst out this season though in a largely unexpected fashion, cruising to a 56-12-4 record on the season and winning the Victory Cup.

 

 

Now that the first round of the VHL playoffs are over and the dust has settled we get to see the matches we have all been waiting for. The Riga Reign will move over to Switzerland to start their series against the Davos Dynamo today while the Toronto Legion make the much shorter trip south to New York to play the Americans after defeating the Seattle Bears in six games. The Legion are a wildcard, having won the Continental Cup last season and keeping much of their championship core in tact. The Legion however, are old as sin and on their last legs.

 

New York American centre Tom Slaughter had a breakout season this year recording 95 points, 29 of which were goals. The sophomore forward has yet to taste VHL playoffs after two successful campaigns in the VHLM where he was a part of back to back Founder's Cup championship teams. Slaughter admits that he was lucky to gain playoff experience on two separate champion teams while he developed in the minors, but that he remains new to the grinds and trials of the VHL playoffs. Thankfully New York is complimented with a nice mix of youth and solid playoff savvy veterans. Wesley Kellinger, Odin Tordahl and Thomas Tukio all have championship experience while the rest of the roster will get to play their first game tonight.

 

"I'm excited to get on the ice and play the Legion tonight in front of our home crowd. They have been supporting us really great the past two seasons so I'm really happy to be rewarding them with what we're hoping will be a long playoff run this year. We have a lot of talent, we have known that from the start of the season, but now we're down to what I consider the four real playoff contenders this season in Davos, Toronto, Riga and us. I think we have as good of a team as any of the others out there and I know we've kind of had Toronto's number this season so I'm looking forward to getting out there and letting the games decide," Slaughter said. 

 

The Americans skated to a 6-1-1 record against the Legion this season in what would appear to be near domination against their second round foes, but the goal differential was only 8 in favour of the Americans. The goal differential being so low indicates that both teams played each other hard throughout the season despite New York's overall excellent record against their Canadian enemies. This series promises to be an excellent one as both teams come in with question marks. Both teams boast two of the top goalies of their generation playing what could be their last VHL playoff series and both teams have what many consider to be the top forward lines in the league. "I think it will be a real spirited affair. It won't be easy either way, but I'm looking forward to getting out there," Slaughter said.

[Guest Svoboda_3]

Content: 3/3

601 words. This was a real fantastic article about Slaughter and the New York Americans. I can certainly appreciate the classy approach you took in describing New York's dominant situation. It wasn't overly long and when you are doing this type of Media Spot, it doesn't have to be.

Grammar: 2/2

Minor things.

 

in tact = intact

back to back = back-to-back

Thomas = Tuomas

Appearance: 1/1

A title, always consistent with the Evander Kane pictures too.

Overall: 6/6

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