Getting The Monkey off the Back

[Juice 641]

 

What is the one thing every rookie wants and needs to do before getting truly settled into both his team and the league overall? Getting that first milestone off his back, recording his first point. And that's exactly what Kristof Welch did in his 3rd game as a rookie defenseman for the Yukon Rush. The best part about recording this point was that it was in a key game for the Rush too, getting their revenge on the Houston Bulls.

 

The Rush and the Bulls have been at each-other's throats over their schedules, facing each-other 4 times now over the Rush's first 13 games. Despite coming ahead with a solid 5-2 victory over the Bulls in their first match-up, the Rush failed to have the poise to clutch it in both a shootout and overtime in their second and third match-up respectively.

 

Welch was there for that last defeat against Houston, no less in his first ever VHLM match. So the wound was quite fresh for Kristof, so the urge and passion to make sure that mistake would not happen again, he was able to record his first point and assist in the fourth match-up with the Bulls, and in his third overall game in the league. No less, the vengeance was even more sweet as that assist was no less than on the game winning goal by Daddy Derek, one of the Rush's key goalscorers this season.

 

 

With five games left against the Bulls this season, we've gotten a comment from Kristof Welch himself on how he plans on his team getting the edge on this best-of-9 regular season contest against a seemingly new rival.

 

"Well, I'd say that facing up against the same team in half as many games that I've played already has a factor on my feelings against them, but I have no hard feelings against the Bulls. They are a gritty and hard team to play against, and for me that just shows me that they have the same passion to play as I do and I have lots of respect for that."

 

Kristof Welch is a player that holds the passion for the game in high regard and from his latest interview by the local Yukon News really emphases that.

 

"However, don't take that as respecting them enough to let them win. If there's one thing I like more than having the same passion as someone else, it's winning. We won't let them get as close as they did in the games that they took in overtime and the shootout. As long as I'm on the ice and on the blue-line, I'll continue to stop them in their tracks"

 

It's rare to see a comment of humility for their opponent, and then to follow it up with another comment of confidence in ability (definitely after only showcasing his play in only a handful of games), so Kristof Welch will be a key player to watch this season for both his skill-set, and also to see if his confidence follows through to the stat-sheet.

 

(512 words)

[tinafrombobsburgers 380]

Review! This is a solid read and you did a good job of spacing and punctuation. I like the use of the interview portion for your player, although I do think overall you could of focused more on how it felt for the player to get his first point and how maybe that play developed as opposed to focusing on the bulls that throughly. Very solid overall 8/10