Eagles showing great shot blocking

[Greg_Di 933]

 

While his offensive game has not taken off in his first rookie year, Tom Eagles, has been excelling in another aspect of his game. That aspect has been shot blocking. So far in 57 games played, Eagles has put his body on the line and blocked 100 shots. Currently the top 10 has about an average of 130 shots blocked so Tom is not far off the pace.

 

Now the question is why would a player lay down in front of a 6 ounce frozen puck that is made of vulcanized rubber that could potentially be shot at 85+ miles per hour? If you ask this reported, I would say you must be crazy. For Tom Eagles though, he has a different answer.

 

“ You do what you can to help out your team and your goalie “ Said Tom “ Even if that means laying down in front of frozen rubber that could potentially leave dents in your body. It’s a part of the game and a part of the way I play”

 

If you want to be an effective defenseman in the VHL, you have to get into the shooting lanes and lay down. While this could lead to serious bruising and even more gruesome injures, it is what the team expects from their defenseman. Defenseman are expected to do whatever it takes to make sure there is limited amount of chances for the puck to make it to the net and potentially to the back of the net.

 

With a lot of hockey rule changes and what you can and can’t do as a defender against an opposing player, shot blocking has become a staple of preventing shots on net.

 

“We have been limited in what we can do in our zone, we can’t really tie up players any more or push them out of the way, so we as defenders have adapted and now we put our body on the line” Says Tom “ While I have struggled in the offensive zone, I have shown our coaching staff and my team-mates that I am more the willing to put the body on the line. I have been lucky enough to not get injured yet but my legs have always been bruised every game”

 

Improvements in player equipment has also helped defenders as they now have a little more padding so it takes off some of the sting. Back in the day there would have been more broken bones as equipment wasn’t as padded but now it is just mostly bruising.

 

“ I am happy to see Tom not being afraid to block shots in his rookie year “ Said one of the Wranglers coaches “ Usually you see rookies just trying to get their stick in the way to deflect shots but Tom has come in here and so far blocked 100 shots. This has probably saves us anywhere from 15- 20 goals. It takes a lot of guts to lay down in front of some of the shots these opposing guys take but we are very happy with his worth ethic”

Tom still has a lot of games to play this season and we are looking forward to how many blocked shots he can achieve before the season ends.

Edited February 15, 2021 by Greg_Di

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Review

 

Nice write-up on this aspect of the game that combines both stats and personal insight. I still have more than you though. There are a few little things that can be improved about the formatting especially in terms of punctuation, but it still worked perfectly well for the purposes of this article. I still have more SB than you though

 

9/10