I left home Sept. 2 and drove eight hours to spend the night at a Marriott just outside of Harrisburg. The next day I completed the second leg of the 14-hour drive to Pittsburgh and was ready to take a 6-hour bus trip to Kitchner, Ontario, to play in a rookie tournament. I arrived in Kitchner with dreams of making the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton team and knew that by playing well in the tournament it would certainly help my chances making the squad. The first day was tough. We had practice the day we arrived in Kitchner and it went pretty well. Following the practice we had a team dinner where we met the Penguins coaches, scouts and various other people who make up the inner workings Penguins organization.
The next morning I arrived at the pregame skate and found out that I was healthy scratched for the game that night. I immediately questioned my worth as a hockey player and hoped that my professional hockey career was not over. Luckily for me, it was not. I played the next three games and played well enough to be invited the training camp in Pittsburgh and after some time there was sent to Wilkes-Barre.
The transition to the life of a professional hockey player was not an easy one. While I cannot complain about my lifestyle because I play hockey for a living instead of sitting at a desk, my line of work is certainly both physically and emotionally draining. Now that the all-star break is upon us, it is nice to step back and reflect on the first half of the season and the changes that have taken place.
The season did not start as well as we would have liked. I do not think anyone would argue that we were playing hard, but we were not playing as smartly as we could have, and we were not able to win games that we probably should have won. Five months, zero goals, one trip to Atlantic City, $550 in fines, zero mustaches, seven stitches and 135 hours on the bus later, our team has learned how to win. We have grown more comfortable in our individual roles on the team and have been much more successful. Fellow rookies have also learned how to be professional hockey players. Alex Goligoski’s improvements in the kitchen have clearly led to better play on the ice. He is now an all-star. Kyle Rank’s play has improved greatly, and he now has enough hotel points to spend the summer in any Ramada he chooses. John Curry has made many new friends in his first year as he has already played for four different teams (Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, Las Vegas, USA, Wheeling, W.Va., and back to Wilkes-Barre where he currently leads the AHL in most goaltending statistics) all in five months.
As we take some much needed time off for the all-star break, it is easy to see the improvements the team has made throughout the year. While it may be hard for many of my readers to imagine that we have been playing hockey for five months, the four days off will be something our bodies need for the second half of the season. Wish us a good break, and more importantly — wish Tom Brady a speedy recovery from his sprained ankle.
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