You know you have made it or starting to get there when your name is mentioned in the Top-100 SHL Players of Today list. I made the list for the first time in my career - at 89! Quite nice feeling if I´m honest, all the hard work over the years has started to really pay off and people start to notice me out there, but I must still admit that the words used were quite mean or at very least caused me to stop and think for a moment.

Quote:
At 89 is Ensio Kalju of the Edmonton Blizzard, a new entry and with only a few seasons under his belt, seems to be hitting somewhat of a stride. Kalju's better season was a year prior where he scored 7 goals and 37 points, and his 2 goals and 20 points in S44 wasn't much to write home about (worst on his team among those players who played more than 15 minutes a game). Many are unsure of how he was able to get this high on the list, but maybe he has a second gear we just haven't seen, yet.

Woah, talk about gentle jab on the gonads, especially the bolded part. I´m doing the best I can you bastards, I´m sorry I can´t pass, read the plays or defend that well, but I can shoot - that is something, right? Why do we all need to know how to do everything? Where is the fun in that and you think it´s easy to play in Edmonton of all places, the team is full of players that are better in hockey than I am, you think they pass the puck to me even if I asked: C-c-can I g-g-get the puck sometimes?

No.

No is the answer.

On top of that, during last year I was so afraid to make mistakes, the first year in a new team and all that, so I focused just on defense and putting the puck on McIntyre´s tape as quickly and often as possible, it worked quite well, but my numbers took a hit from what they were in Seattle on the previous year. In Seattle I was allowed to do whatever I wanted on the ice, If I wanted to do a toe drag on the blueline, I could, but if I try something like that in Edmonton, Karl and Keygan are going to yell at me. Karl yelling at me with his German accent is the worst, I just start laughing and he yells more because I laughed, which makes me only laugh harder - a vicious cycle that has no winners.

´Maybe he has a second gear´

No, I don´t - ok. This is pretty much the best it gets.

There has been some light at the end of the tunnel though, I got moved into the special team units and to the powerplay, currently second in shots on the powerplay among Edmonton players, 2+2 in 9 games is not too wild total for offensively minded defender that gets to play on an offensive role, but when I hopefully start to hit the back of the net with my shots and/or get assists from rebounds etc - I have excellent chance to have better season than last year and if that happens, I might have truly earned my spot on the list and maybe they even put me higher on the next edition?

In all seriousness, it´s nice to make the list and hopefully I end up steadily climbing higher and higher as seasons go by, top-25 would be a dream, but that is for the future.

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