Login

funk · 08-24-2020, 10:26 PM

And thus ends the regular season...

Today I'll be writing a retrospective on my first experience with the SHL platform and a recap on my first ever SMJHL rookie season. There were ups and downs, successes and failures, wins and (lots of) losses. The subject of today's article is player-coach Grandmaster Funk. He plays left defense for the Nevada Battleborn in addition to his duties as a bench boss. This is his story.

Funk's career began on July 14th, 2020. Grandmaster Funk walked into the combine on the last day of eligibility, having difficulties with traveling to the set location by his homemade biplane. This delay and lack of presence prior to the combine would prove to be critically damning for Funk's draft stock, causing him to drop to the middle of the fifth round, being selected 56th overall by the Nevada Battleborn in their inaugural entry draft. Funk was spotted chatting it up with fellow Nevada prospect Tanjiro Kamado prior to the draft, and this connection seemed to be crucial for Funk even being drafted at all. Kamado and Funk have since become great friends and key parts of the Nevada defensive core.

At the onset of the season, Funk was a mere 155 TPE rookie who has had very little sim hockey experience. Nevada took a chance on him and decided to play Funk in every one of the team's games this season. Funk's entire gameplan over the course of the Battleborn's inaugural campaign was to give back to the team that bet on him. To fill in on the roster wherever needed and to contribute to a system that's vying for long-term success. Nevada has always treated Funk with respect, and his effort to give back to such a great club has been accepted with open arms and full hearts. This organization knows what they have in each and every one of their players and strives to get the best out of each and every of them.

In the 50 games Funk played this season, he tallied 3 goals and 6 assists for a middling 9 points on the campaign. Despite Funk's mediocre point totals, he was consistently a positive presence and main defensive option on the ice for Nevada. Boasting the second-best DGR on the team with a very nice 69, in line with 55 hits, 88 blocked shots, 5 fights and a team-leading 1:53 average shorthanded time on ice, Funk was also tasked with matching up against opponent top lines to shut down the most potent scoring threats in the SMJHL. Emerging as a vital piece of Nevada's shutdown ability has been incredibly validating for Funk, as he has been quoted saying "You know, there are two sides of the game. There's offense, and there's defense. Obviously everyone loves to put up points and score goals, but when you're struggling on that end, you can always make up for it with sound defensive play. Size isn't limiting in today's brand of hockey. I can go out there and try to make my impact through stick work, skating and positioning. Every inch that helps the team win counts for a mile in our locker room. Every single person wants to win here in Nevada."

Next, I'll be analyzing Funk's season from the preseason-onward. In 5-day increments, I'll be breaking down how Funk shaped his rookie season. There's not a lot of scoring from Funk in this breakdown, but I hope to get an idea of how our boy played relative to the rest of the Battleborn roster.

PRESEASON
In the 5 preseason games Funk played, he managed a respectable 2 assists while playing on the fourth forward line for the Battleborn. This is an unimportant footnoote in Funk's career, as he'll probably never play forward again. Funk took 17 faceoffs, winning 8 of them with 7 shots, 1 block, 2 hits, 2 takeaways and 0 giveaways. A decent statline for a 155 TPE player playing out of his position, but nothing worth diving too deep into.

GAME 1-9, DAY 1-5
Through the first 9 games of his rookie season, Funk put up just 1 assist alongside 9 shots, 13 hits, 17 shots blocked, 1 fight and a 52/78 OGR/DGR split. Funk was suffering from the early stages of building his player with a -1.9 RelCF% and a -4.2 RelFF%. As an early sign of trust from Nevada management, Funk was playing 18:24 a night with 2:08 of that shorthanded and 0:30 on the powerplay. A solid start to a potentially significant career, but still nothing worth writing home about. I say this as I continue to write. Nevada's record through their first 9 games was 1-8-0.

GAME 10-17, DAY 6-10
In the following 8 games, Funk improved his scoring on the season to 1 goal, 3 assists, 16 shots, 29 hits, 35 blocks, 4 giveaways, 10 takeaways, 2 fights and a 51/72 OGR/DGR split. Funk's ice time improved to 18:43 per-game despite his special teams time lowering to 0:27 on the powerplay and 1:58 shorthanded. An increase in even strength time and a touch of luck seemed to have worked for the young defender as apparent by his uptick in scoring. Nevada's record held the course, as they had a 2-14-1 season up to this point.

GAME 18-28, DAY 11-15
The following stretch of games could be defined as Funk's peak on the season. Through 28 games, Funk managed to bring his totals to 3 goals, 5 assists, 20 shots, 37 hits, 50 blocks, 9 giveaways, 15 takeaways, 2 fights and a 52/73 OGR/DGR split. To this point, Funk has gently improved his RelCF% to -1.2 and RelFF% to -2.8. At an unsustainable 15 shooting %, this is clearly the point at which Funk peaks on the season. On this hot streak, Nevada improved their record to 7-20-1.

GAME 29-38, DAY 16-20
This stretch of games marks Funk's shift into a defensive presence. There were very few gains in the offensive stats, with Funk only adding 1 assist to his point totals. He has, however, increased his shots to 32, hits to 45, blocks to 62, giveaways to 12, takeaways to 20, and adding another 2 fights on to his resume. The largest improvement to Funk's game in this stretch was an insane jump from -1.2 RelCF% to 0.5 and -2.8 RelFF% to -0.6. At this point, Funk has settled into a defensive role in which he skates the puck more frequently and shuts down opponent transition opportunities. Nevada's record climbed to 9-27-2 in this stretch.

GAME 39-50, DAY 21-25
This was a disappointing end to both Funk's and Nevada's season. Funk failed to put up a single point in the final 5 days of play of his rookie season. His final statline on the year is as follows; 3 goals, 6 assists, 35 shots, 55 hits, 88 blocks, 15 giveaways, 25 takeaways, 5 fights and a 51/69 OGR/DGR split. After settling into a more defensive role, Funk's ice time had dropped to 17:38 ATOI with 0:18 on the powerplay and 1:50 shorthanded, deferring much of his offensive role to more suited players on the Battleborn roster. Nevada finished the season with a 10-36-4 record.

COACHING
Besides his on-ice presence, Funk has also been working with Nevada in a management and coaching position. As one of the few player-coaches in the SMJHL, Grandmaster has been trying to contribute to team success via tactical adjustments and line combinations. As the season was almost purely developmental, Funk spent lots of time working with players on the roster to identify their strengths and adjust their builds to really take advantage of where they sit on the roster. On coaching, Funk has said; "There's a place for every player in the J. Everyone can have an impact as long as they're putting in the work. The best way to help these players out is to get them where they want to be and to play them where their own personal strengths are best suited."

With that overview out of the way, I'd like to shift focus to some questions from fans and other players. We have Grandmaster Funk here for a press conference and he's going to answer some queries before beginning his playoff training:

Q: "Hey Funk, who were the biggest surprises on Nevada this season?"
A: "Gotta say Weaver, Danger and Kamado. Weaver came out and faced the highest shot volume in the J, and managed to maintain a really solid save % and game rating. He really stepped up as the backbone of our team. Whatever wins we did get were usually off the back of a great performance by Weavs. Danger stepped up later in the season and absolutely torched for a while. If I'm not wrong, he managed to finish top 3 in rookie scoring despite a pretty rocky start. That right there is pure talent. Danger will be a top scorer in the J until he's inevitably called on to destroy the big leagues. Kamado is a similar story to Danger. He put up great points all year long, held his own on the defensive end and really wow'd some people with his silky smooth skating. All three of these guys were instrumental in Nevada competing this season."

Q: "Funk, what are Nevada's plans for team growth going into next season?"
A: "Our team is getting better every day. We obviously started from a place of disadvantage, but I think we redeemed ourselves quite nicely down the stretch. For now, our plan is to stay the course with development and coach a bit more aggressively next season. We're going to need to analyze our opponents and play to break them down. We don't have the luxury of some other teams to rely on our capped players and force them to play our game. We're definitely going to have some players cap out next season, and that'll be huge, but we're going to have to coach smart to compete. It'll be an interesting season for sure."

Q: "Grandmaster, what were your biggest takeaways as a rookie defender in the SMJHL?"
A: "It's hard. First and foremost, it's a really difficult league to cut your teeth on. You spend time trying to get attention from SHL GMs, you're trying get the best deployment you can to showcase your ability, and you're trying to do what's best for the team. Especially on the coaching staff, I obviously don't want to give myself preferential treatment. I found my niche on the third pairing. I can really impact a game through my skating and my defense and I'm hungry to keep improving. There are guys ahead of me on the depth chart that deserve every second they get on the ice and then some. The most important thing to realize is that this isn't some kind of power fantasy. You gotta earn those spots through dedication and lots of media posts."

Q: "Any attention from those aforementioned SHL GMs?"
A: "A little bit. As it stands, I don't think I'm the hottest commodity among SHL GMs. I've had a couple talks with some GMs, but nothing concrete. I think I can bring great value to an SHL roster through my understanding of FHM and the trust I've gained from my own GMs here in Nevada. It's just hard to climb those draft boards as a guy who's playing for the first time in this league."

Q: "Nevada's record was a little underwhelming this season. What are your thoughts?"
A: "As I've said previously, I think this season was pretty much based on hashing out our roster and developing our players to a point where we can compete moving forward. Sucks that we weren't a bombshell in our first year, but that's to be expected. The chemistry and morale on our squad is sky-high and we'll be running this joint in a season or two. We have all the pieces we need, they're just not quite at their full potential yet. We'll all get there, and when we do, it'll be PogRams every day."

Q: "Hey there Grandmaster, what kind of improvement do you think you'll be making next season?"
A: "Everything. I don't want to be content with what I've done this year. Especially down the stretch, I feel like I kind of disappeared. I want to put up some more points, I want to impose myself on the defensive end some more, I want to earn some more ice time and contribute to a winning season for Nevada. Our whole team has this same mindset, so the internal competition is going to be great. Our left side is stacked, and I'm glad to be a part of it. We're going to turn some heads next season."

Quote:2144 words, ready for grading

Andy · 08-24-2020, 10:34 PM

You da bomb. Best SMJHL steal ez. Won't be the same when you go high in the SHL draft though

funk · 08-24-2020, 10:38 PM

08-24-2020, 10:34 PMAndy Wrote: You da bomb. Best SMJHL steal ez. Won't be the same when you go high in the SHL draft though

No doubt in my mind you'll be off the board first! Kamado is someone I look forward to playing with for a long time, but with my luck you'll be snatched up and make the SHL right out of the draft Wink

Andy · 08-24-2020, 10:41 PM

08-24-2020, 10:38 PMfunk Wrote:
08-24-2020, 10:34 PMAndy Wrote: You da bomb. Best SMJHL steal ez. Won't be the same when you go high in the SHL draft though
No doubt in my mind you'll be off the board first! Kamado is someone I look forward to playing with for a long time, but with my luck you'll be snatched up and make the SHL right out of the draft

I miss the days where pure rookies could compete in the SHL at 350/400 TPE vs 1k TPE wasn't terrible. But now at 400 TPE vs 2k juggernauts.... haha I think not.

We'll do great things in NBB and I'll resent you the whole time because you went before in the SHL draft Starwars

funk · 08-24-2020, 10:55 PM

08-24-2020, 10:41 PMAndy Wrote:
08-24-2020, 10:38 PMfunk Wrote: No doubt in my mind you'll be off the board first! Kamado is someone I look forward to playing with for a long time, but with my luck you'll be snatched up and make the SHL right out of the draft

I miss the days where pure rookies could compete in the SHL at 350/400 TPE vs 1k TPE wasn't terrible. But now at 400 TPE vs 2k juggernauts.... haha I think not.

We'll do great things in NBB and I'll resent you the whole time because you went before in the SHL draft

It'll be a fun little rivalry regardless as to who goes first Wink

Nokazoa · 08-26-2020, 09:47 AM

Hot to trot that funk

Navigation

Extra Menu

About us