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Tanner Speaks Out
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Code:
Baited, hopefully. 2000ish words after some last minute edits.

<div align="center">Go West Young Man</div>
By: Aski Dumfrage, intrepid reporter for the San Francisco Pride

“Are you fucking kidding me?”

Jack Tanner is seated on the floor of the empty locker room with print-outs surrounding him. The San Francisco Pride had just wrapped up a 6-5 shootout win over the visiting Toronto North Stars in one of the most thrilling games of the seasons.

With the game deadlocked at 3 in the 3rd period, Tanner intercepted a pass on the penalty kill and found Pride star Geronimo Otto fleeing the zone on a penalty kill. Naturally, he converted the shortie and Otto's second goal of the night gave the Pride a slim one goal lead.

Otto would complete the hat trick on his 11th goal of the season with a minute to play and the Pride were ready to chalk up another tally in the win column but Toronto had other ideas.

15 seconds after the empty netter a flurry in front of the Pride net led to Casper Jakobsson banging home a rebound to pull within one. On the ensuing faceoff Kelly Rivet would take a roughing penalty, giving Toronto a 6 on 4 advantage and Tommy Salami would tie the game up with 30 seconds to play.

Luckily the Pride were able to get the game to a shootout that they won 2-0 including a goal from, you guessed it, Geronimo Otto and hung on for the 2 points in what was a whacky game on several levels (99 total shots!Wink.

But the wild game wasn't what the Pride's rookie defenseman was expressing his disbelief at.

<div align="center">[Image: coaXMGh.jpg]</div>

He beckoned me over, “Look at this.” Jabbing his finger into one of the printouts he exclaimed “$3000 per month for a 700 square foot apartment?! Nobody actually pays that, right?”

The floor was littered with printouts of apartment listings in the area. This is Tanner's first season in the SHL and halfway through it seems he's ready to stop imposing on teammates and get his own place.

“That's the most expensive closet I've ever seen.”

As he shakes his head in disbelief General Manager Jeff Kirkstone walks by the doorway. He's on the phone and walking briskly. Tanner's head shoots up.

“Kirkstone!” he shouts. “I'm going to need a fucking raise if you expect me to play here and not be homeless.”

Kirkstone, now leaning through the doorway thinking this might be important, shakes his head and walks off. Tanner turns to me.

“I tell ya, I get no respect around here.”

The rookie is being dramatic, of course. Kirkstone had just promoted him to the top pairing to play alongside Clint Eastwood after inking him to a 3-year, $9 million extension as part of his efforts to lock up the team's core. Tanner responded with 4 assists in his first two games on the top pairing.

Tanner whips out his phone and scoffs.

“Look at that. In 10 seconds I found a 1300 square foot apartment for $1500 a month right next to the practice facility in Portland. Why did we relocate?”

As we pivot away from the Bay Area housing market and toward hockey he gives me boilerplate cliches about his season so far. We're now about halfway through the season and Tanner leads rookies with 19 points. Alexander Zajac from Seattle has 17 in fewer minutes, a pair of Stampede have 14 points each (TJ Bayley and Kevin Marks), and a pair of North Stars are certainly still in the Jesster running with 13 and 11 points (Bananerstrom and Watson, respectively) in 1 fewer game but as we stand now Tanner is likely at least co-favorite to bring home the award.

Among rookie skaters he's also 5th in penalty kill minutes, 2nd in power play shots, tied for 1st in blocked shots, and – in stark contrast to his juniors career – is tied for 4th fewest penalty minutes among rookies with at least 150 minutes played.

Since Season 30, 16 rookies have posted at least 30 points and just 7 of those have done so while maintaining at least 0.7 points per 20 rate with Robert Phelps in Season 37 the highest by far in both categories at 44 points and 0.85 P/20. We currently have 4 this season on track to hit those marks or come damn close.

TJ Bayley is on pace for 29.2 points and 0.71 P/20.
Kevin Marks is on pace for 29.2 points and 0.80 P/20.
Alexander Zajac is on pace for 35.4 points and 0.73 P/20.
Jack Tanner is on pace for 39.6 points and 0.70.

Obviously there's still a lot of hockey to be played but that's a remarkable rookie crop.

Still, there's a glaring omission from the ranks of elite rookies. Tanner's eyes glint a bit as I ask him about it.

“Yeah, it's really too bad for him,” said Tanner of his brother's struggles this season with a smirk. “I expected him to give me some competition.”

<div align="center">[Image: AsABDJu.jpg]
The Pride celebrate a Geronimo Otto goal</div>

Since they came to North America the Tanners have been close competitors – even while they were teammates in Montreal.

Their rookie season went to Jack as he scored 27 points in 1051 minutes to Connor's 21 in 914 as the two finished 2nd and 3rd, respectively, in scoring on the rebuilding Militia. Jack narrowly lost the Esa Anrikkanen Trophy to Zemgus Nylander. Despite this, Connor went 1st overall to the Hamilton Steelhawks and Jack went 2nd to the Portland Admirals, bringing their debut seasons closer to a wash.

The next season saw Connor take the upper hand, scoring 39 points in 1142 minutes to Jack's 35 in 1057. They led the Militia in scoring and Connor was voted onto the Second All Star Team while Jack got Third Team honors.

Their final season in the SMJHL saw them both move from the blue line to forward to make room for a studly defensive class and once again Connor had the better year with 60 points in 1021 minutes to Jack's 39 in 958 as Connor assumed a top line role and Jack was relegated to the 3rd line. Connor took home the Raymond Lindsay Trophy and unanimous First Team All Star honors as well as nominations for the Ideen Fallah Trophy and Brandon Holmes Trophy while Jack had to content himself with a Vyacheslav Onoprienko Trophy nomination.

The tables have turned now that they've entered the SHL. In terms of usage, Connor is Hamilton's 6th defenseman and has scored just 5 points in 330 minutes while Jack has been San Francisco's 2nd defenseman, scoring 19 points in 542 minutes.

The rivalry intensified after their rookie SMJHL season when Connor announced he would be revoking his Irish eligibility and transferring to Canada for IIHF tournaments. Since the two had been drafted as cornerstone defensemen to their respective SHL teams their childhood dreams of lifting a Challenge Cup together were likely dashed and the transfer ensured they would never win IIHF gold together either.

“I'm not sure, you'd have to ask him about it,” Jack responded when asked about his brother's transfer. “It was very sudden and came as a surprise to me to be honest. I thought we were getting along great with the team and the leadership had laid out a stellar plan for Ireland's future. He was a big part of that plan and changed his mind to ride the pine for Canada.”

<div align="center">[Image: RTEmagicC_70dea5cd59.jpg.jpg]
Irish players celebrate their semifinal win in Season 37</div>

Jack earned a silver medal at the S37 IIHF tournament with 2 points in 13 games while Connor has yet to debut for Canada. They nearly met in the S38 World Junior Tournament but with Ireland finishing 2nd in group play and Canada Black finishing 11th their only possible match-up would've been in the Finals, which neither reached.

This Sunday the brothers are scheduled to meet on the ice for the first time in their lives while wearing opposing sweaters as the Pride and Steelhawks play a home-and-home double header.

“I'm looking forward to it, it should be a good time. Both of us are most concerned with helping our teams win but having the better individual performance would certainly be nice, too.” Tanner takes a beat. “If he outscores me in his 4 minutes of playing time I'll never hear the end of it.”

For the record, Connor is averaging 13:45 per game.

Recently, however, the anticipated Tanner vs. Tanner match-up has come into doubt to some extent as news broke this week that Hamilton may be shopping the young defenseman due to some locker room turmoil.

“Again, these are questions you'd have to ask him,” Jack deflected when asked about his brother's situation and possible trade. “I'd love for him to end up here in San Francisco but I'm not sure how feasible that is from a management perspective. We're pretty asset-poor coming out of the cap circumvention punishment. Though if we went halfsies on an apartment that'd bring the cost down...

Tanner flashes a grin, “Wherever he ends up, I hope he plays better than he has so far. I'd hate for the Better Tanner debate to be over before we're off our entry-level deals.”

Almost simultaneously our phones go off. After checking the message we look at each other in silence for a second. Tanner speaks first.

“No comment.”

The notification was that Hamilton had reached a deal to trade his brother to Edmonton in exchange for Connor Blackwell. The Tanner Rivalry is coming to the Western Conference and the SHL world is blowing up – a trade for the ages and I'm here with his brother.

“How do you feel about your brother getting traded to your conference?”

“It should be fun,” he replies as his smirk returns. “When do we play them next?”

“Saturday.”

“Even better. I know we've played them a bunch this season but we've still got 3 games left this season and 6 per season going forward, plus any playoff match-ups. We'll certainly get familiar. I was worried he'd go to the West Kendall Platoon or Toronto North Stars – teams we've already finished our season series with. I'm excited to get out there on the ice against him.”

“Do you see San Francisco and Edmonton becoming rivals?”

“Not particularly. I don't think two players' friendly competition can turn two franchises into rivals – but if we're both consistently competitive the next several years and meet repeatedly in the playoffs maybe something will blossom.”

"Is there any truth to the rumors that a locker room feud prompted this trade?"

"That would be what I was 'no comment'ing. He's a headstrong type of guy and that rubs people the wrong way sometimes - not everybody gets along. A good rule of thumb, though, is to listen to both sides and figure the truth is somewhere in the middle."

"Do you think his first game against Hamilton will be physical, like a revenge game?"

"I have no idea how Hamilton plays but Connor doesn't play a particularly physical game so I doubt it. Trades are part of the business and we all understand that. If someone had their feelings hurt they'll probably have calmed down by game day and won't be out there jeopardizing their team's chance of winning by doing anything stupid."

“What about Tanner vs Tanner fights? Can we look forward to one of those Saturday?”

Jack laughs. “I'm absolutely down but like I said, Connor doesn't tend to fight much, unfortunately. I had 7 fights in the SMJHL and I don't think he's popped his cherry yet. It'd be an awesome first SHL fight for both of us. I'm sure it'll happen eventually. I'll see what I can do.”

“I guess that 'helping your teams win' sentiment takes on a whole new meaning now.”

“No kidding. We're what, 3 points up on Edmonton and they have 2 games in hand? This will definitely add a personal motivation to the race. Maybe Calgary would be so kind as to drop back a bit so we can face off in the first round but if it comes down to our teams for the 4th seed he might have some all-night prank calls the night before those last few games.”

He pauses.

“Not that I would be involved or anything. It'd be a total coincidence.”

A total coincidence indeed.

Jack Tanner (D) - [Player Page] [Player Updates]


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#2

great job friend beaver Smile

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#3

No comment.

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