As a rookie an easy way to improve is to observe the players around you who have been in your place before and climbed the statistical ladder to success. Players of the same position offer a reasonable path to higher performance, Growing up watching Season 31 beauty, Roger Clitsom, I would find myself driven to go the basement to practice blocking shots (I would load the washing machine with pucks and then put it on max power, and the pucks would shoot out, kind of like Crosby, but in reverse). Unfortunately with a name like Clitsome, my parent’s would frequently turn the game off so that it didn’t rot my developing cow brain. As i developed my own game, I was looking for other role models to structure my playing style around, and I lucked into finding Nick Brain. My luck would carry me a little further. I was drafted in the second round to play for the Colorado Raptors, where Brain was still playing. Although his rights were owned by Winnipeg, the right wing was still developing his game, and I have immensely enjoyed the learning experience. As a rookie, my numbers are not impressive by any stretch, but by looking into Brain’s performance, I can see that just recently he was performing similarly to this humanoid cow, and with just a year’s experience I should be able to come close to doubling my on ice production, as Brain has.
Through his entire rookie season, Brain racked up 7 goals and 6 assists. Reasonable rookie numbers by any stretch. In half the games played this year he has totaled 6 and 5 respectively. Just one of each away from the previous season’s tally, on pace for a 84% increase in point scoring.
Almost as impressive as his offensive production increase, is his body count. Brain landed 71 hits last year, just under 1.5 per game. This season in half of the games played he is at 64, on pace for 128. 2.56 hits per game is a very imposing number, particularly for a forward with his scoring capabilities.
As a hard worker on and off the ice, I don’t expect to see Brain around the SMJHL for much longer, as Winnipeg is last in their division and could use any positive balance that they can get.