The Prodigy
It was my final game as a Halifax Moosehead. The Halifax Mooseheads were a 15 to 17 year old team and the people who played here made it to the NHL. It was the Game 7 final of the Memorial Cup playoffs. On all the scouts lists I knew I was the number one overall pick, yet… I was still nervous. I had to impress these fans with something special, after all they had done for me. “Fifteen minutes till our game! Get ready guys”screamed my coach. ”And you Hoc, come see me” . As I walked towards him I wondered what he had asked to see me for. Then suddenly he turned around and said softly, “All these people believe in you, so don’t mess it up”
I went into the tunnel where you jump on the ice from. The announcer started speaking “Please welcome the Quebec Remparts”. The Quebec team was the team we were playing against. Everybody started booing. Then I knew it was our moment and our time to shine “Please welcome Hoc Keyman and his HALIFAX MOOSEHEADS!!! The crowd erupted and boy, I was nervous; the whole building seemed to crash down on me. There was a whole mix of emotions as I skated out onto the ice. I was excited because of the fans but sad because it was my final game as a Halifax Moosehead. I was in deep thought also because of the words my coach said earlier to me…
The ref blew the whistle and I skated out to center ice. There was one other reason why this series was so competitive. The reason is that the number two overall pick on scouts lists was on the other team. His name was Mikhail Grigorenko. Suddenly the ref signalled to drop the puck and I went down and won the faceoff, passed it to my winger, he passed back and I skated down the ice and shot the puck. The puck hit both posts before going in.
I was psyched,so I skated up to the boards and threw myself into the glass. The crowd went wild and started screaming my name over and over again “Hoc Keyman, Hoc Keyman, Hoc Keyman, Hoc Keyman”; I was loving it. We had unbelievably scored in the first ten seconds of the game; the perfect start. The coach signalled for a change and I skated off. The coach started screaming at me “Don't showboat it, this team has some tough guys and they will kill you with one tiny little flick. Trust me.” “OK fine” I said angrily. Time came and went and before I knew it I was on my next shift. It was the first period and the clock read 8:09. The coach shouted when I got on the ice “Long shift boys long shift”. I was prepared. For the whole shift we were just stuck in our end because some idiot on our team decided to take a five minute penalty. My teamate had given a player on the other team a sucker punch becuase he was mad at him. So the whole shift we were just clearing pucks. Eventually at the end of the period my goal held up as the lone goal.
We had our ten minute pep talk from our coach “You were born to be a player. You were meant to be here. This moment is yours.” “The key is not the will to win. Everybody has that. It is the will to prepare to win that is important.” A champion is afraid of losing. Everyone else is afraid of winning." "Victory is in having done your best. If you've done your best, you've won.". So come on; win this”.
In the second period the other team completely ramped up their game. And our goalie had to make some spectacular saves to keep us in the game. When I got on the ice it was still the second period and the time read 15:53. I skated over to Grigorenko in our offensive zone and I knew I had to score. We went down to start the faceoff. I unfortunately didn’t come up clutch and I lost the faceoff. I skated back to play some defense. He was coming down skating as fast as he could. I couldn’t resist it, I knew if I jumped in to him full-speed it would potentially injure him for a long time. I did it anyway and he hit the ice as hard as a meteorite. The ref blew the whistle and there was a humungous brawl between everybody. The whole Quebec Remparts team cleared the bench and came at me. I started to skate away but there were too many of them. I somehow powered my way through all the players to my bench and stayed there. After what seemed like a lifetime. The players stopped fighting, got the penalties and I emerged from my bench. “See what I mean Hoc! One tiny flick thats all it takes for them to injure you” I agreed with my coach but secretly disagreed because it was definitely worth it because I injured him. I felt bad about what I did, even though it was legal it was still quite ruthless. On the other hand, I think I had to do if our team wanted an even better chance of winning. Our center won the faceoff, then quick as lightning he passed to me. I shot but the goalie saved it and gave up a rebound. The other team quickly got the puck and passed it at the speed of light to the winger, soon enough it was odd man rush in our zone I rushed back but it wasn’t enough: He shot the puck and it was a goal. Suddenly as loud as a lion, the whole building booed the Quebec team. One person even threw a dead bird on the ice. I quickly skated off knowing that my coach would be mad because it was scored shorthanded. The coach looked surprisingly calm as I skated off the ice in shame.” Hoc, hey Hoc, it wasn’t your fault. I know you tried as hard as you could ok Hoc. I’m not mad at you.”
Just then I felt like a huge burden had been lifted off my shoulders and I thanked the coach. There were two minutes left on the clock when I skated out on the ice. The faceoff was a defensive faceoff and it was a must win by me because we couldn’t afford to let in another goal. I went down and won the faceoff. I then went behind the net and passed it to the defense. I then skated up the ice and called for a pass. The defense knew I would probably score so they passed to me. I skated up the ice and shot it full speed at the goalie. I realized I had just put us in the lead. I was as happy as a clam as I celebrated and the crowd went wild. Even our coach was celebrating. When I skated off the ice the whole team was applauding. My best friend on the team was hugging me. His name was Jonathan Drouin. Jonathan was was drafted third overall last year. He played in the NHL but was sent back down because of lack of performance. He lit up the CHL though. But then again so did I. I scored 112 times in 50 games. He scored 100 times in 45 games. But in the playoffs, it was a different story for Jonathan: He went on a slump and had’nt scored the whole playoffs. Me on the other hand, well I’d scored 50 times in the last 16 games . We’ve swept every team but this team. We’ve swept every team but this team. Well wait… the second period just ended, I guess another inspirational talk was about to begin. The coach started to talk to us.
“Your present circumstances don't determine where you can go; they merely determine where you start.” ”Believe you can and you're halfway there.” ”Never give up, never give in, and when the upper hand is ours”. “You can motivate by fear, and you can motivate by reward.” “ But both those methods are only temporary.” “The only lasting thing is self motivation.” ”If you have everything under control, you're not moving fast enough.” “Push yourself again and again.” “Don't give an inch until the final buzzer sounds.” “It is not the size of a man but the size of his heart that matters.” I thought about those words as I was walked back onto the ice. Another faceoff, another win for me. Man, these faceoffs are so easy ‘cause Grigorenko isn’t here. So I pushed it forwards and decked past the defender. I had a breakaway. This was my time to put the game away but then I noticed Jonathan Drouin was behind me. He can score I told myself, so I passed to him. That was the hardest shot I had ever seen. He ripped it top corner and the crowd went wild. The score was officially 3-1. He skated over and lifted me into the air. He shouted “ Nice assist Hoc nice assist”. Thats when it hit me. Our best setup man: Martin Frk was down injured on the ice. So JD had no one to get passes from. I started saying to JD on the bench. “Man, you should seriously ask someone to be your setup man,ok”. ”Hoc,” he explained. “you’re a genius”. I congratulated myseIf inside my head. And before you knew it was my next shift.
The time read 13:37 on the clock. I waited patiently for my turn to change. This time, the player had dumped the puck in so it was our job to hustle in and get the puck. I skated as hard as I could to the puck. I needed to score at least one more time in the Halifax Metro Centre so I didn’t bother passing to nobody. I came around the net and faked the goalie. He tried to jump on the puck but no; I wasn’t going to let that prevent me from scoring. I pulled the puck back and pretended to take a hard shot, but in the end I just let it trickle in because I let go of it with one hand. I had officially put the game in the bag for the Halifax Mooseheads. That was it: game over. The score was 4-1. There is no way they're going to score 3 times in 10 minutes. I told the coach ”Put some of the weaker players out there, there is no way they're going to even this up” “Hoc, you can never be so sure. I guess I’ll put them out there but never ever assume anything.” he explained. I didn’t really care what he said right now and I just sat back and watched. I waited until there were three minutes left. I wasn’t really paying attention until I realised they had just scored. Our coach had a heart attack. He screamed at us “Only the best on the ice right now. You know who you are, Hoc,JD, Darcy,Matthew and Weeger get on the ice now. They had pulled their goalie at the faceoff in center ice. So it was six vs five. I won the faceoff… again. I know I’m repeating myself but seriously,these faceoffs weren’t even a challenge. I wanted that empty net goal so I just skated with the puck. I shot it from the blue line and it was a weak shot. It must have been going at 1 mph. Still, it trickled in and it was a goal. I wasn’t that happy. But the crowd went wild and then the final buzzer sounded. I had realized we had just won the memorial cup.
I was overjoyed. We all skated to our goalie (Zachary Fucale) and made a dog pile on him. He was one of the main reasons we won. He had a GAA (Goals against average) of 0.48 and a SP (Save Percentage) of 991%. Then we shook hands with the other team. All in all, I still had respect for these guys. Then we took our picture with the memorial cup. Even though I knew it would be me I was still excited when my name was finally announced for the playoff MVP. My ego was already inflated; I didn’t need to be even more proud of myself. As I skated off with the massive playoff MVP trophy, fans and my teammates congratulated me. I quickly hurried into the locker room and thanked my coach for everything he’d done for me and got changed. I wasn’t antisocial; it’s just that I didn’t exactly like signing thousands upon thousands of autographs. I hurried out of the building. My efforts were in vain and thousands upon thousands of people wanted an autograph.. I signed a couple of autographs then said goodbye to my fans. Then I took a taxi to the airport.
I had a flight to catch going to Philadelphia for the NHL entry draft which had been arranged earlier. I was early for the flight. You might think that I was going to be a slam dunk first pick but the team with the first round pick hadn’t finished last but won the Stanley Cup the previous year due to the fact they made a lopsided trade in their favour with the worst team. So they had tonnes of top end talent on their team. That team was the Montreal Canadiens. The team that was in second in the draft was the San Jose Sharks. I hated the Sharks. They were the worst team in the NHL. The Sharks players were boring and annoying. I would rather go undrafted than be drafted by the Sharks.
If they drafted me, me and my agent would ask for a trade immediately. God I hated the Sharks. Anyway, the Canadiens were my favourite team so I would probably break down if I got drafted by the Sharks. Funnily enough, the taxi driver knew who I was. “Hey,you’re that hot shot prospect from Halifax. Yeah?” I told him I was and he seemed quite pleased with himself for picking me up. Soon I arrived at my destination. A lot of people ask how you get through airport security so flawlessly. Well, it kind of helps if you’re famous… i’m just saying. So I did my “flawless” walk through security and got to the other side “flawlessly”. I was quite early for the flight so I went to Starbucks® and got some lunch. I then walked back to my gate and started to board. The flight to Philadelphia was long and boring. When we landed I had to stretch so much I think I broke a bone or two. The plan was to meet my Dad and Mom at the Wells Fargo Center. The WFC was the place they were having the draft this year. So I took the taxi to WFC. I was greeted by a hug from my parents when I got out of the cab. We went in and I was greeted by the coach of the Philadelphia Flyers. “ Every single club in the NHL wants ya’. “If you’re wondering though: the Canadiens kind of want you. They’re also considering trading that first round pick for our star forward Claude Giroux.” No Way!!! Claude Giroux was a top caliber player. I did not realise there was this much demand for me. I crossed my fingers and hoped that I wouldn’t get drafted by Philadelphia but by the Canadiens.
I quietly sat down in the seats. I waited for what seemed like an hour with my parents until a man started to speak. “Ahem. We would like to welcome you all to the official 2014 NHL entry draft here in the Wells Fargo Center” “We would also like to wish the best of luck to the draftees”. People cheered and clapped when he said that. “And with that we would like to start the NHL entry draft”. The Montreal Canadiens GM walked up to the platform. YES!!! they kept their draft pick. “This is a great day in our franchise, on behalf of all the players on our team: we are extremely proud to select Hoc Keyman from the Halifax Mooseheads as first draft pick”. I think I almost fainted when he said that. I jumped up and celebrated with my parents. Before pulling on the cherished Montreal Canadiens jersey I turned it around. It read ‘No. 9 Hoc Keyman’. This was it, my journey had just begun.