The Weekly Wardens
A Broadcasting Commentary Brought To You By: ABSN's own Gareth Yannic
HENRIETTA, ROCHESTER - A hearty early autumn welcome to all of my fellow Anthorans and ice hockey enthusiasts, native and foreign alike, it's your formerly scratching voice that welcomed you at the Alkteke College ice fields now promoted to covering the ABSN coverage of the first international Anthoran assembling of a professional, youth team. Hugo McClelland and his Wardens are going to have a tall task as they prepare this afternoon for the evening nights that will await them at the Ritter Colosseum, squeezing in a small seventeen and a half thousand fans in the outer Rochester suburb of Henrietta, where they will open up their group stage performance in the World Junior Championship against fellow youth-international debutants, New Waldensia.
Here as we introduce you into the heart of Fluuvanian business, finance and urban delights in their one true metropoli Rochester, we will have a few things to cover as we anticipate the first puck-drop which is set for later this evening. Primarily, what kind of ice hockey will McClelland's nascent team play? Many of you are used to the high-octane offensive power of the professional WCOH Ducks grounded often with a powerful defensive line, but I'm not so sure that McClelland will even attempt to emulate that here. For own, the skill set (to state the obvious) is completely different for his players; I'd say the Warden's best player ability wise currently would easily go to Micah Mallinson, the 21 year old forward from Kerveguen who will make his lone Junior Championship appearance this year as he will age-out at the end of this tournament. He's coming off of an incredible performance in the last season where he was a critical part of Kerveguen's campaign that eventually saw them become titan-slayers and hoist the Federation's Lyonwrit Cup over Yarmouth just some mere twenty weeks ago. Now as the offseason has ended for him, even though he only features on McClelland's third line I feel like that has more to do with the coach's tension with Federation and Ministry of Sport officials over the inclusion of professionals and nothing to do with his ability. I easily predict Mallinson moving up into the first or second line, especially if some of the current selections just don't pan out. Cautiously I will say that I like the first line collection of Algar Kasen and Bhaltair Cameron on the wings, centered Kaj Ellar Matters who himself is one of the four Federation professionals, though so far his most experience has been on the third or fourth line with the Avon Knights; my concern here is Matters is still heavily under development here despite being a professional, though he's only 17 so unlike Mallinson he will have plenty of time to gain some international youth appearances but he has yet to really solidify his play as a center, and while I like Kasen's brash, aggressive way to play, based on the limited film I've seen on Cameron I'm concerned on his playmaking ability against strong defenses, seemingly he's very much used to offensive shootouts with little to no defensive effort to try and stop it.
Some interesting names to keep your eyes on for sure and how they perform will be Hugh Vrari, Brendon Caulfield, and Lucien Douglas - all three are eligible for the Federation's professional 605 AL draft, and the lattermost especially has been getting more and more attention in the media and press circuits as the time for the draft draws closer; key performances here in the Junior World Championship may help propel or solidify draft standing and in Douglas' case, may make or break his chances at being taken at the first overall pick by Norton, who would certainly welcome a consistent offensive power to try and give the injury-plagued Timothy McLeish some company and fellowship.
Tactics wise, I expect the first match to be what I call a probing pond - I expect both McClelland and his opponent to test the other, and their own players so they might find the real measure of what they are capable of or get started on the path towards it; up until now you've had some weeks of practice and training camps, but there's nothing like the crucible of an actual game to test how your team, and your strategy will hold up. If Cameron can try and match Kasen's brashness, the Wardens could have a potentially potent first line that could seek to try and soften up the Waldensian's defenders and tire them out, giving Beck, Robertson and Douglas a chance to score on some errors or mishaps, or continue the press with them and look to Clayton, Kynaston and Mallinson for your goal production.
