'14 - '15 Season Preview: Team Dark

"Bang-a-rang!"

Elliot – Look for Elliot to have the rare junior slump and even may be demoted to defense some weeks due to the fact that he’s not feeding Johnny the rock, and believe me, Johnny will let him have an earful. The game winners are where he will be most valuable. He’ll finish top 5 in that department.

Austin – I actually think he’d best be served as a defenseman to offset team white’s speed. We’ve seen him cancel out Jared for a whole night before and there’s no better partner to learn what not to do from than Billy T. 25 and 30 for Austin.

Billy T – Billy has been stuck in mediocrity for a while. Saugus mediocrity. In other words, he’s been bad. Billy HAS to stop being beat around the edge by Jared and losing track of him all together. The speed isn’t there to take as many chances as he does. I’m looking for Billy to take a page out of Nick’s book and get back to doing the basics well. Look for Billy to ignore all this constructive criticism and have his finest offensive year ever with 22 goals and 25 assists.

Brett – Brett will be committed to playing in net and getting better as a goalie. But there will be lulls during the season where his team is on a 5 week losing streak and leave him facing countless two on ones and three on ones. This will really test his desire to play goal and may even come dangerously close to exposing him as the truly inadequate goalie he is. But then there will be weeks where he’ll be the only reason Dark team won the week. Look for Brett to have a 3.4 GAA and win 55% of the games. Are the games timed?

Griff – The games just won’t mean enough in Griff’s eyes for him to truly try his best week in and week out. Griff is best served at wing where he will have fewer opportunities to yell “GET BACK!” or “WHERE IS EVERYBODY?”, ergo keeping his interest as high as possible. I can easily see Griff having a 30 30 season. I can also easily see him single handedly blowing up this White team vs Dark team thing by playing once a month.

Johnny – The season is just like a race to Johnny, the longer the better. Johnny doesn’t hit his stride till about 4 months in where his game finally hits top speed and he starts to take over games, weeks, months and eventually even take over the goal scoring title. I do see the back keeping him out 3 weeks or so, and let’s all pray he never takes another deflected shot to the balls again. After how he reacted to the last one, the next one could be career ending. But where does Johnny play? CENTER!!!!!! 120 goals and most assist of his career, edging out Jared by 2 goals in the last week of the season. Jared will have more points though.

Borges – Even though he’ll be the team’s MVP, he’s moving to wing. Kind of how A-Rod moved to 3rd just because SS was Jeter’s position, Borges will move to wing because Johnny is a center and is inept at playing any other position. Borges is just going to have to settle for taking face-offs as his only time at center. 102 goals with a record setting 39 from half ice or beyond. Jared will be looking for a defenseman. Don’t trade him a thing Borges and you’ll take the season.