The star defenseman of his generation-Patrick Williams

[dougwilson=loss]

December 28, 2009,fficeffice" />>>
Fowler got the puck at the point, and wound up his shot. I went down to block it. After 2 seconds of not feeling anything, I got back up and noticed that Fowler still hadn’t done anything with the puck. He passed the puck back to Schroeder. Schroeder went up ice to the net. I dove down onto the ice, and saw the puck had hit off of my skate. I tried to kick it up to Eberle, but I couldn’t do much, as I was on the floor. Pietrangelo got the puck, and cleared it out the zone. Relieved, I skated over to the bench. Teubert and Ellis came off for the fresh line change. It was tied 1-1 in Overtime, we were in the final game of the World Junior Championships. My team was Canada, our opponents were the United States. I was born in Montreal. I was just 18 years old, my name was Patrick Williams. I had white skin and was of Irish-Canadian descent. I stood 6’3”, weighed about 220 pounds, and played defense. I shot right handed. I was an offensive defenceman, but I played good defense too. We were each playing for the gold. I just got off the ice after a difficult penalty kill. Nazem Kadri had taken a 2 minute minor for tripping. There was 1:16 left in the penalty, and 5:37 left in the second Overtime period. The two goals came from forward Luke Adam (Canada), and defenceman Cam Fowler (United States). I watched as Hall forechecked the opposition, and took the puck from Fowler. He got a shot off at Campbell, but Campbell made a huge glove save. He passed the puck to Carlson. Carlson moved the puck up, and got pick-pocketed by Seguin. Seguin cleared the puck out. As goalie Jack Campbell went out to play it, Seguin sped up and got in front of the clearing attempt made by Campbell. Naturally, the puck hit him in the gut. He got the puck on his tape, and tried to deke around Campbell. Campbell made a nice pad stop. Kadri got out of the box as the penalty expired, and Ellis came off wanting a line change. I jumped on the ice, and saw Seguin with the puck behind the net. He made a beautiful pass to Kadri, and Kadri ripped it into what looked like a wide open net, until Campbell’s glove just barely tapped the puck, and the puck rolled away. I couldn’t believe it, and neither could the fans, who had already jumped in excitement. Kadri got the puck, and got leveled by Carlson. Seguin got to the puck before Carlson. I was at the blue line by the time this happened, meanwhile Carlson’s partner, Fowler, was out of position, as he had begun to chase the puck. I rushed up the ice, and ripped a one-timer that once again, while directed at a wide open net, was stopped by Campbell. His blocker had gotten to it this time. I shot it at a wide angle that would have been easier to shoot if I shot lefty, but I didn’t. Campbell was able to smother the puck to get a whistle. At the faceoff, Caron won it, and got it back to me. I wound up for the big, dreaded slap shot I possessed. I decided to shoot, and this time it went off of Campbell’s blocker. Schenn got the puck, and shot it at a wide-open net, and this time, Campbell dove in and made a diving glove save. He smothered the puck again. Carlson won the faceoff, and gave it back to me. I gave it to Pietrangelo. Pietrangelo passed to Schenn. Schenn took it behind the goal. I looked at Schenn, and noticed he was pressured and looking to quickly pass. I rushed up the ice, and got ready for the puck to hit my stick. Schenn just lobbed the puck out, and while Campbell was hogging the post, I ripped it. I rushed to the fans, but after a few seconds of not hearing the horn, I looked back, and noticed Campbell was just getting up, and giving the puck to the referee. Our coach, Dave Cameron, called a timeout. I skated over to the bench. He had the drawing board out, and told us the strategy of what he wanted us to do. “Look, Patrick” he said to me “You’re going to be at the blue line on the faceoff, but I’ve got De Haan at forward. Now Patty, you’ll be playing forward on this shift, meanwhile De Haan will be playing D. Now if you win the draw” He pointed to Seguin “You pass it to Patty, then Patty, you take the puck, pass it to Pietrangelo” He then pointed to Pietrangelo “Now Alex, when you get the puck, fake a wind-up, then pass back to Webster” He looked back at me “Now Patty, I want you to drive your *** to the goal as hard as you can, and try to put it five-hole if you can shoot, otherwise pass to whichever forward is open and seems to be the best option to pass to. It’ll shock Campbell to the point where he won’t be expecting it, so he’ll most likely fall out of position.” He looked at De Haan “Now if Seguin wins the draw, I want you to rush your *** back to playing D.” He looked back to me “Now if Seguin loses the draw, I want you sticking on D, and I want” He looked to De Haan “you to stick to forward and not even think about D.” He looked up at the clock, then looked back down to us all. “That clear?” “Yeah” we all replied. I grabbed my other stick, and got out onto the ice. Seguin lost the draw. As we went back on the play, I told De Haan to come play D, while I go up as forward. He went back, and I went up. I pick-pocketed Fowler, who was moving the puck up, managed to get in on a breakaway, and noticed that Seguin had sped up and was now skating near me. We had a 2-on-0. I passed it to him, and instead of ripping it, he tried for a deke. It was to no avail, as Campbell stopped it. Fowler jumped back into his zone, and cleared the puck out to Schroeder. Schroeder was on a breakaway, and all of the pressure was our goalie, Jake Allen. Allen came out, and stacked his pads. Schroeder however, anticipated the play, spun around Allen, and shot it into the net. That was it, the Americans won the gold. Jordan Schroeder just ruined my hopes at a gold. I couldn’t believe it. I looked up at the clock. 1:14 left in the period. I wanted to cry almost, but I fought back tears. I fell to my knees, holding my head down. That was a disappointment to Canada. I had some great scoring chances, but couldn’t bury one. Sure, I did make a great pass to Adam that got us a goal, but I wanted that goal. I got up, still feeling rejected. I went over to Jake Allen, and told him what a great job he did in this tournament. He thanked me, and pushed his mask up. I could see tears rolling down his eyes. “Look man, Jakey, you’ll have many plenty more opportunities to win the gold. This was one tournament, it’s not like that one goal will affect your draft ranking or anything. It won’t be remembered by all, if anything, people will probably remember me not scoring on two class chances. You made a bunch of big saves. You’ll be good man; you’ll land on your feet wherever you go in the NHL. I promise. You’re an amazing goaltender. You’re only 18, you have another shot at this next year. Look, I gotta go do this handshake; we all do. Come on man, let’s go.” He started heavily sobbing and hugged me. “I should’ve just stayed in position like any good goalie would! I’m sorry Canada, I’ve failed you. I’m sorry!” He was crying very heavily. >>
“I’m sorry I didn’t finish the game earlier, I should have scored, but come on man, let’s go.”>>
“Alright, let’s go.” He was now crying moderately. We went to the line to shake hands, and it was a pretty plain handshake. When I saw Jack Campbell, I told him that he was the next big goalie, and that his stock had gone significantly up. He hugged me, crying of happiness, and thanked me. I went over to accept my silver. In the locker room afterwards, Allen was choking up pretty bad. I decided not to say anything, but I just felt bad. The goal really wasn’t his fault. I drove alone to the hotel, turned on the TV, and watched some TV. Found the highlights of the game, and watched. The Hilton in Calgary Alberta was where I was staying. I saw the huge saves, and saw myself trying to calm Allen down.>>

[hockeyplaya2724]

Really good start

[dougwilson=loss]

Quote: Originally Posted by hockeyplaya2724

Really good start

Thanks! But I can't update it, because I thought I was going to be allowed to write the back story, but I'm not.