おは異様ございます！
“Mr. McKenna, we’d like to draft you to the Toronto Maple Leafs!” - JB
Probably fitting that Bieber was the one to announce him at the draft, but how sick would it be if the Ice Man did it. He is going to get the shout out eventually like Bedard though.
This was tough when I saw this. I miss that tour so much. Hoping he announces the Ice Man one soon, and hopefully I can get tickets for the Toronto show.
Welcome back "Mitch Marner" though 😂! Hopefully McKenna can handle the pressure of Toronto, but I am afraid that this might be an Alexis Lafrenière situation. It's hard to be a star when you are behind Matthews, Nylander, Tavares, and Knies. I sincerely hope I am wrong though. Leafs forever, and we will be back in the playoffs next year. Unclear if he will win the first round though.
Sharks have pulled the ultimate fleece of the draft though. 3 first-round picks: Stenberg, Verhoff, and Lin. Still not a Sharks fan, but I can not be too much of a hater and not acknowledge the good Grier has done. What a rebuild. Probably the NHL's Moneyball GM more than Tulsky as Grier actually played. Only time will tell if that take ages well or not.
The draft day trades were pretty insane particularly coming from Vegas and Anaheim. Vegas shipped out Dorofeyev for a first and third. Granted Vegas could not afford Dorofeyev and already has great depth, I would have sent him for more. They only came two games short of winning another cup. I guess the Rangers got Panarin back in a way. Anaheim shipping out McTavish is shocking. Are they forgetting they took Vegas to 6 games? It's so blatantly obvious that they are trying to bring Jason Robertson back to California and sign him for big money. I am predicting he signs a $16M for 6-8 years with Anaheim or takes his talents elsewhere. However, McTavish deserves better, and he is going to have a rough time in St. Louis. Could not imagine living there or Columbus let alone being traded.
I can not lie seeing players younger than you get drafted is a punch in the gut. 2008 birth-year this year and next year it's 2009? But the ultimate thing that threw me off was seeing a lot of my Japanese teammates wear Celebrini jerseys and speak so highly of him. Imagine that? A player I've known and glazed about since he was 12 has his jersey worn from people all the way in Japan. Before coming here, all my teammates saw I played for Jr. Sharks AAA and when I arrived, they all asked me if I played or practiced with Celebrini. I may have told them a little white lie in saying I skated with him, but that is not entirely untrue. In 2020 during quarantine when Vacaville was the only place for ice, we were on the same sheet. He was on the other-side of course, but I did toss him back his puck when it left his zone. In fairness, I can say I passed the puck to Celebrini, but that is such a pathetic story 😂. Does make you think if or how the pass from me affect Celebrini's legacy 💀.
Aside from the jokes, these experiences really makes you or at least me wonder what I'm doing with your life and what I should have been doing all those years ago. Some things are meant to happen and some are not, and I am pretty happy with where I am at right now or that's what I tell myself at least. We are all going to end up in beer-league eventually. By then, status does not matter and all that's left is the actual love for continuing to play the game. I wish I would have come to that conclusion much earlier. Probably would have saved me a lot of sleepless nights, unnecessary stress, and anxiety especially when I was 14-16. I was looking back and reading my logs from the archives, and found it quite cathartic. I should probably unarchive them because I got nothing to hide now and what relevance do they hold now. It's just basically me talking to myself or what I am doing currently 😂.
In many ways I changed and many ways I did not. I still have that on and off again love-hate relationship with hockey, and repeat that same broken record. There's plenty of regrets and "what-ifs" I often envision with this sport, but I believe I made the best possible decisions I thought were right at the time. If I could do it all over again, I would just change my mindset to be do not treat hockey like a job ladder. Stop tying my worth with an extra A in my Instagram bio, stop trying so hard to not mess up, not get so mad when I do not produce on the stat sheet, and play solely because it is fun and I love it. I wish I would have taken my sophomore English teacher's advice stop being so hard on myself and take things less seriously at the time. But being 16 I was so naive, egotistical, and frankly did not know any better. I associated myself being the student-athlete or the "hockey" guy in school or anywhere. I even had a school paper written about me. Although the title is absolute bogus and absolutely no one reads the school paper, it made me feel good at the time and everything stated was true except playing many years with the Jr. Sharks. I was an infamous one and done player, and I have no clue how Nguyen (the writer) slipped up there. I could have gone back to play 16AAA with the Sharks and as much I really wanted to win states and go to nattys with the Blackhawks that’s only part of the reason. The real truth was that I was scared of putting myself through another year of playing sharks. That was the toughest season of my career and probably the hardest I worked too. The team having one of the lowest records in the country (2nd page MyHockeyRankings 🤣) and not getting adequate ice time along with being the shortest on the team was brutal. I think that was the start of my “always have to prove myself” mindset on the ice. I took every shift personal, hyper focused on not making mistakes, taking hits, blocking shots, going into corners, and trying to prove I was not a roster filler. That was how “tlee” was born. For a while it worked, but by the end of the season I have taken enough hits and hid a few concussions to decide I was not going to return for next season. I decided I was going back to Fremont to develop my game, grow (physically), win states, go to nattys, have fun (probably had too much of that), and try to take my talents elsewhere for next season. As fun as 16AA was, it was equal as much as painful too. Being the captain along with my self-imposed unnecessary pressure to back up everything I said ruined me. Before I knew it the season was over, I did not develop as much as I wanted too, did not get that growth spurt, and had no concrete options to play prep school or elsewhere. I was finished and officially washed. Played high-school for the 2023-24 season then another last dance with the Blackhawks for 2024-25. The teams were not bad at all, I had a lot of fun, but they did not hit as hard as 16AA. The realization of waking up to find the dream was just a dream is hard to stomach, and a few years out I am still digesting. But you know it's like this Cam Newton clip:
However, it is not all sad and mopey too. I am truly happy for all my former teammates and boys too, it is through you all, I get to see the dream play out. With California having the USHL next year and NCDC teams this year brings so much opportunity for many more California players to live out the dream. Hopefully, maybe some Fremont House League kids I coach will make it there (highly doubt it, they are pretty dust).
This game, man I can talk about it forever! What I wrote I could probably put in the Player's Tribune. I have not even gotten to the actual week breakdown log yet 😂. This whole tangent is just a product of having back-to-back typhoons, staying isolated in the dorm, and playing The Cure, U2, and Goo Goo Dolls (I think my taste in music has changed the most in the past 3 years). As the saying goes, rainy days bring depression 😔. Here's how this week went:
Monday: Got a haircut, travel back to Kyoto. My Grandpa an artist, he drew this freehand, very impressive, I thought I'd share:
Tuesday: Met up with the coworker who was on the Fremont House League Japan trip, and spent the most unethical $20 of my life.
I will not be surprised if that otter gets sick. The one I went to in Harajuku, I had to throw on the whole hazmat suit:
^I am still working on the trip logs, but they will be up soon.
Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, I did not go anywhere, I was rained in, which explains the whole hockey tangent. I did start a letterboxd account though. I am basically a "Cinephile" now. A lot of takes are merely just personal opinions, some films may not be as objectively good, but mean more to me, which is why I rated them so high. Still have more to rate and more to watch, so give me suggestions. (I am working on the reading reviews too, for now you just have the stars). Saturday, I had an exhibition game against a beer or adult league team. Those players were anywhere from 35-50. I got a lower back and elbow injury from a slash and falling funny. The game was really frustrating, the ref took away all 2 of my goals, and the 35-50 year-olds were playing dirty, I almost tossed the gloves off with one of them. Honestly embarrassing how we lost, knowing I did not produce, but not as embarrassing of how soft my team is. I have never seen and played on such a physically scared hockey team in my life. For crying out loud, my teammates are 18-24 years-old wearing expensive protective equipment, and they are afraid to get into the corners for a puck battle or take a hit. I told one my translating teammate to share that with the team, but he is not the captain, so he does not have any pull or authority. Then again, there are only two more weeks of hockey, so I will just drag it, but I should not be taking Japanese college hockey that seriously to begin with 😂.
Sunday: Went to Ryoanji and Ninnaji Temples.
I will not be surprised if that otter gets sick. The one I went to in Harajuku, I had to throw on the whole hazmat suit:
I also attended the hockey team's "welcome party." No clue why they hosted it so late into the season, it is more so of an end of season party (at least for me). The team went to an izakaya before dinner at an expensive Italian restaurant, which I found so bizarre. I never heard of pre-gaming a dinner. Dinner was good though and so cheap compared to what I would pay for in America. We had a 5-course meal for $34.
The sides alone would cost $34, unsure if they would cure cancer though. Hopefully someone gets that reference. Going to end the log here since it's 2 AM for me, I am going to Kanazawa tomorrow, and this is a lengthy log. I have not written this much since the UCSD reflection log. Despite the typhoon, I say I had a great week.
To anyone who read this to the end: thank you from the bottom of my heart, and I love you. If it is not obvious by now, I write these logs for myself, but I share them hoping my story can help someone else out there struggling. Currently, writing or "typing" comes easier to me than making videos, but I’ll return with something new once the creative juices start flowing. Maybe I just need to start. That's it for now!
See you next week! じゃね