Jonny loves the game, he’ s always the guy staying out on the ice extra time doing extra things. He just loves to handle the puck. It’ s hard to get him off the ice sometimes. He really uses his time out there to get better
RHA NATIONALS
Jonny loves the game, he’ s always the guy staying out on the ice extra time doing extra things. He just loves to handle the puck. It’ s hard to get him off the ice sometimes. He really uses his time out there to get better
Hooker credits the RHA program and his teammates for him getting off to such a quick start in 2016-17.“ I see a big difference in my game this year. I’ m more confident this year and our coaches have given me a lot of opportunities,” he said.“ I think mentally [ his game ] has improved and skill-wise too. We work on all the things on the ice that we need to get better at: a quicker shot, deflections, skating. We see clips of our games. We film all our games. We talk a lot about what we can do better next time and what not to do. It’ s like a pro program.” The biggest difference between AAA and the CSSHL is the speed of the game, according to Hooker.“ The games are faster [ in the CSSHL ]. The tempo is way higher,” he said. Hooker’ s success on the ice this season hasn’ t come as much of a surprise to Rob Smith, head coach of the Nationals midget team. Smith described Hooker as a real student of the game and one of the squad’ s hardest working players, both on and off the ice.“ Jonny loves the game,” the Nationals coach said.“ He’ s always the guy staying out on the ice extra time doing extra things. He just loves to handle the puck. It’ s hard to get him off the ice sometimes. He really uses his time out there to get better.“ The thing about him is he has a relentless work ethic. At the end of the day or end of the game you never have to question if Jonny’ s been working hard. That’ s one of the things he brings to the table every time. There’ s obviously times when things aren’ t going well for him and there’ s times when things are going well for him, but he’ s always working.” Hooker worked extremely hard to be ready for this season. By his own admission, he suffered through a subpar 2015-16 campaign with the Monarchs after separating his shoulder early in the year. The injury forced him to miss nearly a dozen games and he never quite felt 100 per cent even after he was cleared to play again, which explains why he wasn’ t selected until the eighth round of the WHL Bantam Draft. Although he’ s keeping all his options open when it comes to his
60 GAME ON 2016- 17 ROSTER DEADLINE EDITION hockey future, Hooker said he’ s intrigued by the possibility of one day playing for the defending WHL champions.“ It’ s a great program,” said Hooker, who grew up in Brandon before moving to Winnipeg a couple of years ago.“ I’ m excited about( the possibility of) playing with Brandon( Wheat Kings) someday. I haven’ t made any decision yet. I’ ll worry about that in the offseason. Right now I’ m just worrying about the second half of our season.” If things continue to unfold for the Nationals the way did during the first half of the season, the team shouldn’ t have too many worries. With points in nine of their first 12 games, RHA’ s midget prep squad hasn’ t experienced many of the growing pains associated with a first-year program. Although The Rink has been around for some time now, this season is the first time it’ s iced teams in a competitive league – one midget and one bantam. Smith said the introduction of the teams was the next logical step for the academy.“ It made perfect sense for the academy to come in and compete in a league and access all of these resources that are in our building,” he said.“ We’ re very pleased with how things have gone so far. There’ s always a few things to iron out in a first-year program but I think it’ s gone quite smoothly. Both teams have had some early success in their leagues and in tournament play … and the kids are enjoying it. As far as we’ re concerned they’ re getting better every day and that’ s kind of the point of the program.” n