{"id":42527,"date":"2023-02-16T06:01:00","date_gmt":"2023-02-16T11:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thelandmark.com\/?p=42527"},"modified":"2023-02-16T06:01:00","modified_gmt":"2023-02-16T11:01:00","slug":"two-way-defenseman-sits-just-fine-with-mckenzie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/2023\/02\/16\/two-way-defenseman-sits-just-fine-with-mckenzie\/","title":{"rendered":"Two-way defenseman sits just fine with McKenzie"},"content":{"rendered":"
By John Orrell <\/b>
\n Landmark Correspondent<\/i><\/div>\n

HOLDEN \u2014 It sounds redundant to consider a hockey player a \u201cdefensive defenseman,\u201d but it isn\u2019t a meaningless title. The designation is exactly how it sounds: A defensive defenseman specializes in protecting their team\u2019s territory and keeping the puck out of its net.<\/p>\n

Then there is the rushing defenseman, who ventures to take the puck up the length of the ice seeking scoring chances, and at the same time gets back to his zone to prevent an opponent from putting points on the board.<\/p>\n

For Wachusett Regional High School senior co-captain Braeden McKenzie, how about some of both?<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never been the most offensive player. I enjoyed scoring goals when I played in house leagues, but I found myself playing more defense than offense, and it kind of just stuck with me,\u201d McKenzie said. \u201cI get plenty of offensive zone time. We\u2019re pretty good at moving the puck to the defensemen, giving some opportunities to put the puck in the net.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my younger years, I used to be a little nervous with the puck. Being one of the older guys on the ice now, I\u2019m able to rush the puck a little more, creating opportunities to score. I\u2019ve been doing that more this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBraeden is an outstanding captain for our team,\u201d said WRHS varsity ice hockey head coach Matt Lane. \u201cOn the ice, he\u2019s an excellent defenseman with great puck skills. Off the ice, he\u2019s a tremendous student and is in our National Honor Society. He has a teamfirst mentality, and he\u2019ll do anything to help the team win.\u201d<\/p>\n

McKenzie was introduced to the sport of ice hockey at an early age, which led to playing time with the Shrewsbury Colonials as well as the Outlaws and Worcester Railers organizations. He currently assists the Railers teaching young skaters the basic fundamentals of the game. There were sniffs at different sports, but things always came back to being on the ice.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve grown up playing every sport you can think of. My dad\u2019s a football coach (Andy McKenzie at Assumption University), but I never stuck with football. I played tackle football in middle school, but they never put any pressure on me. They just told me to go and play the sport I love, and that was hockey for me.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnlike a lot of other sports, hockey is a moving game. You\u2019re always getting on and off the ice. I couldn\u2019t play sports like baseball because it was too slow for me. I always want to be moving and not standing around, and hockey gives me that.<\/p>\n

McKenzie takes pride in his captaincy, particularly when it comes to helping others. Part of that is carrying himself with maturity on and off the ice.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m more a leader in how I play. I\u2019ll get out there and give it 100 percent and let them follow my lead. It\u2019s a big group effort, but it\u2019s been working so far. I\u2019m the kind of guy who\u2019ll never miss a practice. Even if I\u2019m sick or under the weather, I\u2019ll always be there to support my team, and I\u2019m the kind of guy people can come to for help on and off the ice. I\u2019ve always been a good teammate to the rest of the kids on the team. I\u2019ve grown up with them and know most of them pretty well by now.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love seeing big crowds come to our games,\u201d he added. \u201cThat really gets me fired up. I\u2019ve always enjoyed going into games. I get a little nervous, but I like to feed off the energy. You do have to tune out the crowd, naturally, but it all comes together.\u201d<\/p>\n

With but a handful of games remaining in the regular season as of this writing, focus will soon be cast on post-season competition. There is much excitement across the team, but the players know they cannot become overconfident due to the strength of the teams they will be facing. Mountaineer pride will be ever-present for however much time allows.<\/p>\n

\u201cNone of us on the team have been able to experience a playoff run, but I think that would be good for us,\u201d said McKenzie. \u201cIt would be kind of difficult now because we\u2019re Division 1 and would be playing some tough teams, but it would be a lot of fun.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Wachusett jersey has meant a lot to me over the past four years. To have a \u2018C\u2019 (captain) on that jersey means a lot to me. I know lots of people come out of their way to see us play, and it\u2019s like Wachusett is a family. It\u2019s been great.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HOLDEN \u2014 It sounds redundant to consider a hockey player a \u201cdefensive defenseman,\u201d but it isn\u2019t a meaningless title. The designation is exactly how it sounds: A defensive defenseman specializes in protecting their team\u2019s territory and keeping the puck out of its net.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42530,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","_sitemap_exclude":false,"_sitemap_priority":"","_sitemap_frequency":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42527"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42527\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}