Essex’s Olivia Miller-Johnson has most of the tools and skills an attacking participant needs to shine. Fluid skating capability? Matched along with her size, she’s one hard cowl.
Vision? Scanning the ice, she’ll hit you in stride. Slap shot? Please close your eyes and hope the growing screamer off her blade hits a full-frame part or the endboards.
“Offensively, she’s the complete bundle,” said John Maddalena, Miller-Johnson’s teacher.
Such traits paired with on-ice manufacturing and crew fulfilment — 25 dreams, 21 assists and the Division I championship — and Miller-Johnson rightfully earned this 12 months’ Burlington Free Press’ Miss Hockey title, an honour passed out annually in view that 2002 to the nation’s top player. Then toss within the senior’s off-ice dedication to movie evaluation — additionally on the advantage of her teammates — and it became a slam-dunk choice for Miller-Johnson to emerge as the fourth Essex player to be named “Miss Hockey.””
“M.J. Goes the more step, and I don’t assume a whole lot of people recognize that,” Maddalena said. “She becomes willing to take the time to assist other people, and that is something you do not always see. She makes positive all of us feels covered. “She spent hours watching a video.” Miller-Johnson said she’d as a substitute not admit the entire hours clocked on reviewing movie — “we’ve quite a few performances that we run through at Essex” — but the 4-12 months standout saw its fee. “I like to break down what I’m doing because I want to get better usually, it truly is a non-public purpose of mine. I’m now not completed,” Miller-Johnson said.
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To that give up, Miller-Johnson did something new this winter. After writing diagrams of Essex faceoffs and posting them at the locker room wall closing season, Miller-Johnson determined to make a binder this yr for teammates to flip thru and soak up the facts to be higher prepared. “I wanted something to be greater everlasting,” Miller-Johnson stated.
I think it’s essential for each person to understand the sport, and it’s not amusing if you don’t.” Maddalena said Miller-Johnson’s considerable movie overview caught an inclination in how leaders rival BFA-St. Albans played faceoffs. She then made the necessary adjustment.
“We observed their middle wouldn’t square up so that they had an advantage on the draw. M.J. Observed that, and he or she wouldn’t put her stick down till her opponent squared up,” Maddalena said. “That made a massive distinction in the last couple games. “She wants to win, she goes to do something she can — she’s a real pupil of the sport.”
