Blanchard is a slick-skating, offensive threat as the captain of the Stephenville atom squad that is playing host to the Hockey Newfoundland and Labrador Atom D hockey championship starting Monday at the Stephenville Dome.
Showing up to the rink with a positive demeanor and working harder than everybody else is where he tries to focus his energy when it comes to the game.
“Always try my best and if any of the other players are being negative, try to make them feel better or if something is wrong, try to fix it,” Noah said earlier this week.
The 10-year-old son of Stephenville’s Eddy and Dot Blanchard lists hockey as his favourite thing to do because he gets to play a the game with a lot of his buddies and he gets to go on road trips with the guys.
He is one of the team’s offensive weapons, so he knows his team is counting on him to put the puck in the net, but he’s not one to place any pressure on himself to do more than he can.
“I don’t really think of it as pressure. I just think of it as trying my best, and my best is what I can do,” said Noah, who like his older brother, Mackenzie, plays high-performance hockey with The Impact hockey program under Brian Casey in Grand Falls-Windsor.
Chasing a provincial banner on home ice is going to be a fun time, he figures, and he’s confident the team will respond with a good account of themselves in front of familiar faces.
“Just try our best and work as a team,” he said.
For a complete schedule for the 2017 Hockey Newfoundland and Labrador Atom D Hockey Tournament, see today’s Scoreboard on page 14.
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