Leslie dives into leadership role on Rebels blue line

“I looked up and the guy was wide open with the puck in the middle of the slot with an empty cage. So I just dove, closed my eyes and hoped to get a piece of the shot and got lucky enough that I did,” he recalled about the spectacular play. “It was just instinct. Keep the puck out of the net. Whatever it takes.”

Medicine Hat would score the game winner less than a minute later, but Leslie’s heroics were not unnoticed by his teammates and coaches.

“There are some players in the league that you couldn’t give them a $100 bill to block a shot. And after 11 months in game one he’s diving face first in front of the puck,” Rebels Assistant Coach Brad Flynn remarked. “That’s why it’s not all about analytics and skills. It’s about competing and character.”

Leslie was rewarded with his first point of the season the following night in Medicine Hat, albeit in a 7-2 loss.

“I definitely have some stuff to work on. There was a little bit of rust I had to shake off, but I think after I did that I was pretty good,” said Leslie, who was paired last weekend with two defencemen making their WHL debuts, Jace Weir and Hunter Mayo.

“It honestly didn’t feel like those guys were making their debuts. They were really good, easy to play with. They were moving pucks, it was good.”

“He earned the trust of the organization to be able to go out there with two 16-year-old rookies and I think that speaks volumes to what his character is,” said Flynn.

“He’s a young Ethan Sakowich (former Rebels defenceman and captain) in terms of a three-year player that instead of complaining about (not) being in a top pairing he’s an ultimate team guy that wants to work with the young players because he knows down the road that’ll help team success.”

As the season progresses, Leslie says he plans to focus on keeping things simple.

“Obviously with guys doing nothing but skills skating for the last year, everybody wants to come back and show off their new skills, whatever they’ve mastered and learned,” the 18-year-old from Camrose noted. “But I think the biggest thing for me is just get to pucks, move them up ice, be simple, pick my times to join the rush and get pucks through (to the net) from the blue line.”

Despite back-to-back losses to Medicine Hat, Leslie feels the Rebels showed flashes of what they can accomplish this season.

“There were some good things, we played some good minutes in both games but we’ve got to work on playing a full 60.”

The Rebels will try for their first win of the young season this Friday when they head south to take on the Calgary Hitmen. Game time from the Seven Chiefs Sportsplex at the Tsuut’ina Nation is 7:30 p.m. (106.7 REWIND Radio).

by Troy Gillard

Leslie dives into leadership role on Rebels blue line

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