Bowman Update

I am a Carolina Hurricanes fan (I know, shuddup) and things are looking pretty really crappy right now for the boys in Raleigh. The good news, their AHL affiliate, the Albany River Rats is doing pretty darn good. They have some great prospects in their system, including Brandon Sutter (who's been with the parent team for a while now, doing great), Zach Boychuk, and of course, Drayson Bowman.

Yesterday the AHL's website ran a feature on the object of my past traitorous whore-dome, sweet baby-faced Drayson. om nom nom (check out the tongue in the picture!)

"I wouldn't say I'm patient off the ice," Bowman laughed. "That's not what I'm known for."

"I want to make the NHL," said Bowman, who notched 6 goals and 6 assists in his first 18 games with Albany. "And I don't want the slow road."

The long road, maybe. Bowman grew up in Colorado until his family moved to the Vancouver area when Drayson was 13. Parents Mack and Nancy wanted Drayson and younger brother Colin to get better hockey competition and put them in position to possibly get taken in the WHL draft.

"It was a huge sacrifice for my parents, a lot more of a risk on their part," Drayson said. "I was too young to realize what they were doing. I just wanted to play hockey. Scoring five goals a game in Colorado wasn't going to help me. To go play against some of the best kids in Canada helped me a lot. I never felt overwhelmed. I felt comfortable right away."

"Things have gone OK. I got off to a real good start, felt comfortable right away," he said. "I don't feel overwhelmed. It (a mini-slump) was bound to happen. It happens to a lot of guys."

Bowman has spent much of the past several years trying to separate himself from the pack. With the final -- and most difficult -- push remaining, Bowman can't stomach the notion of blending in now.

"I don't like waiting around for my chance. A lot of guys have that attitude. Everybody wants to go up," he said. "I still have a few things to work on in my game. But I feel like I'm close to playing at that level. It's really not in my control, except for the way I play down here."