Burton 40: Pat Elischer
There are some skilled players who operate like a hurricane, overwhelming their opponents with brute force. Others work like a steamroller, slowly but inevitably breaking down, running over, and crushing their opponents. Pat Elischer is more like a master surgeon, making precise incisions where he has to as part of a well-thought plan to expertly take apart his opponents' game plan. Nothing bleeds, nothing escapes, nothing gets infected. It's a systematic procedure: he steals the puck, he dangles some poor hapless opposing dope out of their skates, then he scores. Lather, rinse, repeat.
Simply put, Pat is the most dominant player in Burton Hockey of the past five seasons and the greatest player ever in VRH. And it's not like he's a puckhog or trying to post big dumb stats or anything like that. He's incredibly unselfish on the rink; friendly and easy-going. He's just good. Really, terribly, insanely good. He can't help it. It just happens that way. It's very hard to balance teams when Pat plays because just putting him out there stacks the odds in his team's favor most of the time. Speed, stickhandling, accuracy, play reading; he does it all. After just 86 games in the league, he's already fifth in all-time VRH scoring with over 300 points in his rookie campaign. On a per-game basis, he's just marginally behind Robert Rogers as the all-time dominant scorer among Burton regulars. He's the second player ever to score 40 points in a session; in fact, he holds the session record for assists with 23. He's played eleven sessions; he's won nine. But, best of all, he remains humble, committed to the league, and one of the gang. It's hard to find the proper superlatives for Pat. It's scary to think of the future record book destruction that awaits us in the future, but we welcome it with great anticipation. Pat Elischer is one of the best players ever in Burton Hockey and thus one of the Burton 40.
Previous Burton 40 Articles
Joe Chwachka
Ben de Wit
Karl Detta
Ryan Disterheft
Justin Gordon
Tony Hajdu
Joern Hornhardt
Stefan Klopp
Seamus O'Connor
Nathan Robson
Patrick Strachan
Troy Waldron
Andrew Watson
