GREEN BAY (NBC 26) \u2014 One of the newest members of the Green Bay Gamblers is impossible to miss \u2014 and not just because of his 6-foot-6, 230-pound frame.<\/p>\n
Head Coach Patrick McCadden believes Mace’o Phillips is poised to be one of the toughest matchups in the league.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah from a physical standpoint, he\u2019s probably gonna be the hardest defenseman to play against in the league, in my biased opinion but I would think a lot of people would agree with me,\u201d McCadden said. \u201cJust having his physicality and personality in our room is going to be a great addition this season.\u201d<\/p>\n
Watch the full story here:<\/p>\n
Flames prospect looks to make big impact with Gamblers<\/p>\n
The Wayzata, Minnesota native brings his own approach to the ice.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m pretty intense on the ice. I like to play hard and make it hard for the opponents every single night, so I guess they\u2019ll see some of that this weekend,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
McCadden says that style of play sets Phillips apart from others at this level.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t see that typically in the USHL. And with that comes the ability to shut down the opposition\u2019s top lines,” he said. “Guys get a little intimidated and that\u2019s a real thing. Guys don\u2019t want to go to the net front when he\u2019s on the ice, right? And he plays to that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Team-first mentality is also a major part of Phillips\u2019 game.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll do anything for my teammates and team to win. And I think that\u2019s very important,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I just will work as hard as I can for this group and for the city. So yeah, I\u2019m just so excited for it.\u201d<\/p>\n
This summer, Phillips was drafted by the Calgary Flames \u2014 a milestone moment in his young hockey career.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was just the best feeling ever just kind of hearing that. I immediately went and hugged my mom. She\u2019s done everything for me, gotten me here,\u201d he said. \u201cBut yeah, it was such a cool memory that I\u2019ll always remember.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also recently attended development camp with Calgary and got a look at life in the NHL.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just tried to be a sponge and just learn as much as I could. It\u2019s just really cool to see like how serious they take it, how they take care of their bodies and all that,\u201d Phillips said. \u201cAnd obviously that\u2019s stuff I can take with me for the rest of my career and here to Green Bay to show my teammates.\u201d<\/p>\n
Though he\u2019s already committed to play college hockey at Minnesota, and his NHL journey is underway, his attention remains on what\u2019s ahead in Green Bay.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just so happy with it and so happy with everything. And I\u2019m just committed to helping us win a Clark Cup Championship,\u201d Phillips said.<\/p>\n
The Gamblers will face Team USA at the Resch Center on Saturday, Oct. 4. The game will be broadcast on tv32 at 6 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GREEN BAY (NBC 26) \u2014 One of the newest members of the Green Bay Gamblers is impossible to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":186690,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,7525,119020,11810,41735,6587,589,322,24359,5387,70604,575,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-186689","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-calgary-flames","11":"tag-commit","12":"tag-defense","13":"tag-gamblers","14":"tag-green-bay","15":"tag-ice-hockey","16":"tag-local","17":"tag-maceo-phillips","18":"tag-minnesota","19":"tag-nbc-26","20":"tag-nhl","21":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186689"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186689\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}