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> Sports > Falcons Player Profile > #4 Taylor Chorney
#4 Taylor Chorney
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Taylor Chorney
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Falcons rookie defenseman Taylor Chorney is in his first season of pro hockey and he made his pro debut on October 11, 2008 at Hartford. The Hastings, Minnesota native spent the previous three seasons with the University of North Dakota where he was drafted by the Edmonton Oilers in the second round (36th overall) in the 2005 NHL Entry Draft.
Q: A few good games here. What does it mean to be a professional?
Chorney: It was really fun getting those first couple of games under my belt. Maybe a little bit nervous the fist night, but I think everybody was and it showed being down 3-0, but overall it was a pretty good experience. I had fun, especially playing with a good group of guys like this. It's been good so far.
Q: What are some differences between college and the professional level?
Chorney: It's hard to explain. It's more tactical the program here. It's hard to compare it to anything. It's kind of like a chess match. (It's) more of a thinking game. It's way more positional than college. In college it was all go, go, go all of the time and chasing the puck a lot, but up here it is more of a possession game. You are not running around as much, and depend on your teammates playing their position a little bit more.
Q: What is your role on this team? Are you fitting into Coach Truitt's system?
Chorney: Yeah I like it so far. It's nice to get a couple of points, but at the same time I like to pride myself on playing strong defense. I think that's what Truey (Coach Truitt) likes too. I think he likes playing a steady defensive game for everybody, and I think that is something I can fit really well into. He gives us as defensemen the green light to jump up into the play whenever we like to as long as you are making good reads, and I really like that a lot, so I imagine I will continue to do that.
Q: How important is it in a season to show you can battle back from adversity?
Chorney: It's a team effort. It shows the kind of character we have in the locker room. We have a bunch of guys who won't give up and that's really good. We were down 3-0 opening night and a lot of teams would pack it in and say, "ugh we lost it," but not this team. I think everybody stuck together, put their nose to the grindstone, and when you do things like that as a group, you can get a lot accomplished.
Q: What can you tell the fans about this Falcons team?
Chorney: I think overall from what I've seen is that this team is really well-rounded. I think there is a lot of skill up front, on the back-end as well. We have a group of guys who really stick together. We have some toughness, but more than anything we have a really fast team. When you watch us moving up and down the ice that's when we are playing well. We were playing our best when we were moving our feet.
Q: Any personal goals and expectations for the year?
Chorney: I try no to set too much statistically, but I like to try and go out there and get better at every part of my game whether it be offensively, defensively, the weight room, just trying to keep improving steadily throughout the year. Hopefully we will continue to have a great group of guys to keep things going and win some games.
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