Maintaining his focus

Seth Ambroz is a right wing for the Omaha Lancers of the United States Hockey League. The 6-foot-3, 202-pound Ambroz, committed to the University of Minnesota in the fall of 2011, was just 15-years-old when he burst upon the USHL scene as a rookie in 2008-09. He led the U.S. Under-17 Team to a 3-0-0 mark with 5 goals at the 2009 Four Nations Cup and was selected to the U.S. U-18 team for the 2010 Ivan Hlinka Memorial. He entered the 2010-11 campaign already having produced 36 goals, 80 points and 206 penalty minutes in 116 games in Omaha. A participant of the 2010 NHL Research, Development and Orientation Camp fueled by G Series in August, Ambroz has offered to maintain a monthly blog for NHL.com that will chronicle his season leading up to the NHL Entry Draft in St. Paul, Minn.
 
Hi all! Hope everyone had a good New Year's Day.

So, earlier this month, the Central Scouting service came out with their mid-term rankings and I was 28th on the North American list. I'm really not too worried about it. I try not to think about those things too much. I mean, I'd obviously love to be higher and I'm going to do whatever I can to get higher. I feel I have a good talent to give and I'm trying not to think about those things too much. I just need to focus on what I have ahead of me here in Omaha and just hope I'm able to have a good rest of the year.

My season with the Lancers so far hasn't been too bad … I'm not disappointed (14 goals, 25 points, plus-7 rating, 132 shots, through 27 games). I feel like I've actually had a pretty good year so far, it's had it's ups and downs but we're having a good year (17-10-4) and I feel it's only going to get better the rest of the season. When I get a chance to shoot it, I want to shoot it as much as possible. The past couple of games, I haven't gotten too many shots on net but I've still been playing pretty well. When I get those chances, I just want to let it rip and just hope it goes in. I tend to get a lot of shots, but I'm also focused on making plays when the shot is not there.

As I've said in the past, becoming a leader is something I consider to be a great part of the game and to have people look up to you and just listen what you have to say is great. To just kind of be there for them, it's great just to be part of that. I feel it's a great for a players' development.

I'd obviously love to score every single night, but sometimes you just don't have a great game or don't get the bounces. I really just want to do what I can do to help our team win and be successful and I really want to play a part in helping our team win a lot of hockey games the rest of the season and throughout the playoffs. I'm not going to be too worried about a bad night. I'm just going to think about the next night and hopefully do one better. So long as you keep things positive, I feel like things will go your way. All that hard work will pay off.

I hope everyone had a chance to watch the World Junior Championship … I thought it was great. I wish it turned out a little differently for the U.S. against Canada, but it was great to watch. I was actually kind of surprised to see Russia come away with it. I was watching the gold-medal game and when Canada took a 3-0 lead, I thought this could be over. Then when Russia scored those two goals within seconds of each other, I thought, wow, they let it go from there. They were impressive to watch but it just goes to show you how quickly momentum can change in a blink of an eye.

There's no doubt I'd love to represent the U.S. team and play in World Juniors. That would be a big goal of mine and I could see it happening in a year or two, hopefully, if things keep going well and I keep just working hard. I would cherish the opportunity to represent the red, white and blue.

Thanks for reading. Check back next month.