Dumba looking forward to going to Camp

Matt Dumba is a defenseman for the Red Deer Rebels of the Western Hockey League. The 5-foot-11.75, 183-pound defenseman was named WHL Rookie of the Year after scoring 15 goals and adding 11 assists in 62 games. He also had a tournament-high 12 points -- all assists -- to help Canada Pacific win the bronze medal at the 2011 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge. This summer, he played for Canada at the 2011 Ivan Hlinka Tournament and also took part in the 2011 NHL Research, Development and Orientation Camp in August. Dumba has offered to maintain a monthly blog for NHL.com that will chronicle his season leading up to the 2012 NHL Entry Draft.

Hi everyone. First let's update you with what's going on with our team. We had a great road trip to British Columbia, picking up nine of a possible 10 points. But then we came back and we've lost our last five, and that's been a slip in our team. I'm not sure what happened; it's just we kind of found a rhythm on the road trip, being in the same routine. We got back and faced some circumstances with injuries and things like that that shook up our lineup a bit. We had some losses and got away from some of the things we were doing on the road trip.

Personally I had a pretty good month. I was working hard and just doing lot of the little things right. I was pretty happy with my game. I had a goal and an assist in Victoria, and 2 assists in Lethbridge. I have 18 points in 23 games now, but I don't really like to focus on those points there. Or really pay attention to all that. For me to be playing my best game, it's not going to include points, but when it does, it's a good feeling to know I'm contributing. Some games I know I'm playing the best games I have and it's little things I'm doing on the ice -- my D zone is tight, I'm gapping up on guys and really focusing on those little things. It's like when I saw on TSN, Brent Sutter was talking about Jarome Iginla's game, and Jarome didn't have any points, but Sutter said that's what he's looking for from Jarome.

This week also was great because I got invited to Hockey Canada's camp for the 2012 World Junior Championship. It was pretty awesome when I got the call from coach Ryan Huska. He said he was calling behalf of Team Canada and wanted to congratulate me and said he'd see me in a few weeks. I didn't have any words for it. I told my family first and then he said keep it quiet until they release it on Monday. I was keeping my mouth shut until then. It's a feeling that I've been working so hard to get to this point, yet I know it's just one step closer and I know I have lots of steps to take and lots of hard work to do. I'm willing to do anything to make it on this team. I'm pretty excited for the opportunity I have.

It's huge, but I know it's just an invitation right now and no real guarantee to anything. I've still got to go out there and work my hardest and compete and find that higher level I know I have to play at that level.

Talk to you more next month.