The Insider Interview - Jordan Cameron

The Brahmas star forward talks about his return from Germany, his season and the road to the playoffs

As with Grant Jacobsen and Scott Sheppard, it appeared that the Brahmas would enter the 2008-09 campaign without the team's leading scorer from last season, forward Jordan Cameron.

The 6', 1", 227-pound forward from Drayton Valley, Alberta was a dominant force for the Brahmas, notching 64 points (30 G, 34 A) and 65 penalty minutes in 57 regular season games. He was responsible for seven game-winning goals, 10 powerplay goals, 17 powerplay assists, a short-handed goal and a short-handed assist during the season.

In the playoffs, Cameron played in all 14 games, adding 13 points (3 G, 10 A) and 21 penalty minutes to his stats on the season. In the second game of the series with the Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs, he scored a hat trick with his final goal (one I'll probably never forget) coming with just 4 seconds left on the clock.

During the off-season, Cameron signed with the EC Hannover Indians of Germany's Upper League. After playing 14 games with the Indians, tallying 14 points (6 G, 8A), Cameron returned home citing family reasons. Texas Brahmas fans were thrilled to learn that he would be returning to the team. In his first game back on November 14, he scored an unassisted goal.

This season, Cameron had scored 43 points (16 G, 27 A) and holds a +15 rating after 35 games played. He has tallied six points (2 G, 4 A) in his last five games.

I spoke with Jordan on Saturday night just after the Brahmas victory over the Tulsa Oilers. Here is our conversation.

Q: What was behind your decision to leave Germany and return to the Brahmas?

A: It was more of a family thing than anything. We weren't very comfortable over there. My wife and daughter were pretty lonely and stuff like that. We were gone a lot, always had something we had to do, so I wasn't home very often. It was a good experience but after a couple of months, we were ready to come back. Obviously, I told Dan if I was going to come back, I was coming back here for sure.

Q: Did you have an idea that the Brahmas would continue the success that they had last season, even with some new faces on the team?

A: Yes. Dan's recruiting was really good last year. He did a good job recruiting guys and this year he did a good job recruiting new guys to come fill in spots. I think its been shown that his hard work in the off-season has paid off. We've got a good team again. Hopefully we can do as good as last year or even better.

Q: Thus far, you guys have surpassed the performance of last season and are obviously heading towards the playoffs again. How good do you feel about the opportunity to go again?

A: Really good. That's what it's really all about. You play the regular season, hoping to make playoffs because that's where the most fun is. If you can do good in the playoffs and put a good run together, you know, it's a lot of fun. I think we've got the team this year to surpass what we did last year.

Q: You have the Colorado Eagles coming in on Friday night, the first time the Brahmas have faced them since the seven game series in the conference finals last season. Just one game with them in the regular season. Are you looking forward to playing them again?

A: They always have a good team. They do a good job putting a good team together all the time up there. We've just got to play our game, come out hard. It'll be a great game because we're two of the top teams in the league right now. Last year we had a hard-fought battle. I think it could go either way, whoever brings their "A" game I think, will win it.

Jordan puts the puck past the Oilers' Brendon Hodge

Q: You're on a new line now. How do you feel about your line mates and how everything is coming together?

A: It's been good; I played with Jake a lot last year. And I played with Skworchinski quite a bit last year too. Right now we're just going out there and doing what we can do. Deitsch's line has been on fire. We haven't had to battle as hard for goals. We're trying not to get any scored against.

Q: These games lately with the third period and overtime wins have been hard-fought to start off and then you guys end up pulling them out in the end. How frustrating is that - some of these teams, you'd think you would be able to take them out early, but it's been tougher than expected...

A: I think the last few games we haven't come out at the start like we should have...

Q: I imagine Fonger has been all over you guys about that...

A: Yeah, Fonger gets all over us, but I think it shows the character we have on our team, not to ever give up. We just pull ourselves together in the room and keep battling. So far, the last few games, we've pulled it off but obviously that's not the way you want to play the game, going into the third period down one or two. Especially at home too. But, you know our hard work's been paying off in the end.

Photo Credits: Robert Keith