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ImShiny · 11-21-2019, 10:05 PM

Vent couldn’t believe what he was hearing from his television. Today had been a normal day to start with. Bernik Vrzala had come over to hang out with Vent and to celebrate with his childhood friend over his cup victory. However, those plans were being pushed out for a while because right now there were more pressing issues. On the television, in front of Vent, the SHL commission was giving a talk. It seemed like a blur to Vent as he only caught some words of what the commissioner was saying. “Lockout”, “Hamilton”, “legal action”, “Season might be postponed”. None of this was making sense. Vrzala was sitting on the couch just as stunned. Vent pulled out his phone and saw that the Czech national team group chat was exploding. Nobody knew what was going on and the future for their jobs. Most importantly, no hockey. The Czechs couldn’t stand not playing hockey. It was what they grew up doing. It was their lifeline. So, the Czechs began planning on making a league for themselves. If the league was idle right now why wait for them to play hockey when they can just play each other. The Czech national team began planning and all heading back home to begin the creation of their league.

The first thing the Czechs did was elect a leader for the league to go through. DeMarcius Smyth was chosen to head the idea for the league and oversee all that happened. The next thing the Czechs did was to make sure they got ice hockey rinks for them to play on and even some sponsors so they could support the league for as long as they could. It seemed like everything was coming together and everyone was excited for the Czech league to start. Of course, they were going to create teams to try and make it fair and fun for everyone involved. Vent knew instantly that he was going to be on Vrzala’s team. The Czechs knew the two loved playing with each other and putting them on opposite teams seemed out of the question. They decided to make teams based on where everyone was from and to even get some past and future Czech hockey players into the mix. This was going to be a fun league to give the Czech people a show and for the Czech players the ability to play hockey during the lockout. Once teams were evenly divided then began the task of naming and coming up with colors and logos. Vent’s team became the Bohemia Lions and wore Red and White as their colors. The other team's names became the Kladno Lynx, Moravia Eagles, and the Silesia Black Eagles. The country was 100% behind the Czechs in this league and was buying tickets as fast as they could. It was also decided that all proceeds made by the league were going to go back towards the country and a bunch of different charities throughout Czechia.

After picking the teams and getting locations chosen to play the games next came picking lines and getting the teams practicing. To start the lions just began with practicing not really worrying about lines or strategies right now, just getting everyone accustomed to being on the ice with each other and to get some conditioning in. Even if it’s a charity league, the lions were keen on winning it. Vent finally got to see his full team in person and honestly. The lions were stacked with talent. Having Vrzala, a cup winning defensive defensemen. Luke Thomason a teammate on the Rage with Vent and one of the top forwards in the league. DeMarcius Smyth leader for the Czech national team and top forward in the SHL. Tokek Takshak, Vent’s paring partner on the Rage and high scoring defensemen for the Rage. It felt nice to have some of the people Vent was very comfortable playing with on his team already. Granted he loved all of the Czech national team players. However, playing with his childhood best friend and pairing partner for the past 2 seasons in the SHL just felt right to Vent.

Week one came and went with everyone getting to know each other and understanding how everyone plays their style of hockey. Now came time for the lines to be made. There was a lot of debate who would be doing their lines and it came down they would take a player that plays now, an older player and a future player to make the lines. The lines began coming together and practices seemed to become more and more organized. The first line ended up being DeMarcius Smyth, Luke Thomason, and Dickie Pecker. Second line was made of Travis Jeziak, Matej Stransky, and Petr Mikulak. The third line was Konstantin Voloshin, Petr Kolesnikovs, and Cameron Urbowicz. With the fourth line being made up of Soren Kierkegaard, Aron Hernadivic, and Rulsan Zaporozhets. Vent was excited to see how the younger players were going to fair up to the older and more talented players they would be going against. Now for the defense. On the first pairing, it consisted up of Walter White and Pierre-Luc Laflamme. Second paring being Tokek Takshak and Sean Stevenson Jr. With the third pairing being, of course, David Vent and Bernik Vrzala. When the two were told they were going to pairing partners they were elated to be playing together. On the national team, they hardly are ever on the same pairing, so it feels great to be able to play with your best friend.

It was a few weeks out before the very beginning of the season, and it seemed like the team was jellying together very well and everyone was happy to come to practice every day. Vent had no idea how the other teams were doing but he knew his team was going to be the powerhouse of the tournament. People from all over Czechia was buzzing about seeing some of their favorite players playing against each other and also playing with past legends and future prospects for the Czech National team.

It was time for the first game to begin the tournament. All there practicing and getting to jelly together was going to be put to the test. The whole building was alive with energy and so the was locker room. Everyone was in high spirits making jokes and yelling out because they were excited. The teams began to walk out of the locker rooms and towards the center ice to begin the tournament. The national anthem. The first lines and pairings took their spot on the ice. Then, the puck was dropped and the tournament has begun.

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