Sophie Bordeleau watched from the bench as the Detroit players piled over the boards to celebrate. She'd had her best game of the playoffs with three assists, but it hadn't been enough as Quebec came up short yet again with a 6-5 overtime loss and the end of their season. This had been a season of turmoil, starting out slow and handling life changes such as moving in with Jamie, being traded to San Francisco, and having the slow start to the season where she was constantly second-guessing herself. She'd managed to turn things around though, as she'd been one of the hottest players on the team down the stretch, surpassed last season's total in assists, and her relationship with Jamie was going really well. Taking off her gear for the final time this season, things were looking up for the future and she felt optimistic. A few days after the conference finals ended, Sophie's agent Ellie called her with a rather unexpected piece of news. "I just got contacted by the head of Latvian hockey. They're wanting to know if they can speak to you about representing them in international hockey," Ellie explained. "It's up to you, really. You wouldn't be moving there full time, obviously, but you'd attend their training camps each year and play for them. You can only play for one IIHF team in your career, so it depends if you want to wait to play for Canada." Sophie was taken somewhat aback. She didn't know much about Latvia or their hockey team, though she did know that Riga was a very historic city. "It's always been my dream to play for Canada, but they're a really competitive team and I probably wouldn't be able to play for them for quite a while. Latvia would let me get some experience on the big stage right away," Sophie mused to herself. "I'll talk to my partner and family and get back to you, okay?" she replied. Hanging up, she was nervous for the big change but was excited for the new opportunity.
"Latvia, babe? You would have to learn some language in a pretty short time and that's a lot, are you sure you want to do this?" asked Jamie with a mix of love and concern in her voice. "I know you can do anything to set your mind to, and you understand both English and French, but is this a challenge you want to take on?" she continued on. Sophie's face in response was soft and inviting, but set in her choice regardless. "It'll be a big change for sure, but I've been through those before - leaving home for the SMJHL, getting drafted, moving in with you, we've been here together through all of those. I wanted to discuss this with you because we make decisions together and I care about your opinion," she smiled. Jamie leaned towards her girlfriend, taking her hand. "It's all good. I trust your judgment, and if you think this is the best decision for you then I'll support you. I know you've always wanted to see the world, and Latvia is such a historic place! I'm actually really excited for you," Jamie beamed. Sophie couldn't have picked up the phone to dial Ellie and accept the IIHF transfer offer any faster than she did at that moment.
Training camp was a big change for Sophie. Flying to Riga had been a pretty unique experience, but learning a new language from scratch had been really difficult, jet lag took a lot of adjustment, and the time difference from her friends and family at home made staying in touch with them difficult. Once she hit the ice, though, things seemed to be better as even with the different languages and origins of the players on the Latvian team, they were all there to play hockey and they could get used to working with each other. With all of the logistics out of the way and the rosters settled, Sophie was just about ready to start playing in her first round-robin game for the Latvian national team, playing against Norway. She'd be on a line with Valters Denisova and Benjamin Surkhi-Ze'ev, and while she still hadn't learned more Latvian in the short time before she'd flown over to meet them, Sophie hoped that hockey would be the common language they all needed to excel on the ice. While Latvia was expected to be an underdog in this tournament and Sophie would be playing against the stars of the SHL in these international games, the first game was against Norway which was another one of the relatively weaker teams. A couple minutes into the game, Bordeleau took a faceoff in the neutral zone and tied up the centre, allowing Valters Denisova to take the puck and dump it into the Norwegian zone. Surkhi-Ze'ev beat the defender to the puck and protected it with his body, turning back toward the blueline. Sophie quickly made eye contact with him and took a quick pass. She then pulled the puck to the backhand and with two quick strides she was past the defender on the outside, pulling the puck back to her forehand and firing a shot high past Cillian Kavanagh for the game's opening goal. Less than three minutes into her IIHF career and she'd just scored her first career goal - taking the risk to play for Latvia was a bold play, but it was certainly not a boring one and the new experience would undoubtedly make her a more well-rounded player.
boom
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