Part 1
Without a doubt, Cassius Darrow lands on the Grizzled Vets. As one of the last standing players S45 or older, it’s a clear fit. As Darrow steps into the first practice, it’s like stepping back in time to his juniors days. Sure, he’s faced off with Nick Brain and Andreas Kvalheim in the SHL, but it’s different now. He hasn’t practiced with Brainer since his final days before he passed along the mantle of captain for the Colorado Raptors. Elsewhere, longtime SHLers like Luke Thomason, Mika Mayfield, and Collin Gibbles stretch out. Darrow hasn’t spent much time around them since the early days of the Shits n Gibbles league while Mr. Hamilton was GM. He also spots his longtime friend, Dom Montgomery, pulling himself out of a hyperbaric chamber; is that how he’s stayed so youthful looking after all these years? Darrow also notices his agent’s other prominent client, Gunnar Soderberg, laughing with Harry Carpet and Corey Kennedy by one of the goals. This is a team that may have lost a step, but certainly has enough talent to compete with some of the best all time. There’s like 30 players in this camp, and competition for the defensive roster spots will be fierce—Darrow, Corey Kennedy, Brennan Kennedy Jr, Eko Van Otter, Karl Scholz, Gibbles, Mattias Seger, Dom Montgomery, Slip McScruf, and old Rex Kirkby—all fighting for 6-7 roster spots. Darrow knows he can keep up, that he belongs in this group; the question will be if the coaching staff will determine the same.

Cassius Darrow feels good going into this tournament. After making the team, Darrow is settling into his role on a primary shut down pairing with fellow shot block maniac Mathias Seger. Eko Van Otter and Dom Montgomery pulled their names from consideration at the last second due to a tragic mass dumpster fire in the city of Atlanta sent them rushing home to check on their teammates and loved ones, opening up at least one roster spot for the tournament. The defense looks very strong for Team Grizzled Vets.

Part 2
Their opponents enter the arena overly confident—this team is a glorifed SMJHL All-Star team, and feels like they can take on anyone. They are talented, for sure, but lack the wisdom that comes from years of battling every night to win games. Darrow smiles at SHL teammate, Vaseline Podcalzone, as he scans Team Up-and-Comers. Even right before puck drop, it’s unclear of Mat Smith or Jon St. Ark will get the starting nod in net. Both are skilled goalies, but it’s surprising when the coach sents St. Ark out there. Smith has far more big game experience, and seemed like a more likely choice. Looking across the rest of the roster, up and coming players like Xavier Doom, Jonathan Granstrom, and Darrow’s current d-partner, Kermit Murphy, have made this team. They are quick and skilled. In the end, that doesn’t amount to much.

Team up-and-comers gets an early powerplay off after a Dick Clapper tripped Arsene Leclerc, but cannot capitalize. The top vet PK unit of Andreas Kvalheim, Barry Batsbak, Brennan Kennedy Jr, and Seger sucks the air out of their attack. On the second unit, partway through the penalty, Darrow makes a pass to mid ice, popping Monkey D. Luffy for a breakaway. Luffy cannot beat St. Ark, leaving the score 0-0. Within a minute of the penalty ending, the top unit of Aaron Wilson, Theo Morgan, and Dick Clapper overwhelm the young d, scoring a tic-tac-toe goal. Team Young Guns ties it up early in the 2nd period off a Podcalzone slapper, but a double minor high stick to Kermit Murphy leads to a devastating 5-on-3. The grizzled vets send Wilson and Morgan back out with Corey Kennedy, Michael Scarn, and Julio Tokolosh. The unit scores 2 goals in 73 seconds to take a commanding 3-1 lead.

In the end Team Grizzled Vets gets the victory, 5-2, outshooting team young guns 37-24. Aaron Wilson is named the first star of the game with a goal and 2 assists. Darrow played 17:24, including 1:02 shorthanded. He had a single shot on goal, 2 hits, and 4 blocked shots. The highlight of Darrow’s game was stealing Kermit Murphy’s lunch with a nifty poke check to kill the last 13 seconds off Brennan Kennedy Jr’s 3rd period slashing penalty. On this team, he doesn’t need to be the star; Darrow is happy to play strong defense and make the smart first pass.

Part 3
Well, that sucked. After starting to get into sync with this team the first few games, the game against the Hall of Famers undid all that good work. Harry Carpet got chased 3 minutes into the 2nd period, and the HOFers led the entire way. The Grizzled Vets are no strangers to hard, physical hockey—outside of Gibbles, Seger, Carpet, and Zheng, every other player has experienced deep playoff runs and Challenge Cup wins. Still, the referees swallowed their whistles as Tor Tuck, Mike Izzy, and Ben Dover took copious cheap shots on the veteran squad. This gave players like Jason Visser ample extra space to dangle his way to 4 goals (2 in the first period). The shutdown pairing of Alonso Garbanzo and Bojo Biscuit completely erased the powerful top Steelhawks unit that embarrassed the up-and-comers in Game 1; Aaron Wilson finished the game playing 18:43 with a -3, 1 hit, and 2 shots on goal.

After Dover tripped Martijn Westbroek and slashed the back of his neck with his stick, Corey Kennedy stepped in to defend his longtime teammate and friend, leveling the old Steelhawk. Dover received no penalty, while Kennedy was given a game misconduct. The passionate defender blew his top, shouting and spitting in the face of totally-not-biased referee Hallsy. The grizzled vets put together some of their best pressure offense on the resulting penalty kill, including their sole goal of the night; Brennan Kennedy Jr picked Joe Kurczewski’s pocket, and slid a pass to mid ice. Barry Batsbak collected it on the change, dangling for a few seconds before hitting Andreas Kvalheim with a drop pass. Kvalheim barreled down the ice, made a pretty dangle past Garbanzo before hitting Michael McFadden 5 hole.

Even then, the final score of 7-1 burns. During a post-game meeting, the team committed to never have another game like this. The group of veterans--representing the last 14 Challenge Cup Champions—grit their teeth and got ready for the next game.

Part 4
After the heartbreaking rout by the hall of fame team, the Grizzled Vets were hellbent to get a win and show they were better than their last game. In the first matchup with Team Up-and-Comers, the vets put on a clinic. Several days of backbreaking practices led by former teammate turned assistant coach Gunnar Soderberg had the team locked in to make a statement… and did they ever.

After two periods, they led 5-1, with a pair of goals from Julio Tokolosh and three first-period assists for Los Angeles’ Jimmy Slothface. The Up-and-Comers achieved a total of 3 shots on goal in the third period, as Team Grizzled Vets staked out a 7-1 victory with an impressive 43-18 difference in shots. Mat Smith started the game, but it was Jon St. Ark who was asked to step in and survive the third period rush from the old heads. Tokolosh finished with 5 shots on goal, 2 goals, and an impressive blocked shot off the knee late in the 3rd period to take the air out of the up-and-comers.  While only recording a single goal (a Scarn tally from Wilson and Corey Kennedy) this time, the HAM line of Scarn, Morgan, and Wilson kept the pressure on all game, tiring the younger defenders out. Corey Kennedy was a man on fire, finishing the game with 23:11 TOI, 9 shots on goal, two points, 3 hits, and a +4 rating. Up and down the lineup, the Grizzled Vets played strong team defense with insane pressure. While only on the ice for 16:33, Cassius Darrow played over a minute on the penalty kill and had 2 takeaways (both against Seattle teammates Kermit Murphy and Vaseline Podcalzone) and 4 blocked shots.

Heading into the championship game, the Grizzled Vets look as strong as they ever have. I pity the fools that have the next game.

Part 5
The entirety of Team Grizzled Vets was chomping at the bit for a rematch and redemption against the Hall of Famers. To their shock, they would get another round with Team Superstars. Rested and angry, the vets take the ice against those who wish to take their mantle as lions of the league. Former rivals Ryuuji Minamino and Jimmy Wagner combine for the dangerous attack line of the Superstars, and the vets will need to play their best to keep with these younger, talented players. The vets have something the Superstars don’t; experience, and more Challenge Cups combined than the Superstars could dream of.

With Superstars getting the home ice advantage, assistant coach Gunnar Soderberg suggests sending out a grittier unit to start the game. The third forward line of Barry Batsbak, Nick Brain, and Andreas Kvalheim start off with the shutdown pair of Collin Gibbles and Matthias Seger against Team Superstars top unit (Minamino, Wagner, Kaarlo Kekkonen, Akira Ren and Adam Scianna). They set the pace, playing a tight, clean, defensive style that grinds down on the younger, faster youths. There are plenty of scoring chances both ways, highlighted by Bjorn Leppanen and Keith Lee sandwiching Tony Pepperoni in the neutral zone, where Steve Harrington slipped a breakaway pass to Mats Marner late in the 1st. Marner went top shelf to beat Harry Carpet, taking a 1-0 lead midway through the 1st. The Grizzled Vets answered back quickly off a Corey Kennedy one-timer into a Martijn Westbroek rebound.

The game continued in this manner, with both teams getting chances. The slower, lock down style the Grizzled Vets play begins to get to the Superstars, as Tom Fiddler takes a cheap tripping penalty, claiming “they are stealing my TPE!” on his way to the box. Rotticus Scott then slashed his teammate Michael Scarn, giving the Vets a 5-3. Aaron Wilson does Aaron Wilson things, feeding Corey  Kennedy in the slot for a brutalizing one timer to pull his team ahead 3-2. Two shifts later, the 2nd PP unit holds tight pressure for 35 straight seconds, getting 4 shots on goal. Cassius Darrow—taking a rare shift in this tournament with the man advantage, shows out with a sneaky strong wrist shot toward the net. The ancient Tony Pepperoni grabs a rebound high off the goalie’s left pad, and slides a pass to Matt Kholin. Wide open, Kholin puts a blistering backhand shot behind Strom Chamberlain to extend their lead to 4-2.

Heading into the 3rd period down 2 goals, Team Superstars changes goalies, as Cillian Kavanagh takes the crease. If speed was the name of the game before, Team Superstars dials it up another gear, racing up and down the ice and trying to keep the vets off balance. Darrow, Gibbles, McScruf, and Seger see a lot of time blocking shots in their own end, trying to slow the onslaught. Darrow, in particular stands out—after playing a smaller role in previous games, through two periods he played over 11 minutes, with 2 shots on goal, 3 blocks, and a takeaway. In the third period, the old German blocks SEVEN shots in 6:32 TOI, including a pair of back-to-back slap shots from Keith Lee. The veteran fans in the crowd went wild as Darrow limped back to the bench after a whistle—blocks go unrecognized, but this vet team has three of the league’s best in Seger, McScruf, and Darrow (the only 3 players in league history to break 2000 career blocks in the SHL).

The Superstars tie it up off a slippery wraparound from Mitchell van der Heijden, and a beautiful snipe by fourth liner Michael Fitted. They carry pressure and control for a good portion of the 3rd period, but the vets still have tricks afoot. After a good stickcheck, Karlstrasse Scholz tips a pass to mid ice. Nick Brain gathers the puck, and protects from a hard back checking Ryan Shepard, before dropping it to Corey Kennedy, soaring up the ice. He drives deep, dekes, and drops the pass to his trailing man—Julio Tokolosh. He blasts a one timer at Kavanagh, who gets some of it. Kennedy waits on the doorstep and slams it in to put the veterans up 5-4 with 2:16 to go. The faces on the Superstars is crestfallen—they felt anointed, that it was their time. These old shits refuse to give up the spotlight here. Not even an extra attacker could beat Harry Carpet, and the Grizzled Vets take this championship.