MADISON, Wis. - The floodlights go out at four in the evening like they do every Sunday night. As the sun sets from a fiery orange into pitch black, the blistering cold seeped into Leonard's gloves to find his fingertips.

Leonard's friends have gone home. The park attendant closed up the warming shelter, leaving his hockey bag next to the door.

But Leonard wanted to keep playing. He wanted to keep working on his game.

The rink was now silent besides the sound of his skates cutting into the ice and his stick hitting the ice. Beyond the hockey rink, sounds of passing cars whizzed by providing the only illumination besides the moonlight. It was a reminder that another world existed besides hockey.

As much as nine year old Leonard Wood wanted to keep playing, he found himself continuously hampered by the natural elements. It was hard to see the puck in the low light. The build-up of snow from a busy weekend at the torn up rink dragged on the puck. It could only go a few feet until it stopped or worse, was lost in the darkness.

The bitter cold on this January night slowed him down too. First he felt it in his hands. The hockey gloves were not enough as his hands felt numb. The thin layers of long sleeve shirts, sweatshirts, wool socks, and a cotton hat which felt like enough at 2 P.M. was not enough now. Perhaps the shivering, dreadful chill in his bones were enhanced by the loneliness of being the only skater on this solid, beat-up sheet of ice.

Soon, it became so dark that he didn't know where he was going. He collided with the goalpost as he struggled to see in the dark. The impact knocked him onto his back. He thought he was going to stay there forever. Looking up at the twinkling stars above, Leonard closed his eyes as he drifted off into a sleep.

PHILADELPHIA, Pa – Will Leonard Wood ever live up to his first round potential or will he forever be remembered as a junior hockey hero?

Philadelphia fans wonder if he will ever reach his full potential. They say it in the stands. They type it in all caps on the message boards. They further emphasize it in sarcastic memes. Leonard Wood reads all of it and wonders the same thing.

“I'm sorry,” he said as he addressed the press after being late to yet another practice. “I fucked up. I know that, it won't happen again.”

Wood offered that apology after waking up to the sound of The War on Drugs' Under The Pressure ringing in his ears from his earbuds as he woke up late to another morning skate. He was still drunk from the night before and at risk of being scratched for the night's game.

This wasn't an issue with anyone else on the team. Leonard went out to the bars on his own, without any of his teammates.

Wood felt the pressure of chasing a Challenge Cup, of playing professionally in the best league in the world. He also felt the pressure of managing his personal life outside of hockey. At the rate he was going, one of those two worlds was going to crash and burn.

Occasionally, that pressure would explode violently out on the ice. In a three goal win over Toronto in the regular season, Wood got into a fight with Mac Turner that costed him a ten minute game misconduct penalty.

“I felt terrible afterwards. It was a 0-0 tie game at the time. My terrible decision to get into a fight at that moment could've costed us the game,” Wood explained. “Luckily, the rest of my team carried us in my absence, scoring three consecutive goals while I looked on from the penalty box.”

Wood got into another scrap in the playoffs too. He dropped the gloves in game four against Manhattan, tying up with Austin Morley. Austin took him down quickly as the Rage went on to win 7-4. Philadelphia still took the series in seven games despite that fighting major.

Back home in Madison at Leonard's family bar, Wood's Tavern, the television has been changed from the Forge game in favor of playoff football instead. The patrons exchanged years of support for Leonard for the next shiny thing. They chose immediate gratification rather than the investment in the long term success of one of their own.

“Ya, lemme know when he makes it to the finals,” a grisly old patron of Wood's Tavern said then took another drink of his Spotted Cow. “I mean ya sure they're winnin' but where's Woody? Looks like its all Gnabe and Tony to me er no? If Woody could keep his gloves on and stop goin' ass over teakettle, maybe he'd get in on the play more.”

The media in Philadelphia get in Wood's head as well. When he steps up for a post game interview, he sees that the reporters all have sticks instead of microphones pointed at his face. The reporters will even see blood before they high stick him in the face. After they maul him with their curved blade across his cheek, that's where they get their story.

“Sometimes I feel like an emotional Zamboni smoothed over how I once felt about the game,” Leonard explained in a press conference, letting the reporters draw blood.

DENVER, Colo. - “The Raptors win it! The Raptors win it all! The Raptors have won the Four Star Cup,” the distorted radio announcer screams after the dying minutes of the third period expire, crowning the Colorado Raptors the Four Star Cup champions for the first time in franchise history.

Gloves, sticks, and helmets litter the ice as the S75 Raptors huddle together around their goaltender, Herman Stahl, in celebration. Charlie Slurpe hands the cup over to rookie skater Nathangus McExplosion, who in turn kisses the cup and raises it in exultation.

“You've just won the Four Star Cup? How are you feeling?” A reporter asked Leonard Wood.

“I'm in a dream,” Leonard Wood responded out of breath. “And I don't know what the fuck it means. I feel my world bursting at its seams.”

Leonard Wood skated away from the reporter to stand at center ice to take it all in. He stood still as he saw his teammates still celebrating. He stood still until they all disappeared. He stood still until he was back on his childhood rink at a park in Madison.

The ice extends and the landscape expands until he's standing in the middle of frozen Lake Mendota under the gray sky as the wind howls around his body dressed in Philadelphia's uniform, number twenty two. He can see Madison's lights twinkling miles away. With all of the might he has left, he skates toward his home town shimmering in the distance.

But with each stride he takes, the ice grows larger and larger until he's standing on the mighty Lake Superior. There's no sight of land on all sides, just a flat landscape with snow drifting across the ice which looks like glass.

Leonard lifts one skate to propel himself forward but his skate cracks the thin ice. He falls through the ice and starts to sink into the cold water. Flashing lights shine through the water as he hears the muffled sounds of the music at the announcing of the starting lineup of the Philadelphia Forge. The crowd roars with each name that's announced.

As he sinks further into the lake that doesn't give up her dead, the lights and sounds of the Philadelphia arena grow dimmer and dimmer. Until it's as dark as the ice on his childhood rink when the lights go out and he can't find the puck.


Words: 1307

Wake up Woody! Philadelphia need you and there are some infernos that need to be doused.

Wood's Tavern patrons are spoiled if they're scoffing at 11 points in 12 games in a tough environment like the SHL playoffs. Lots of good seasons ahead, the Forge will be Wood's team soon.

Marek Carda | LW/RW | Philadelphia Forge

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IIHF | Czechia

S73 GP:12 G:0  A:0  P:0  +/-:-1

S74 GP:12 G:0  A:5  P:5  +/-:-3

S75 In Progress

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Accolades | Career

S74 SMJHL Four Star Cup Champion

S74 Brodie Witzel Nominee

S74 WJC Bronze Medal

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