PUCKD Ch 14

The players’ faces lit up. Some took commemorative photos holding their tickets, while others called their families to brag.

Yongsoo’s voice could be heard, overcome with emotion, muttering that he hadn’t even flown business class for his honeymoon. Even when Doomin shoved a camera in their faces to film their reactions, everyone was all smiles.

“…”

Shin Hojae held his ticket in his hand and slowly blinked.

Even though it was a good thing that the benefits for the players had increased, he couldn’t help but feel a lingering sense of unease in a corner of his heart.

🏑

On the first day of their arrival in Canada, the schedule concluded with confirming the locations of the lodgings, restaurant, rink, and off-ice training ground, followed by a light warm-up at the off-ice training facility.

The players, whose spirits were lifted after seeing the much better-than-expected facilities and accommodations, forgot the fatigue of the flight and fully enjoyed the feeling of being abroad, drinking food and beer at a local restaurant in front of the training ground.

And that day was the last time they could enjoy such leisure.

The biggest reason for coming all the way to Canada for a training camp was probably to gain experience playing against high-level athletes.

As if to prove this, a whopping four matches against local hockey teams were scheduled during the 7-night, 8-day training camp. The first of these was a game against a Canadian third-division league team on the second day.

And in that game, the Blue Wolves suffered a crushing 6-0 defeat.

After the third period ended, the locker room was filled only with heavy breathing and silence. Even the usually talkative Yook Doomin kept his mouth shut, just drinking water. The result was that painful.

Shin Hojae rested his arms on his thighs and looked at the bench where Doomin was sitting. At 179cm, Doomin was of the exact average build for the Blue Wolves players.

And the bench he was sitting on was noticeably larger than the benches in the Blue Wolves’ locker room. That’s how significant the physical difference was with the Canadian players. Shin Hojae and Ji Minchul, the biggest on the Blue Wolves, looked average among the Canadian players.

Faced with the physique and power of the defensemen, who literally felt like a wall, and the speed of the forwards, the players were greatly flustered and couldn’t even perform at half their usual skill level.

As their stamina quickly depleted, the players began to miscontrol the puck. Naturally, they frequently lost the puck to the opposing players. To make matters worse, as the players grew anxious and played rougher, the number of penalties increased.

The extended time spent in the penalty box created countless PP* situations for the opposing team.

*Abbreviation for Power Play. Refers to a situation where a team has a numerical advantage due to a temporary ejection of an opposing team’s player for a penalty.

The feeling of powerlessness, the thought of ‘I guess we can’t do it after all,’ is the greatest enemy of athletes. In such a situation, even Shin Hojae couldn’t create opportunities.

The fact that they managed to stop the scoring at six goals was purely thanks to the saves of the newly joined foreign goalie, Alexei.

“Hoo…”

Shin Hojae wiped his face with the towel around his neck and looked at Lee Sanggon, who was sitting diagonally from him. In today’s game, he had played as the center forward on the same 2nd line as Shin Hojae.

Just like in other sports, the center’s role is to read the flow of the game and pass the puck. But today, that very center had not passed the puck to Shin Hojae at all.

Ice hockey is a sport where a total of six players compete: one goalie, three forwards, and two defensemen.

However, the actual number of players who play in a game reaches twenty. This is because the intensity of the sport is so high that players can only be on the ice for about 40 seconds to a minute at a time.

Therefore, the forwards and defensemen are grouped into lines of five, from the 1st line to the 4th line, and are rapidly substituted during the game.

During Coach Park’s tenure, Shin Hojae played as a winger on the 1st line. Choi Yongsoo, Yook Doomin, and Ji Minchul were his linemates, and their teamwork wasn’t bad. This was because they employed a strategy that exclusively funneled the puck to Shin Hojae.

However, for this match, Coach Peter completely ignored the lines used last season and randomly mixed up the player combinations.

If only Yook Doomin had been on the same line, at least.

As he was lost in that thought, Park Hyung-hoon, one of the rookie players, called out Hojae’s name loudly. “Hojae hyung! There’s a foreign player calling for you here!”

Lifting his head, he saw two familiar players waving at him from the locker room entrance.

They were players he had played with at the Montreal Highlights two years ago. He remembered them as being pretty skilled, yet they were playing in the third-division league, a step down.

In other words, it meant the competition was so fierce that just a few mistakes could lead to a demotion in rank. This was something unimaginable in Korea, where the player pool is small. The difference in team strength comes from things like this.

“Long time no see, Hojae. So you were playing in Korea.”

“You too.”

He shook their hands and bumped their shoulders lightly in greeting. They were friends he had naturally lost contact with after coming to Korea, and it was nice to see their faces like this, even for a moment. He had been standing there talking with them for quite a while, and it was when he returned to the locker room.

“I thought he was talking to an ex-lover or something.”

“If you miss it that much, how about you go to their team right now?”

As if they had been waiting, Moon Seungyeol and Lee Sanggon sneered at Shin Hojae. Shin Hojae intended to walk past them without even a glance. If only Lee Sanggon hadn’t said that one thing.

“That bastard Shin Hojae, didn’t he go easy on them earlier because he wants to go back to Canada?”

Shin Hojae immediately turned and shoulder-checked Lee Sanggon, as if body-checking him. Caught by the unexpected attack, Lee Sanggon let out a grunt and hit his back against the lockers.

Without giving him a chance to right himself, Shin Hojae pressed his elbow into Lee Sanggon’s chest, pinning him against the lockers. Cursing, Lee Sanggon pushed Shin Hojae’s arm away and shouted, panting.

“If you have something to say, say it with words, you fucking bastard.”

“Oh, really? Should we use words then? Maybe the reason our team lost is that someone didn’t pass the puck my way at all?”

“You motherfucker, you really know how to talk shit, don’t you? You think you’re the only shooter here? If you don’t score a goal, is it a given that we lose?”

“…”

“Do all the forwards here look like your supporting cast to you, you fucking bastard!”

“Aren’t you the one who thinks that way?”

“What?”

“That’s why you tried so desperately not to pass me the puck, isn’t it? Because you didn’t want to be my supporting cast.”

“I’ve heard enough…”

With his face flushed red, Lee Sanggon grabbed Shin Hojae by the collar and swung his fist. Hojae dodged the first one, but the second one landed squarely on his jaw. Shin Hojae’s head snapped back. He held his jaw and slowly turned his head.

He was already pissed off about losing the game, but getting hit by the guy who had intentionally not passed him the puck made his blood boil in an instant. Shin Hojae lost his temper and grabbed Lee Sanggon by the collar.

“What do you think you’re doing?!”

Peter, who was just entering the locker room, saw the scene unfolding before him and yelled. Perhaps because of his large build, his voice boomed throughout the locker room.

“Hojae! Let go of him right now! I won’t tolerate many things, but I will absolutely not tolerate my team members throwing punches at each other!”

Shin Hojae forcefully shoved Lee Sanggon away by the collar he was holding. Lee Sanggon muttered a quiet curse and straightened his wrinkled uniform.

Standing in the middle of the locker room with his hands on his hips, Peter’s gaze as he scanned the players was sharp. The atmosphere was much worse than it had been right before the game.

“I’m sure you all know that today’s game was terrible.”

The interpreter spoke, mimicking Peter’s intonation as he stressed the word “terrible.”

“Physique, stamina, tenacity, speed, control, teamwork. Not a single one of these could compare to the opposing team.”

“…”

“The matches scheduled for tomorrow and the day after have all been canceled. I’ve judged that playing games in this state will not lead to any improvement. Instead, I’ll be adding special training, so you’re all dismissed for today.”

As Peter Choi finished speaking and immediately turned his back, a stern-faced Coach Yoo followed him.

The shoulders of the players who followed, packing their things, were slumped.

🏑

“Ah, we really got our asses kicked. I told the Duming-ies that we had a match on the first day, this is so embarrassing.”

Yook Doomin slammed his bag down on the sofa as if throwing it and let out a cry.

For this training camp, Shin Hojae’s roommate was Doomin. He was exhausted from the constant power struggle with Lee Sanggon, so it was a relief that he could at least share a room with a close friend like Yook Doomin.

“Was my ice time* today even 5 minutes? You saw how Peter left me out of all the units, right? Does he have a grudge against me?”

*The amount of time a player is on the ice during a game.

In this match, Yook Doomin had been a forward on the 4th line with the rookie players and had not been included in the units.

In ice hockey, besides the four lines, there are various units for different situations. Such as a unit of players with good offensive skills to pressure the opponent during a PP situation, and conversely, a unit of players with good defensive skills to prevent goals during a PK situation*.

*Refers to a situation where a team is at a numerical disadvantage because one of their players is in the penalty box.

Naturally, the more units a player was in, the longer their ice time. And since longer ice time meant more opportunities to score goals or make assists, it was bound to be a sensitive issue for the players.

Yook Doomin was the type whose speed was good, but whose control fluctuated wildly depending on his mental state. To Peter, who prioritized stable puck possession, this might have been seen as a critical weakness.

“Hoo…. Still, I have to do the live stream. It’s a promise with the Duming-ies.”

Yook Doomin, who had been lying face down on the bed saying he was embarrassed, suddenly shot up and fixed his hair. In any case, his sense of professionalism was incredible.

Shaking his head, Shin Hojae went into the bathroom first. By the time he finished a slow shower and came out, the bed was empty.

He must be in the middle of his live broadcast, he thought. Is he doing it somewhere else?

He touched his phone, which was connected to the charger, and saw that the revised training schedule had arrived. Shin Hojae checked the meeting time and sighed faintly.

The schedule started at 6 AM. Considering that today’s morning practice was at 8 AM, it had been moved up by two hours.

He heard a small voice from somewhere. Looking around, he saw Yook Doomin on the room’s balcony, holding a phone to his ear. It seemed he had finished his live stream and was on a call with someone.

Even without trying to listen, the room was so quiet that the sound of the call could be heard through the balcony window.

He heard phrases like, ‘I said I’m sorry,’ and ‘But how could I not do the live stream.’ Shin Hojae fiddled with his phone and let out a small smile. Yook Doomin is really flustered. It must be that ‘girlfriend’ of his.