VHL at 15

[Insypher 86]

Approximately 15 seasons ago, when the VHL was beginning their 70th season, Jason Argos was just a little kid. At around this time, Jason fell in love with skating and had just started to play organized hockey. Being from Alaska, it was not very hard for him to find suitable ice to skate on during the colder months of the year. He is what you would call a "rink rat", though he mostly spent his time on ponds and lakes in the Alaskan wilderness. It was also around this time that he caught his dad watching a game of hockey on TV. Jason didn't really know much about hockey outside of Alaska, so the hockey being played on the TV immediately captured his attention. Almost instantly, he understood why his dad would be watching this game so intently. This game was unlike anything Jason had ever seen. The players were moving so incredibly quickly that it felt that the camera could barely keep up with them. They were passing with such precision and purpose.

It was a game between the New York Americans and the Moscow Menace. Jason's dad never really cheered for any particular team, but given that they were American, he would generally cheer for the American teams. Jason was almost persuaded into joining this line of thinking, but noticed the way that the Menace played they game. They were hard-nosed and physical, combined with an extreme amount of skill and grit. It felt like at least once every 10 seconds, a player would be seemingly sent across the pacific ocean from a hit by a Menace player. None were as prominent as a Menace forward who went by the name of "Randoms". Randoms could be easily identified by his 6' 8", 250 pound figure. He looked like an elephant that had found his way into a monkey exhibit. Randoms would be passing, shooting, and making plays just like the rest of the Menace players, but when he made contact with another player, it looked like a truck slamming into a bike. Randoms play was nothing short of ferocious. Soon, he would notice other Moscow players who would lay out hits like Smitty Werbenjagermanjensen, Dan Baillie, and Vladimir Pavlov, but none of them were as imposing and intimidating as Randoms. 

 Jason was immediately attached to this player and wished to play just like him. Jason was certainly not a very big kid, but he sure as heck was going to try as hard as he can to play just like Randoms. At his next game, Jason made his first big hit on an opposing player. He was given a penalty, as the puck was very far away from both of them, but that didn't matter to him. He felt like a completely new player. With some adjustment, he had fully incorporated hitting into his game. 

Jason quickly went from an unremarkable prospect, to a hard-hitting power forward that attracted the interest of some VHL teams. When the day of the draft came, he could not believe that the team he had cheered for for so long had drafted him in the third round. Of course, he knew that he would not be playing there right away, but that did not deter his motivation to eventually become just like his favorite player.

 

Edit: Word count 553

Edited July 23, 2022 by Insypher
forgot to put word count