Pope Francis: Defender of the Faith and Net

[nurx 914]

Everybody knows the Pope in our world, but in an alternate timeline, the Pope didn't become the most influential Catholic. The Pope we know joined the Victory Hockey League. At a massive 5 foot 7 inches, the monster of a man simply imposes himself on the ice. The ice of course is very well known to freeze often in the frigid average low temperature in the heat of the July winter of 37 degrees Fahrenheit. There simply isn't a person you would expect to become an infamous hockey defenseman that this character.

 

Born in the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina Pope Francis otherwise known as Jorge Mario Bergoglio to Italian immigrants. In this timeline, the Pope would not have pursued a career in religion, but instead pursued a career in sports. Growing up in Argentina the Pope spent his free time as a young kid playing Soccer with neighborhood kids where he mastered footwork and the ability to control his body. In Buenos Aires, the Confederación Argentina de Hockey has a major team. This league doesn't play ice hockey but instead plays the cheaper and more expected sport of field hockey. Interested in this sport, the young Pope played and found out about a sport popular in North America they simply call Hockey, but known in Argentina as Ice Hockey. His parents were kind enough to spend money on a set of ice hockey gear and a season pass to the nearest ice rink. Here Pope Francis learned the basics of ice hockey and would earn his title... The Defender of the Fai- Net. The Pope was incredibly balanced on his feet and was not afraid of getting in front of a puck and would become the best defenseman of his generation to come out of his country.

 

The Pope has worked on one single skill throughout his training to be a top-tier hockey player, and that is the ability to be the pylon. He has truly embraced the pylon and will stand in front of any shooter no matter their shot strength. This has led to him having a legacy coming out of Argentine ice hockey and I would expect him to push this play style into the VHL as much as he can. In Argentina, Pope Francis would not light up the scorecard unless you were looking at shot blocks. Of course, the Pope was able to break out, but he was much more content with being a pylon rather than scoring a lot of points. This playstyle did not limit him however as he also was able to impose his massive 5’7’’ frame laying some large hits throughout his career in the Argentine youth leagues.

 

However, it is very difficult to become a top-tier hockey talent playing in lower-level hockey nations like Argentina. It isn’t impossible, but you will be limited by the level of play you are facing. It isn’t a surprise then that throughout his time playing youth hockey he traveled the hockey world playing other youth players from Stockholm to Moscow to even Edmonton. This experience led to him growing as a player, but also as a person learning how to speak English, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Latin, and French. This ability gave him the ability to work with foreign players which most youth players simply don’t have coming out of the United States or Canada. I would expect this diverse language-speaking ability to come out in his play as he will excel with anyone whose native language is any of those languages.

 

When the Pope decided it was time to come to America to play in the VHLM the Ottawa Lynx will ready and willing to offer him a contract in what would become his first professional season of hockey. The Pope would come out of the gates swinging or more accurately standing in place in front of pucks going toward the net. While he blocked an outstanding 36 shots in only 17 games in his first games in the VHLM. When playoffs came, the Pope didn’t slow down blocking the exact same 36 shots in 17 playoff games. However, the main critique of the Pope as he was entering the VHLM was that he would be a one-trick pony being exceptional on defense while not being very helpful on the offensive side. This however has proven to not be as bad as predicted while he scored 18 points in his 34 games at the professional level. Of course, it is hard to understate that Pope Francis was likely a part of the team that pushed a good Ottawa squad over the edge to become the inevitable Founder’s Cup Champions. What lies ahead for the Pope is unknown but it can only be good based on how his first few games playing professionally went.