Touring Lach Linnhe, Kinlochaline Castle, Lochaline and the Loch Aline, from Warsaw to London.

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Sometimes travelling can be funny. Jillian Woods has spent some of the last few days planning and packing for a trip through Europe, touring all of the great EU team facilities. The trip started in Warsaw (cheapest airport for her to fly to from Ottawa at the time) and also happened to be home of the Warsaw Predators. Warsaw had been known in somewhat recent years for their respect for the defensive position, even leveraging excessive defensive talent to secure their last Continental Cup win. Brian Payne, Hari Singh Nalwa and Tavish DeGroot all brought something special to Warsaw and Jillian Woods was honoured to be lead through their facilities. It was actually her first look at what a VHL hockey complex looked like, and boy was it a step up from anything she was familiar with.

 

Bratislava, Prague, Cologne, Malmo, Oslo, Vasteras, Stocholm, Helsinki, Riga, and Moscow all came together in rather quick succession. All stunning, all incredibly gracious and hospitable. So many teams, so much history and so much drive to compete day in and day out. This really isn’t the VHLM anymore, and even that was a level of professionalism that Woods had never seen before. There’s some serious cash flowing through these teams and it shows on the ice and in all of the amenities available to the players. Jillian may never have to cook for herself ever again, and honestly, good riddance!

Rome was special for Jillian, because well, it’s Rome! She had never made her way out here, and just seeing the ancient architecture and the food and the summer air is just incredible. An experience she’ll never forget honestly. Funnily enough, she ran into a pretty incredible trio in Antonio Bucatini, Gianfranco Del Rocco, and their mentor Francesco Mancini, who was recently traded to Chicago, and was a real trailblazer for the Italian national program at the VHL stage. The 2 youngsters are set to start tearing up the big leagues this season and it was nice to sit in on some advice, even if she didn’t understand their fluent Italian. She wrote down as much as she could so maybe she can pick up some Italian later to translate it all.

 

Davos was a strange one that just didn’t fit in the roadmap as she shot up north from Cologne rather than climbing through the Alps mid-trip. After a nice relaxing stay in Rome though, it was time to meet Alex and the management group in Davos. Kirby was the first to meet Woods, a real trailblazer for women in the VHL, and a real inspiration for Woods taking up hockey in the first place. Obviously they talked a lot of shop, but it was nice to sit down one on one for the first time. Sadie St-Louis joined after a while and the trio toured Davos and the facilities. St-Louis had jsut won the Continental Cup in Seattle before coming to Davos via trade. A real focus of conversation was just how important team defending and dominant goaltending is to winning a championship. Sadie had always been a strong offensive player but being able to tune into that defensive system and strong goaltending helped to secure more of those crucial wins. Davos has been used to dominant goaltending, having employed the services of Hall of Famer Xavier Booberry, and pending Free Agent and probable Hall of Famer Lachlan Summers for most of recent memory. Kirby and Lachlan went way back, having been a lot of the reason for their individual involvement with Davos at the same time.

 

The trip then had to make its way to London, the team that Woods was most familiar with, and the last stop before hopping across the pond again. There’s not a lot of outbound traffic from Davos, and one of the only flights to even head to the UK actually ended up going to Inverness, deep in the heart of Scotland. There’s plenty of rumours floating around that the existing UK team may end up moving north at some point, and Woods would absolutely attest to how beautiful a place Scotland would be to stay. After a wrong turn, Woods ended up on a ferry, taking her across Lach Linnhe, before she found a place to stay in Lochaline at the mouth of Loch Aline. Along the way was the beautiful Kinlochaline Castle. In the morning she wood get on track and head to London, where GM Jacob Carson was happy to meet Woods, and was very excited to hear all about the adventures she had over the past few weeks, and was happy to put her up for as long as needed. Obviously London is always in need of defenders, and as of right now, a goaltender to replace the great Jesse Teno. He did ask if any of the goaltenders she had met along the way seemed to be miserable and might want a change of scenery, but unfortunately Woods did not quite have an answer. Everything seemed good going from Warsaw to London, and she could not be of much help.

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mentioned: @Alex @kirbithan @sadie @GioSivo @Victor @CowboyinAmerica @Scurvy @Dil @rory