While the other players glided and carved their blades into the ice cleanly, Crosscheck Beck haphazardly stomped around the ice in his skates. The sound of his strides echoed off of the rink’s boards and plexiglass.

‘Graceful skater’ had never been an apt description for the way he played hockey. Rather, he was known for his punches and hard body checks, the way any enforcer was known to contribute.

The collection of players on the ice wore various colors of jerseys; nobody matched perfectly, but that’s what was to be expected a pick-up hockey game. As long as everyone’s jersey could be reasonably categorized as light or dark, that was all that was needed to separate into teams.

Raft Daddy, a much more fluid skater than Beck, grabbed a loose puck and turned his way up the ice. He was a former AAA hockey player from Colorado growing up, but now Raft Daddy just liked to play for fun.

As he flew through the neutral zone, he slid the puck to Crosscheck Beck and then tapped his stick on the ice signaling for a ‘give-and-go’ hockey play.

With an uncoordinated slap against the vulcanized rubber, Crosscheck Beck managed to get the puck back to Raft Daddy. The raft guide caught the puck in stride and carved his way into the offensive zone.

On the far side of the ice, Raft Daddy’s third linemate cruised in. The stealth was particularly surprising to him, since his third linemate was King Crab Mack who was 6’4” and 255 pounds.

The defenseman trying to contain the odd-man rush focused on Raft Daddy, which let the rafting guide move the puck across to KCM to bang home a one-timer past the goalie.

There was some scattered cheering for the pick-up game goal, but the satisfaction for the players wasn’t really about scoring. Raft Daddy, Crosscheck Beck and King Crab Mack were just enjoying playing some hockey with buddies.

The three wrestlers made their way back to the hockey bench and sat down while the next group of skaters took their turn.

“Nice finish,” Raft Daddy commented as sweat dripped from under his helmet.

Out of breath, KCM struggled to respond.

“Yeah… nice pass… damn, I have no cardio out there anymore,” King Crab Mack mustered.

“Once you start flying like I do, your legs will come back,” Crosscheck Beck wryly chimed.

Both Raft Daddy and King Crab Mack laughed at the irony of Crosscheck Beck gloating about his skating speed. After a minute, Raft Daddy made an off-hand observation.

“You know, boys, I think we got a good thing going here. Us, hockey and Golden Pro Wrestling.”

Crosscheck Beck and King Crab Mack looked at each other and nodded.

“I’m thinking that with all the bullshit going on in GPW, we could stick together,” Raft Daddy continued.

KCM took a drink from his water bottle.

“Last season, I probably would have told you I’m better on my own, but Gold Strike 26 showed me that it never hurts to have friends,” the Bering Sea Badass replied. “If we all cover each other’s backs, then we can focus on what we are here for.”

“Well, fuck it, we need a name then,” Crosscheck Beck noted.

The three went quiet for a moment.

“Power Play. We can overwhelm anyone and we can make them pay,” KCM stated flatly.

Both Raft Daddy and Crosscheck Beck gave loud approvals and the three bumped their hockey gloves together.

Golden Pro Wrestling officially had a new unit to deal with.