"Northern New York Carding?" Jonni repeats over and over again, his index finger and thumb stroking his chin in thought.

I skate over to where he is sitting behind the boards on the bench, pulling off my right glove. I skid to a halt, spraying the boards with snow and lean over to grab my water bottle. "Are you done saying that?" I question. I grab it and set it on the top of the railing, so that I can adjust my sleeves, pulling them back on my arm.

Jonni looks at me, his gloves sitting next to him on the bench. "It sounds so familiar, Radimiekins."

I roll my eyes and squirt some water into my mouth, before returning my bottle into its place behind the boards. "We have a practice, Jonni. C'mon!"

Jonni cracks his neck and then jumps up to his skates, grabbing his gloves and jamming them onto his hands. "Fine with me." He sets his hand on the railing and sticks his face right up to my own. "You gonna move for me or do I have to take my skate and slash that pretty face of yours?"

I stare back at him, unflinching and unimpressed. "You gonna make out with me, maybe?"

"Ayyyyyy, Raddy and Kuokky, quit making out and get out here to practice! Otherwise I can scratch you both, so you can make out in the press box! You want that?" a tall blond man with a rapidly-declining hairline snaps.

"Coming Coachyyyyy," Jonni hops over the boards next to where I am. I eye him closely as he shakes his head, running a hand through his greasy blond hair locks. Then he puts his helmet on and skates to where the coach is standing with his hands on his hips. "Let's do this shit!"

"Kuokkonen..."

Jonni playfully jostles with another brunette man with facial hair lining his chin. "Colty is my favorite!"

"Kuokky, you're full of shit," Colton Stephens-Thompson, the brunette man, chirps back. "Listen to your Coach and focus!"

The balding man, obviously the coach, blows his whistle as the players all surround him, "Tomorrow's game is against the Backstabbers, we need to work on the 3 on 3 and the power play." He looks over at two stern-faced men as though scolding them.

The two men look back over laughing, "What? What'd we do?" as the rest of the team laughs around them.

"So we're gonna do drills for the power play first. I want the Triplet Line, Macauley and Kučera against Johnny, Smitty, Hunter and Andy."

"And since were roleplaying, that means Radimiekins should go to the box." Jonni chuckles loudly, tossing his stick in the direction of where I am standing between Tyler and Fabien.

"Actually if we're gonna realistic, Kuoks..." I begin to retort with a smirk.

The whistle blows again from the coach. Fabien and Andersson faceoff at the faceoff circle; Fabien wins the draw, as a curly dark haired man with piercing hazel eyes named Matthew Huntington tries to grab the puck from him. But Fabien passes it to Tyler. Tyler then skates towards the goalie. Huntington tries to block the shot and slips as one of his blades slides off his skates and he hits the boards.

"Better luck next time Hunter!" Tyler shouts out, teasingly as he scores off the failed play from his friend.

"You're lucky my blade came off, TyTy! I so had you beat there!" Huntington slowly gets to his feet and glides off on his other skate as he tries to get his blade fixed back onto his skates as another player swaps in for him.

Huntington sits on the side with assistant coach, as he gets new blades put on his skates and they are fastened tightly into place but shortly. After he gets his skates fixed, Huntington heads out onto the ice and the player who'd swapped out for him soon has the same problem; one of his blades falls off his skates.

"What's going on with the skates?" I questions to myself, noticing all of the stumbling players and pieces of blade on the ice. He shakes his head. "Oh, for the love of-- what's wrong with us today?"

I look into the boards, deeply perplexed as Tyler comes up to me and whispers, "I think Jonni messed with the skates again..."

"Now why would he do that Ty?"

"He's a menace, Radim," Tyler tells him. "Remember?"

I nod and heave a heavy sigh. "You're right Ty."

Tyler leans against the boards, slowly joined by a bashfully grinning blond man, Vitaly Rykov, and a boastful Fabien. "Trust me, Radim, Jonni's got another thing coming from Spencer, when he figures it all out."

"Jonni Kuokkonen!!" Spencer's voice booms out.

"Now he's gonna get it," Tyler catcalls, turning himself around to view the show that would ensue.

I watch as Spencer skates over to where Jonni is now chirping Lukas Kučera, a blue-eyed blond with long flowing shoulder-length hair. He grabs Jonni and spins him around to face him.

"What did you do to the skates? I know it's you...you menace!" Spencer snarls at the feisty young Finn.

"It wasn't me, swear, no joking, Spence," Jonni insists, pawing Spencer's gloves off of his shoulders.

"I swear if anyone else goes off..." Spencer grumbles. "You've caused enough trouble off the ice, don't start with me ON the ice."

"Oh, you still mad about the hacking...that was Radimiekins, not me, sweetie," Jonni remarks and slips by Spencer. He heads over to where Colton is getting set up with Matthew Huntington for the next drill.

Spencer shakes his head and looks in our direction. He heaves a sigh and skates calmly over as the next drill begins with Jonni, Huntington and a few others. "What am I gonna do with that Finn?" He nods his head in Jonni's direction as he legally bear-hugs Lukas and jams his stick around to try and get the puck, all while ramming his body against the defenseman.

Tyler sets a hand on Spencer's shoulder, comfortingly. "He's a menace, Spence, there's nothing you CAN do. But if it weren't for his menacery...there'd be no Triplets with Fabs, Ryky and I."

Rykov pouts his lip. "No Triplets?"

Tyler instantly whirls around to him. "Not what I meant Ryky. There are Triplets because Jonni failed to mesh and nicknamed us such during his chirping antics."

"Jonni is good!" Rykov exclaims.

I chuckle. "Alright, alright, you good with being a baby now, Ryky?"

"Not baby. Just emotionally confused. Also still no understand English. I like score goals! I can go score goal?" Rykov says, smiling at me.

"Yeah, go ahead, Ryky." Spencer laughs and shakes his head.

Rykov skates off, pulling Tyler with him. "TyTy pass me puck, I shoot, score big goal! Storm beats Backstabbers!"

"That Russian," Spencer chuckles. "I don't know how you and Tyler deal with him. He's an emotional roller coaster, but he's a good kid. You three make Syracuse great."

"No, we make Syracuse fabulous, Spence." Fabien pats his captain on the shoulder and then skates off, to join the overly excited Rykov and Tyler. Tyler is grabbing him on either side by the arms and tries to calm the bouncing Russian down. "Ryky, focus and calm down."

"No can. Score game-winning-goal and beat Backstabbers!"

"Vitaly Rykov, settle down man," Fabien says. "And you're gonna drive poor Katzy bat crap crazy."

"Had giant chocolate chip cookie for breakfast!" Rykov screams. "It was yummy!" He slowly calms down and looks at his feet, taking a total left turn once more in his emotional state. "Had to make self happy after bad loss. Play like crap. No win, play like crap... so I eat chocolate cookie!"

"Oh, no wonder, you're bouncing off the boards today," Tyler remarks. "Who got you the cookie? I know it wasn't you, yourself."

"Jonni," Rykov mutters, biting his lip. "Kuokky feel bad, try make me feel better."

"Of course!" Tyler hisses and begins to look around for the prankster.

Jonni skates by them and laughs. "That's what you get for messing with me during a postgame interview, Katzykins! You can't out-menace Jonni Kuokkonen now! Ha-ha-ha." He taps his stick against Tyler's back legs.

In the background, one of the veteran forwards with a nice gash on his cheek, Cody Macauley goes to the bench for water. He goes to take a drink but the cap falls off and drenches him in water. "Dammit Jonni Kuokkonen! That's so childish!"

Jonni halts, continuing to poke Tyler with his stick. "Oh right, I got Cody too...because, um, he's gullible...but not as gullible as the little Russian kid here...come on Ryky," he jokes, grabbing Rykov and wrapping his arm around his head and giving him a playful noogie.

"Hey, quit picking on the kid, Kuoks! Focus more on not losing faceoffs to me now," Huntington snaps.

"And board battles..." I tack on.

"And one-on-one breakaways..." Colton chirps, smirking.

The whistle blows and Jonni lets Rykov go and skates off, laughing. Rykov is chuckling and Fabien and Tyler break out in laughter as well. After a good laughing fest, all the Storm players move to the next drill and they continue to practice their power play.

While we continue on with the practice, I eventually shrug off the problems the team is having with the skates as does the captain. Luckily for Jonni's sake moreso, no one else leaves the ice with skate issues.