In the last two months or so, I’ve traveled across Europe, covering hockey games, talking to players, coaches and GMs in different cities, in different countries, in different languages. In every country, there are a million different stories, and fewer, but many, heroes.

I’ve also seen first-hand what an international — if not yet truly global — sport hockey is.

(And you only need to take a look at the NHL stats right now to see that Americans, Finns, Swedes, and Austrians (!) top the major categories.)

A few weeks ago, I found myself way up in the press box in the luxurious O2 Arena in Prague, Czech Republic, watching a game between Swedish Linköping and the hosts, Slavia Prague. The Swedish team had a Czech coach, and two of its biggest stars were also from Prague, and all in all, they had nine non-Swedes in the lineup. Slavia’s biggest guns, on the other hand, were Josef Beranek and Jaroslav Bednar, with over 600 NHL games combined under their belts.

In the Slavia locker room, the club has set up team photos from previous years. There’s the team from 1975-76, the one from 1985, the one from 1992, and the one from 2004-05. All photos signs of their times, the development of the country, and the sport.

And right next to the 2004 photo, just above the entrance to the team gym and massage rooms, there’s the photo of the 1904 team, with a little over half a dozen guys standing and looking straight into the camera. The club was founded in 1900, just four years earlier — 18 years before the Czech Republic was declared independent, in the aftermath of the first World War — so the players on the team were probably the first “original six” in hockey.

Five years later, when the first Czech national team was picked, it consisted almost entirely of Slavia Prague’s players (which wasn’t difficult since the roster wasn’t that long). In 1909, the Czech national team was playing in an international tournament in Chamonix, France, with little success. Well, none at all. They lost all four games, against France, Switzerland, England, and Belgium, scoring just four goals, and, well, getting scored on 31 times.

You have to start somewhere, I suppose.

The team’s arena is state of the art, its stars back in Prague after having made a name for themselves on the national team and other leagues, led by a coach who’s done it all. Vladimir Ruzicka is a World champion both as a player and a coach, and an Olympic champion with the Czech team in 1998, now the head coach of both Slavia, and the Czech national team.

It took Slavia 100 years, but they finally did win the Czech title in 2003, and then again last season. The country had changed names and borders a couple of times in between, but hockey stayed. Jaroslav Jarkovsky has become Jaroslav Bednar, and who knows, maybe the other Jaroslav also had a wicked wrist shot. Maybe Josef Gruss is now Josef Beranek, the team captain and its leader.

After Prague had beat Linköping, Jaroslav and Josef and the rest came back onto the ice to thank their fans. They all waved to the fans, the red sea behind the Linkoping net, and then they all sprinted forward and threw themselves on the ice, sliding and gliding on their stomachs toward the fans.

Something tells me that tradition isn’t a hundred years old.

Yet.