#Sid and Geno are retired but idk if they’re together in retirement or if they re-retire together after this fic

[coffee-at-annies]

For the Au game- a heist au, sidgenotanger?

Send me a potential AU and I’ll tell you five fun facts that would happen in a story.

Oh man I’m really struggling to come up with things that should happen in the story rather than things that are true about the story. My brain wants to a share big ideas like who does what rather than concrete details. I’m also functionally unable to think about leverage fusions without just wanting to go reread this so have at it, fic rec: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2669645

Because I love that fic so much, I think the focus of this is one last job/training up the next generation instead of Sid’s crew planning a heist. Jake calls Sid in from retirement for one last job. Sid left the crew in Jake’s hands to go idk disappear on the side of a mountain or whatever we think Sid’s gonna do in retirement. Tanger has one foot out the door but is making sure PO can take his place in the crew before he leaves. Idk where Geno is he’s also retired but he shows up because of course he does.

Things that are true and happen in the fic:

This is the third time Sid has come out of retirement for “one last job.” He’s not quite to Jagr’s levels of in and out of retirement but Flower has a betting pool going anyway. Geno meanwhile hasn’t been seen since he retired. Tanger keeps saying he’s going to retire and hasn’t yet.

PO needs to create a distraction and he absolutely either trips all over someone or opens a door in their face or pours soup in their lap and then gives the person a sheepish smile and he’s forgiven immediately.

Kissing to hide from pursuers is all well and good but it’s way less hot when its a former friend with benefits (the benefits being previously sex and currently emotional constipation and a brewing feelings realization) and your other former friend with benefits is in your earpiece critiquing both your kissing and your distraction skills. Somehow he ends up getting worked up anyway.

There’s a moment when they’re all huddled around a map or screen or something when Jake looks to Sid for advice but he just nods his head at the table because he trust’s Jake plan and is willing to follow his play. This is a fic about the ot3 but a subplot is Jake’s confidence and leadership skills without the old guard to lean on

Idk what the heist is but please imagine that one sequence in ocean’s 11 where the have the acrobat do some crazy flexible shit and bend himself into like a drinks cart to hide and junk and also maneuver around lasers. Now imagine Jars doing that. That.

Bonus:

So many easter eggs for current and former pens. My brain doesn’t want to stick with the leverage five man band schema so there’s just so many people in this ocean’s eight/ocean’s eleven situation. Even if everyone isn’t needed they at least get name dropped during the planning phase because I love to be sad about boys. Yes some grudges get brought up too

[knifeshoeoreofight]

Binging Law and Order SVU this week

Let’s Talk About That.

Detective Malkin and ADA Crosby?

Give me Sid and Geno standing together looking through the one way glass and Sid says, low, “get me what I need and I’ll make sure this son of a bitch never sees the light of day again” or something

And Geno goes, “don’t worry. Will get you all the evidence you need.” And there is fierce and determined eye contact and jaws clenched with resolve.

They win the Big Case and geno finds Sid in a little bar somehere, staring pensively into a tumblr of scotch.

“Drinking alone, Counselor? After such big win?”

“Well. I’m not alone any more, am I?”

“Nope.” Geno grins and clinks his glass against Sid’s. Etc etc.

Etc etc

Or like. They’re both detectives, partners, the two headed monster of the precinct, a little jaded and world weary but they have each other’s backs no matter what. Sometimes they wonder what it would be like to leave this grueling job, retire to a nice house in a nice little town and get away from the grit of the city. But they can’t leave their partner, no way. Then something happens. Someone gets hurt. Cue hospital vigils and hoarsely whispered confessions and they retire to a town by the sea and get married and adopt either a cat or children or both idk

[roseate7]

A team with a core of superstars should feel like a boon on top of a roster of well-paid solid talent. But in the Pens' superstars' post-thirty years, that's not feeling like the case. It feels like a confused team yo-yoing through highs and lows who have superstars that are keeping the whole thing afloat. I don't think this is a problem with the superstars or with the rest of the team. I think it's that management and coaching aren't even aware of this situation, or at least are not acknowledging it.

As Brass' exit interview proved, and as everyone but "why can't everyone see I'm amazing" Sprong agrees, there's no toxic culture in the Pens locker room. It's not as boisterous as some teams but it's also not cliquey and there are no rules about personal habits beyond guys needing to keep language and behavior somewhat clean considering how often children visit the Pens facilities. Social media is often a bit more stifled than most teams for much the same reason. But you see lots of mingling of new and older guys on the job and in their social lives. New boys get invited to dinners and parties no problem. Sid’s known for not being a yelling captain or a buddy-buddy captain, he’s a listener and a teacher and he’s open almost 24/7. Geno is honest as the day is long and a much needed balance in leadership with Sid. It’s a solid system up top and if you’re a guy who wants to work hard then there’s a place for you waiting among the team. For all that GMJR plays musical chairs with his trades, the team itself wants to bring these guys into the fold and love them.

Which I often wonder if that's part of the problem. Is it better to have a rowdier boys-club locker room where everyone loves their job but there's a healthy balance emotionally between giving your all at work and going home to get away from it, than your team being your second family and the head and heart of it all are two generational superstars who've gotten used to an uncomfortable amount of scrutiny and pressure?

Sid and Geno have faced absurd pressure and media interest since their teens (and from childhood in Sid’s case)  as well as a heightened level of expectation and criticism. The bar was set ridiculously high from the start and yeah they’ve gotten used to it. But while they have been able to handle and keep up with all of that, when you combine it with the talent of the Pens’ Cup-winning core - there's just no escaping how much higher expectations are when you show up to work there.

Especially considering the history GMJR in particular has of bringing in players currently in rough patches and wanting to rehabilitate them. It's gotta be weird being that guy who was a healthy scratch for much of his latter days at his old team and then suddenly you're grabbing a gatorade next to Kris Letang and Patric Hornqvist is trying to kiss you.

Then you see Sid and Geno walking around the halls of a venue they built. They're not even the types of hockey idols who are goofballs. Geno has a great sense of humor and shows his love by chirping, but the weight on his shoulders is palpable. The guy has long shadows in his past and in what's still expected of him, to say nothing of his fraught relationship with the league. Sid especially is so swamped with media responsibility and visiting groups from charities, schools, interviews and meetings that there's never really a sense of being "off". I don't know that that disconnect from normal guy reality ever really goes away when your captain grew up having to watch his every single word and gesture, even in casual moments, because everyone is waiting to catch him out at being human and flawed.

Like, hockey players are heavily flawed by nature. They're overgrown boys given way too much money too early and their lives have had the privilege of revolving around a sport that eats up almost their entire lives. They're socially more like figure skaters or ballet dancers than contact sports athletes because of how much their existence has to revolve around their work. But the balance for that is usually being rowdy, being excessive, and finding women who will put in the work to cultivate a home and family for them.

Sid has more than once gotten a bit of a nudge or a side-eye for not performing the usual post mid-twenties to early-thirties settling down ritual. While I absolutely respect him for being smart enough to keep his personal identity limited to himself for so long, it's plain to see that this aberration is viewed by at least a portion of the hockey world as a destabilizing one. For all that that is backward as hell, it's a real issue if enough guys buy into it. It's clearly not going to peer pressure him into making that kind of commitment, but it's a consideration for the subject of this drawn out ass post.

To bring it all back around: it's not going too far to say that Sid absolutely views his team and his franchise as his second family. Hockey itself has been his childhood best friend and I don't think anyone is in any doubt that the degree to which he's emotionally woven his life into hockey is a good old little bit too much. He's got a LOT of friends scattered across the world and a big ol' family, but Pittsburgh considers him "their Sid" because they're the family who get him the most out of the year. It's much the same for Geno whose Russian bleeding heart has cultivated a Pittsburgh-centric American identity for himself. They gave themselves permanently to this club and the club in turn has declared them as their own until their retirement. They've already achieved a legacy that most NHLers consider out of their reach. They're warm and kind people, but they're also walking that bit apart from everyone else. It's just how things have worked out for this particular dynasty. Most clubs have one superstar who navigates a way to stay integrated with the team (or not, in some cases) or the rare instance like 90s Detroit where the majority of the roster is made up of superstars. But it’s what makes the Crosby and Malkin dynasty so unusual in modern hockey: the arrival of the salary cap era put an end to one team hoarding generational talents. Having a Crosby and a Malkin who agree to huge discounts in pay and tally their income close to each other is, well it’s just fuckin’ unheard of. Likely never going to happen again, to be honest and I don’t blame other superstars at all for not following that pattern.  

So I just wonder if that comfort of knowing you have these two leaders and this stellar Cup-winning core changes the mentality for the rest of the players, regardless of their own talent. And if there is something inherently difficult for a player who walks into a franchise where every turn reminds you that your team is expected by the league, by the media and by the fans to perform and behave at a certain standard or else it's considered abject failure. The reaction is intense and harsh.

It's why I want coaches and management to start imagining a team with their core stars taken out and figure out how to get the other guys to gel together and strategize in a way that will exist on top of the core's ability to ride in and save the day. Examine how, when young players throughout the league play with the Pens core on national and ASG teams, they say that it's almost absurd how easy their job becomes. Maybe that's a hint that the guys outside the core can't figure out how to get their teeth back into their play when they're practising with guys who can generate chances every single time. Maybe the motivation isn't there if they can't find a place where they're needed. 

Maybe there actually does need to be some cliquey-ness to the locker room so that the guys outside the core can train and practise on a level that they feel the urgency again.

Maybe no matter how nice the busy superstars are to you and how much they wanna just be one the guys, sometimes they just can't. The separation is out of their control. And that other players want to huddle up with guys who face the same challenges in their play but who aren't staying hours after a game to talk to media and meet hoardes of fans or having to change dinner plans so no one can see who they're out with.

Idk it's a thing to think about.  

(I know it’s pretentious as fuck to link to myself but it’s for reference I promise)

[malkkins-blog]

I wish you would write a fic where Sid and Geno decide to come out post-retirement by dropping the puck hand-in-hand at Pride Night or a similar event.

Idk, I hope you like this. My plan is to take moments from the flashback parts and write about specific events.

“Please welcome to the ice, to drop the ceremonial first puck, your former captains, numbers seventy-one and eighty-seven- Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby!”

The crowd goes insane. Sid feels the hand holding his tighten and, yeah, he made the right choice.

They’ve been together for over twenty years at this point.

After the Cup win in 2009, Sidney knew something had changed between him and Geno and before either of them knew it- they were in the front hall closet of Mario’s house, sloppy handjobs done because both of them were too wasted. At twenty-one and twenty-two, they aren’t too good at handling their alcohol.

The day after Mario’s pool party, they decided to give dating a chance, both admitting that they had crushes on each other since Geno came to Pittsburgh.

When Sidney hoisted the Cup for the third time in the middle of Bridgestone Arena, he knew that this is what he wanted for the rest of his life. He wanted the Cup and he wanted Geno. Nothing could stop him from getting the Cup every year and marrying Geno. So, a week after defeating the Predators, Sid dragged Geno out to center ice during the locker clean out.

“Not suppose to be on ice, Sid.” Sidney let out a small laugh as the scoreboard came  to life. The employees of PPG Paints Arena would do just about anything for Sid.

Sid and Geno both looked up at the scoreboard with smiles; Sid knows that the video showed, he’s the one that made it. It shows various pictures of Sid and Geno from the start, when they’re all just hockey pictures until 2009 comes around.

Suddenly, the pictures are no longer solely press photos- there’s a photo of Sid and Geno kissing with the cup in between them, a photo just meant for the two of them. There’s another one that Sid knows Taylor took one night when Sid and Geno fell asleep on Sid’s parents’ couch when Geno came to visit Cole Harbour in 2010. The years pass by, and the photos are more and more personal as they go on. There’s one Sid took after their playoff loss in 2015, while Sid is watching a video on his laptop, trying to figure out what went wrong while Geno has his head in Sid’s lap. Then the photos turned back to more professional ones, where they win the Cup in 2016 and the repeat the year after. The video ended with a video of Sid on the scoreboard saying that he had a question to ask his amazing boyfriend.

Geno turned to look back at Sid, who was already on one knee. “Will you be my partner forever?” They both had tears in their eyes as Geno noded his head.

They’re married two years later, with their team and the Cup in attendance.

Soon after though, Sid suffered a bad concussion and was forced to retire. The first time he saw  the ‘C’ that adorned his jersey for so long on Geno’s, he felt like he was going to cry. They built their team together and it seemed so fitting that the Captain duties got passed onto G.

2022 came  around, and Geno decided that he’s had enough. His knee is close to giving out and there’s just nothing left for him to accomplish in the NHL anymore. As a couple, they were working on adopting their first child,so it makes sense for retirement to be the next step.

Two months after his press conference, Geno becomes a dad to a beautiful little girl they name Rooney Natalia Crosby-Malkin.

Six years and three more kids later, Sid and Geno stand in the middle of PPG Paints Arena. They’re holding hands as the lights around them create rainbows. The puck, decorated with the Penguins’ official rainbow logo, is held by both him and his husband. Jake is standing next to Sid, the new Captain of the Penguins and one of the few members of the team left from the back-to-back run. The crowd is cheering for them, it’s obvious to Sid that the fans have missed both Sid and Geno.

After the puck drop, they’re interviewed by Dan Potash for the first time in nearly seven years. He asks them how it feels to be back and they both agree that it’s weird, but they’re happy that the Penguins asked them to be a part of Hockey is for Everyone night. They mention that they love to show that anyone, regardless of sexual orientation or country of origin, can play in the National Hockey League.

When they decided to come out, shortly after their wedding, Sid had never imagined that they would be such advocates for LGBTQ hockey player- but there’s nothing he wouldn’t do to prevent someone from the feeling the way he felt during the beginning of his career.

Yeah- Sid made the right choice. He choose hockey and Geno.