#and connor is like part time kids hockey coach

[rattkachuk]

🌹

a mceichel snippet from an au where jack and connor grow up together, but connor is in an accident as a teen that ends his hockey career before it even starts

“Hey, mind if I use the other half of the ice?” A voice speaks in the small quiet moment of Connor's wallowing, just as the tears freeze to Connor’s cheeks. Connor sniffs and blames the cold before turning around to face the newcomer. It’s Jack. He knows Jack, they’ve played hockey on the same teams since Jack moved here. When they were both just eight years old. That’s seven years. Seven years of playing the ice together, sharing jersey colours, team dinners together after tournaments and road trips on the same buses, playing road hockey in the summer and swearing they were going to play together in the NHL someday. Together. Musings of children that had no idea what life was like outside of the sport they were committing themselves to.

send me a 🌹 for a random bit of a wip <3

[aliaology]

COACH — PART II

part one

summary: jack was excited to get the girls number but is disappointed when she doesn’t show. except, she finally does, thirty minutes later.

pairings: jack hughes x single mom!fem! reader

warnings: arguments, bad dad moment! (connors)

running late was not a usual with you. no— in fact you were always early. you hated being late, so here you were, rushing your ass and your son to his hockey practice. make up was smudged under your red eyes.

connor sat in the back seat, quiet as a mouse. the arrival of your ex boyfriend was blunt and unexpected. it turned for the worst, ending with a screaming match. ending with you walking out with connor and heading towards the rink.

connor barely knew his father, only stories and the occasional pop in, but he saw a whole different side of him.

“mama… are we going to see mr. jack?” connor asked.

you sniffled and wiped your eyes as you drove. “yeah we are baby, and he’s gonna help you more with hockey, alright lovie?” you told him.

connor nodded. “i like mr. jack. he’s nice” connor told.

you smiled at him through the rearview mirror. “i agree.”

the rest of the car ride was quiet, music softly playing in the back. when you pulled into the lot and got out, you quickly changed connor into his stuff and picked him and his bag up.

you ran inside, seeing kids with their devils partner. you found jack helping his teammate and the kid he was paired with. you set connor’s bag down and brought him to the opening.

“go to mr. jack, okay baby?” you told him, placing him down.

connor nodded excitedly, putting a grin on his face and rushing onto the ice. you had to bite your lip so you didn’t chuckle when he fell.

jack spotted him and helped him up. “hey buddy— long time no see” jack grinned.

jack wouldn’t lie if you asked if he was worried. ever since last practice, you ran through his mind on loop. if he pressed skip, it would keep repeating you anyways.

he built up an overwhelming excitement over the course of the week because on wednesdays at four, he could see you for two hours. that, and because he was supposed to get your number today.

he was quite disappointed when he didn’t see you, did he scare you off? he had to double up with nico and the kid paired with him. his name was daniel. would it be bad if jack said he thought connor was cuter? probably, but connor was the cutest kid jack had ever talked to.

“hi mr. jack!” connor spoke excitedly.

“everything alright there bud?” jack asked, concerned.

connor nodded. “practice!” he said. jack laughed, taking his stick and poking connors arm slightly. “lets go warm up kid.”

you watched with a warm feeling in your heart. you hoped this would cheer connor up. you felt awful, letting connor see you in such a vulnerable state, one his biological father put you in.

you hated it, you hated him. you already had full custody of connor, you went to court and everything. what gives this man the right to try and tell you what to do with your son?

you hated that you allowed yourself to become so responsive to him. you hated how you could still hear your sons cries, how they were etched into your head.

you beat yourself up over it, but it ultimately wasnt your fault. you could only hope connor saw that, saw that you did your best. but he’s only five, you doubted it.

you watched jack handle your son with care. then you remembered, you told him he could get your number tonight, but did he remember? probably.

jack gave connor a slight push with his stick, allowing connor to get closer to the puck that had been near you.

“hi mommy!” he grinned, waving.

all of a sudden, he was tackled to the ground by another kid. you gasped and went straight up to the glass.

jack’s eyebrows furrowed as he rushed over. “woah woah woah, what happened?” he asked.

his teammate, dawson, rushed over as well. the kid must have been paired with him. dawson grabbed the kid off of connor.

“i don’t know what the hell happened” dawson spoke.

jack groaned and knelt down. “is he okay?” you asked, loudly.

jack wanted to nod, but when he saw connor’s crying face, all he could do was pick him up and walk out of the rink. he brought connor over to you and you three sat a little further than the rest of the parents.

one parent was scolding her son. “i wanted coach jack! its not fair!” he whined.

you sighed when jack sat connor down between you and him. you lifted connor’s helmet off of his head and brushed his hair back. connor’s lip was red m, stained with blood.

“jesus baby, are you alright?” you asked, finger wiping the blood off of his swollen lip. he squeezed his eye shut in pain as tears spilled.

“oh baby..” you whispered, you placed kiss on his cheek before looking at jack.

“do you guys have ice packs?” you asked. jack nodded and immediately went to grab one.

connor leaned against you as he sniffled. “mommy my lip hurts.” he cried.

you frowned and pulled him onto your lap. “im so sorry baby, jack is grabbing you an ice pack, okay lovie?” you told.

his little head just nodded. his cheek rested against your shoulder, his own shoulders shaking as he quietly cried. you rubbed his back and whispered how he was okay now.

jack quickly came back with the ice pack, holding it out to you. you set connor on the bench and wipe his tears. “put this against your lip baby, gently.” you instructed.

you wipe the dried blood off of his lip and brush his hair from his face while he places the pack on his mouth.

your hand lies to rest on his cheek, which he melts into. you frowned.

“i was thinking we go to grammies tonight, lovie. do you want to?” you asked. you wanted him to say yes, you knew your ex was most likely at your house still.

connor nodded. “can we go home now?” he whispered. you nodded.

“let me help you pack up” jack offered. you look at him. “you don’t have to—“

“i want to.” jack spoke.

you reluctantly nodded.

jack eventually helped you bring connor to the car yet again. he buckled him in as you set his stuff in the trunk. jack shut connors door gently and looked at you.

“are you alright?” he asked.

a wave of emotions hit you, and god you didn’t want to let them out on him.

“perfect, thank you” you give a small smile. he gives you a stern look.

“you can tell me, y/n. i know we just met last week but i can tell you aren’t okay and im telling you you can confide in me.” he told you.

you sighed and wiped your eyes. “connors dad, my ex, came to our apartment today. he was demanding to see connor and that connor was his son too. the only thing is, was that he gave up on connor the moment he was in my stomach. he signed every paper stating connor was under my full custody. he signed it all.”

you sniffled slightly. “im taking us to my moms house who’s like an hour away because with my luck he will still be at my house.” you explained.

jack didn’t miss a beat. he didn’t even hesitate. “stay with me.”

your eyes widened. “no no i couldn’t—“

“listen, again, i know we just met. but i already love that little dude in the car and i can tell his mom is an amazing person who just needs a break. you wouldn’t bother me, and you two can even take over my room. just please, let me help.” jack stated.

your eyes scanned his face, looking for any malicious intent or just straight lies. you didn’t find any of that though, instead you found adoration and the look of want.

“okay” you whispered.

jack broke out into a grin. “this mean i can finally get your number now?”

should i do a part three…

[workingforitallthetime]

I would be super interested in hearing more of your thoughts on the bedard athletic article... i read it just now and. hmm.

OK we’re back for Part II, the Bedard/Fantilli parenting part! (Part I here.)

I previously squawked about being jarred by the subhead in the Star: “But Connor Bedard’s story was always more about raising a happy and grounded child than a star.” But now that I’ve processed both articles, it’s not necessarily off-base. The Bedards clearly do very much care about raising a happy and grounded child. It’s just that their philosophy about how to accomplish that outcome seems to be focused around making sure Connor has everything that Connor thinks he needs.

There’s presumably a difference between everything that Connor thinks that he needs and everything Connor actually needs, just like there is with any teenager. So what really stands out to me in both of these articles is the many examples of how the Bedard parents seemingly do not ever go against Connor’s decisions around hockey, even when they’ve had (or arguably should have had) legitimate misgivings. Some examples from the Toronto Star article:

Melanie didn’t think Connor should apply for exceptional status, to the point where she was losing sleep over it. Connor “told her how upset he’d be if she blocked his goals,” and she caved. (The quote is from The Athletic but Melanie’s emotions get more attention in the Star.)

This quote from dad about little kid Connor going to open ice: “He’d stay there eight hours at a time,” says Tom. “More, sometimes. He’d come off, eat, go back on. His feet would be literally bleeding. I would go on once in a while, but normally I would just let him do his thing.” Like… maybe it’s time to make your kid take a break if his feet are literally bleeding????

Ah, the Hawaiian vacation, the trip that Connor refused to go on unless he could take his hockey gear and keep practicing. There’s a series of choices there as a parent. Not only are you acceding to your kid’s demands to play hockey in the midst of your one and only family vacation ever, you’re actively facilitating his demands by paying to check his goddamned gear bag and leaving your own relaxing lounge by the pool/on the beach to drive him to the only rink on the island (which I’m fairly confident was not walking distance from any resort they may have been staying at.) Like!!! That is such a series of choices!!! All made in the service of allowing your hockey-obsessed kid to have exactly what he wants, rather than deciding that perhaps it would be good for him and for your whole family to have a tiny little vacation from his life’s obsession!!! (Much of the information in this paragraph is based on the TSN spot, which has the most detail about this trip.)

I think it’s super interesting that the coach of the Pats says he’s tried to dial Connor back (making him take days off, against Connor’s wishes) but apparently his family never has.

This is not the Fantilli family shared decisonmaking model, where all four of them talk about collectively making every decision about what Adam’s path has been. (And also extol the importance of family vacations.) In the Bedard family, Connor is driving the bus and his parents have decided that their role is to support him as he decides how best to follow his dreams.

I was absolutely gobsmacked by this quote:

Melanie moved to Regina to be Connor’s billet the past two seasons, because nobody knew what it would be like for a kid of his calibre, and as Paddock puts it, “His whole preparations are based around perfection, and she’s the only one that knows it.” 

Moving because you don’t want your 15-year-old to live with strangers would be completely understandable. Moving because you are the only person who can possibly live up to your 15-year-old’s standards of perfection and you don’t want him to have to live a life where everything is not exactly perfect for him is FUCKING BANANAS.

Of course, there’s a Fantilli contrast here too. I’m thinking of the interview where Adam said his performance coach therapist helped him “turn rituals into routines.” Learning how to cope when it is not possible to have everything run exactly according to your standards of perfection seems like a fairly important life lesson for your kid to learn if you want him to be happy and grounded. (Most parents start teaching that around the time their two-year-old throws a tantrum because the purple cup is in the dishwasher so they have to drink their apple juice from the green cup.) But maybe it’s less important if your version of “happy” is that your kid gets everything he wants.

It’s interesting that there’s a common thread between the Bedards and Fantillis of some distaste for the minor hockey scene. (“Melanie had already started staying away from the games after experiencing the fierce currents of youth hockey on the moneyed North Shore.”) The Fantillis dealt with that by finding a different path that took their kids out of that system entirely, and the Bedards don’t even seem to have considered that option. Connor wanted exceptional status in the CHL and that’s what Connor got.

And maybe that’s connected to another interesting Bedard/Fantilli contrast. The Fantills, in describing their shared decisionmaking model, always seem to radiate confidence that they’ve made the right decisions, even when those decisions have been hard or haven’t been popular. See, e.g., Julia emphasizing in Adam’s TSN spot that “it was about making the right decision for each son,” or Giuliano evangelizing the prep school route in the Gulo Gulo article, or Adam explaining, “It’s probably about a week-long process for every decision that we make and I don’t think we’ve made a wrong decision so far.” But the Bedards, apparently, have some self-doubt about letting Connor drive the bus:

Bedard’s parents still worry. Melanie worries about school taking a relative back seat — in the room at the Brandt Centre, a chart of Hamlet’s characters is the only real indication it’s a classroom. Tom thinks about the kids of the people he works with, and how they’re growing up.

“Their kids play hockey, but they hunt, they fish, they motorcycle, they snowmobile and they’re good at all of them,” he says. “But they’re not great at any of them. But is that better in the long run? Maybe it is.”

sources: The Athletic, the Toronto Star, TSN, Gulo Gulo,

[19871997]

It’s kind of crazy to me that Connor McDavid x Sam Bennett isn’t a bigger ship? Like, childhood friends to rivals as a whole thing? Sam was Connor’s winger when they were kids. They’ve known each other since they were 7. Connor once gave a quote about how Sam’s game always had bite to it. Sam talked about how Connor playing the same way he does as a kid is why he’s the best player in the world. Sam specifically credited Connor’s dad as one of his most influential and best coaches growing up. They used to have sleepovers. And then they were drafted to rival teams and part of the battle of Alberta. And then Sam’s team beat Connor’s to win the Stanley Cup while Connor won the Conn Smythe.

to me they very clearly have the narrative for a popularish ship but no personality or off-ice anything really liek for two people with lore to be a popular ship they themselves need to be popular/have a personality today like ngl i dont doubt that many rich young boys born between 1996 and 1998 interested in hockey in the greater toronto area played with or against cmd at some point (like i think there's a picture of cmd and mm16 at age 7 playing with or against eachother) the connor/dylstrome lore includes silly snapchats from when they were 17, the natemac/jodrou lore includes silly car interviews where nate calls jo precious cargo from their time in the mooseheads + tna even before jo signing w the avs in 2023, like aaron ekblad/cmd is more of a compelling ship to me than sbennet/cmd lowkey also bc like who even really is sam bennett ykwim like idrk that he's a popular player w fans (also i think he's like actively tried to kill quite a few players lmfao)

these are the top ten most popular hrpf ships on ao3 (left is 1-5, right is 6-10) + its no coincidence of the three that dont contain a hart winner (benn/seguin, tknp, jdtz) they have at least one guy with a very strong personality + they're teammates (friends to lovers fodder)

[archaicbro]

Mitch Marner as a case study for values-based coaching + mental aspect of athletic development:

His coach, Dan Noble, talked about the role of parenting in athlete development, and used Mitch as an example of how parents should be selective of who handles their kid's development as an athlete.

Noble cites Mitch's childhood skating coach, Rob Desveaux. Desveaux notably didn't want to take Mitch on at 4 y.o., but would eventually prove to be instrumental in helping Mitch develop (and re-find joy in hockey upon entering the OHL). [Read]

“Watching from behind the glass, Paul and Bonnie saw their son drift back into the joy he’d shown playing minor hockey. They saw the smile he’d worn when he pretended to be Sidney Crosby playing mini-sticks in the corner of the Garnet B. Rickard Recreation Complex in Bowmanville, Ont., where he’d go to watch his older brother play. The pressure was gone. He was home, having fun, playing the game he loved. “There’s no problem here, Mitch,” Desveaux told Marner after they got off the ice. “You just have to get back to normal.””

Noble refers to that scoring slump in London. He observes that what Marner needed was "to remember what his game is, and what makes him special. It wasn't like he was broken, he just needed a reset."

“Even [when] I look at Mitch as a kid being at the Hill Academy, to being just rambunctious, energetic, and transitioning through his time to London, he'd face (?)—and this is the one that we always talk about, which I think is pretty cool—is that Mitch has gotten better every year of hockey. He never stays the same.

There's always been something that he's done or added. But when I think about it, like in London, he hit a scoring slump, his first year there. First time in his life, I don't know how many games it was, but he had no points and was just struggling.

This is pretty well-documented. He left, came home, went back to his coach, and all they did was reset, they went through this reset process, and talked about his game. And it wasn't like, skating around cones, or drill-based—it was his mindset. He needed to remember what his game is, and what makes him special.

It wasn't like he was broken, he just needed a reset.”

Noble notes kids should be able to own the process, and parents have to ensure their kids DON'T believe they're better than anyone on their team. Kids should also be encouraged to have a role on their team, and learn how to be accountable about their interactions.

Quoting a mentor: "If your child never played sports higher than the level they're playing right now, what would be the things that you would want them to take from this experience?"

He also notes that, in his interactions with his own son, he ensures to let his son know that he could call his old man out if Noble gets too intense, so they could have a very open dialogue about it.

Interestingly, Noble also talks about the importance of complete recovery for athletes (i.e., you're off = you're off), and identifying training objectives (i.e., specific training objectives to get desired outcomes v "get stronger" platitudes). [article]

“"It's tough," he said of the move. "I got to thank my [personal] coach Dan Noble for that one. That's a lot of groin stuff [we do] in the summertime. I try and take care of myself the best I can and keep my body loose. [I'm] kind of loosey goosey out there I guess. I always joke around with [Alex Kerfoot], the best groins in the league. (Smiles) But knock on wood."“

From Noble:

“Here's the funny part. People would look at a guy like Mitch... Even how much Mitch skates, like, Mitch won't step on the ice until mid-June, late June, and even then it's very light. They (Mitch and Connor McDavid) understand that less is more.”

More on Marner's physical development: Noble repeats what's been said about Marner's training in response to comments he's received his entire life about his size.

"He had the mentality: "I've got to go in there, and prove people wrong."" [Other quotes]

“Part two: He's always been told he's too small. At every single level. They've said that he'd never be able to do what he had done at the previous level because he's too small.

When he got to the Leafs the first year, they're like, wow, he needs to get stronger, he needs to put on 20 pounds. They want him at 185 lbs. I'm like, he's 156 lbs. This is insane.

I just said to Mitch: You need to remember who you are as a player, and what makes you special. And we stuck to our process. And we adapted—but he had the mentality: "I've got to go in there, and prove people wrong."”

That kind of mental toughness extends to Mitch Marner's outlook on constant setbacks, including the playoffs, and accountability:

“Every year, there's been adversity. Last year, with the playoffs exit, there was adversity. It's the thing, he's never looked to be bailed out.

Mitch, it's always been going back to "I need to get better." It's not work harder, he's like, "What do I need to do to get better?".”

Mitch's willingness to evolve his training to become a better hockey player has been noted by Sidney Crosby's long-time trainer, Andy O'Brien, who praised Marner's physical and mental adaptability. [A little reference to the onside thing mentioned by Marner above]

He [Andy O'Brien] talked about how Mitch is adaptable as a player from a physical perspective, but also a mental perspective. And he talked about our training style.

And I think, again, this is a part of, the on-ice part with Rob and I. Rob and I coach very similar, but Mitch is always given a problem to solve. It's never "Here's a piece of paper, follow this.". In a lot of our warm-up stuff, it involves things from a cognitive level, it involves things from a physical level.

There's no rep count—[there's] working through this, and finding it. Doing a front roll to a single leg jump. It's just warm-up, but then you watch him do stuff like what he did this year, how he stays onside and does the splits and spins around. People are like, how [did] he do it? These are the types of things that we do in our training.

We still lift weights, we still squat, we still do all that other stuff, but we build the mortar between the bricks, mentally, and physically.

Bonus: Variation of the front roll to single leg jump Noble mentioned; except here, Mitch goes > forward lunge > back roll > single leg rise [Video]

The host cites a study where the top 10% of athletes across major sports leagues (e.g., MLB, NFL, NBA, etc.) said they prefer to have guidance from their coaches; he notes the study's implications for child athletes.

Mitch exhibits this complete trust in his trainers, but it took TIME.

There's also an element of play to Mitch's training. Blending traditional methods & what can make him better while staying true to what makes him exceptional.

Noble: “There are some times where I won't tell Mitch what we're doing today. I just throw him curveballs. He'll know the theme—he always understands that, but sometimes it's about creating chaos within that environment. Sometimes it's about creating routine and structure, and then sometimes it's about pushing them outside their comfort zone and then having them do something they hate doing.

And I think that's [the] part people miss. There is so much more to just getting bigger, stronger, and faster. If bigger, stronger, and faster was the only tangible factors to performance, then the guys that test the top of the NFL combine would be the best player every year, and we all know that's not the case.

That's a piece with me with Mitch. The other thing though, Mitch has a like, with myself and Rob, Mitch has never said no to anything we've asked him to do, because he trusts us. But it took time to build that trust. It took time for us to understand him as a human, him to know we care about him.”

From The Athletic:

Cirelli, 24, and Marner, 25, are friends who have trained most summers together in Toronto since they entered the NHL. It’s a pretty eclectic and dynamic group at Dan Noble’s Noble Sports & Performance, also including Michael Dal Colle, Taylor and Darren Raddysh, and Ciampini, who played last season in Austria. They’re like a “band of brothers,” as Ciampini put it, with Marner and Cirelli the alphas when it comes to competitiveness, battling in everything from handball to “H-O-R-S-E” to medicine ball volleyball.

Noble talked about creating an environment conducive to learning, where children feel cared for by their peers and teachers.

He also notes that the real wellspring from mental resilience and mental toughness is from having connections.

“And I think that's where a lot of people miss. There's a study based on learning in the classroom. The number one thing that kids need to learn, or to be in the most conducive learning environment was they need to know that peers care about them, and that their teachers care about them. Those are the most important things. Didn't matter what their educational qualifications were, the types of technology, it was caring and connection.

And someone talked the other day about how mental resilience and mental toughness is so misguided. In the US, you see the shit they do in football, and it's not doing anything. And he (unknown), I'm a big believer in this, is that mental toughness and reslience comes from connection. When you're connected to something, connected to a bigger purpose, is that you know "I'm gonna jump in front of a shot for this team because we're connected and I care about this, I care about this team, I'm connected to the big picture that's been painted".

And that's what we try to build within our program, is that there's a connection to a bigger purpose here.”

Lastly, Noble notes that while he's sure Mitch will leave a lasting legacy, Mitch's impact on the people he cares about is of great personal importance to himself.

“As much as a guy like Mitch is gonna leave off a lot of records, and stats, and a book one day, and hopefully a Stanley Cup ring, the impact that he's had on his teammates, the impact that he's had on his family, his friends, his people, is far greater and what really truly matters to him.”

My personal takeaways:

1) Child athletes are CHILDREN FIRST, and must be developed holistically (e.g., taught they're not better than anyone else on their team, to have a role that supports their teammates, to listen to their bodies and trust their instincts, etc.)

1A) Corollary to that, children should be able to trust the adults in their life. It's nothing groundbreaking, but it's so incredibly important, not only to child athletes, but children across their spectrum to know that adults can provide them stability as they grow up.

2) A recurring theme I noticed: Mitch's problems aren't about his skills, it's his mental state. From age 10, to his scoring slump in London, to 2018/19, and 2021, all of his slumps are attributable to mental slumps AND the need to redirect his focus. [Twitter] [Tumblr]

“Coach's Comments: People are naturally drawn to Mitchell and he has a unique ability to make those around him better. He is a gifted athlete and demonstrates a clear love to participate in all sports and training activites. He is extremely energetic and highly competitive but at times he needs to be refocused and directing his energy accordingly.”

But once he comes home, resets, and gets reminded that he's loved, and that hockey is supposed to be fun, he bounces back.There are better quotes for this, but linking the Zeus thing because it's recent, and quite frankly, endearing [Sportsnet]:

“I don't have any kids, and people are probably going to think I'm crazy, but, yeah, it's my guy," Marner explained, en route to history.

"He doesn't have a damn clue what I do for a living. He doesn't have a damn clue what anyone thinks about me. He just loves me for being his dad and buzzing around outdoors with him. So, that's why I put him on there — for the little remembrance to have fun.”

“Just try and do what he does out there at the field. Just buzz around and chase down the ball and be a big force.”

I have A LOT of thoughts about this, but I have work :)) So I'll end this thread here for now.

Huge thanks to Molliteum's The Difference Maker Podcast for the great interview with Dan Noble.

Podcast: Apple | Soundcloud | Youtube | Spotify

If you want to learn more about Coach Noble's training philosophy, follow GRIT Athletics, the performance center he founded with Mitch Marner. It's worth noting Noble also works with Anthony Cirelli, Erin Ambrose, Brianne Jenner, Natalie Spooner, and Laura Stacey, among others.

Website | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Youtube

[onmytape]

Highlights from The Star: "Connor Bedard wasn’t raised to be a hockey phenom. He made that decision himself."

Bedard fell in love with the game with minimal help. His first skating lesson at four years old went badly — “I was crying when I got off the ice,” he says — but at the end of the second lesson there was a stick-and-puck session, and he asked his father Tom if he could try. “I mean, ever since I kind of first touched the puck it’s all I’ve ever wanted to do,” says Bedard. “And I mean, I’m 17 now and that hasn’t changed.” He learned to skate. He rollerbladed on their rare flat street in hilly North Vancouver, but with purpose: self-made drills. He rollerbladed in the house. And lord, he practised. To save the windows out front Tom built a shooting box in the backyard, and Connor still shoots there when he’s home. Tom heard there were open ice hours at North Shore Winter Club, which was relatively affordable: he joined, and took Connor. Unlike most places in Canada, there’s not much outdoor winter ice in North Vancouver. “He’d stay there eight hours at a time,” says Tom. “More, sometimes. He’d come off, eat, go back on. His feet would be literally bleeding. I would go on once in a while, but normally I would just let him do his thing.

He played some soccer and liked it, but not like hockey. His dad thinks Connor had a natural baseball swing — Tom was a pretty fair baseball player — and golf swing, too, but Connor was born with the same obsession that every great player has to have. The street was full of young families and Connor would spend days outside being a kid, playing tag and running through sprinklers, but working at hockey most of all. He has never owned a video game console.

Even now Connor gets on the ice on optional morning skates or off days, accompanied occasionally by teammates: he works from different areas, tries different shots, pantomimes celebrations. He sometimes sneaks out of the makeshift school classroom at the Brandt Arena in Regina — a room left over from the COVID emergency era, where the players would gather — and the teacher retrieves him by following the sound of a puck ringing off the bar, shot by a young man wearing flip-flops on the ice.

“I think he’s obsessed, possessed by it,” says John Paddock, the veteran hockey man who is the coach and general manager of the Pats. “He’s so meticulous in his daily routine, game day, other days. It’s just another part of his game.” Paddock does say he has tried to dial Bedard back. “I tell John I don’t believe in them, in days off,” says Bedard. “But he makes us, a little bit.”

But when he was very young, Connor told his parents, “I get along really well with all the kids on the team. But I don’t think their parents like me.” Melanie figured rink politics would become the topic at the dinner table every night if she and Tom both lived it, and they didn’t want that. So Tom would get up as early as 2:30 or 3 in the morning and drive up the mountain way past Whistler, back when the Sea to Sky highway was a truly treacherous road. He’d fell trees for six hours; six, six and a half was the maximum, because it’s not a job where you can afford to lose focus. Tom knows a lot of loggers who were killed on the job, has been at the site of one logging fatality; he once broke his collarbone and neck when hit by a falling tree. His partner drove him out with Tom lying down in the backseat of the truck, bumping down the road. It was all hard work. “Yeah, it was hard, but you know, struggle is not a bad thing, really,” says Tom, a solid man with blue eyes. “It makes you close. It makes things more important, it makes things real. You know, if you have it too easy, usually it doesn’t work out very well. So I don’t mind struggle.” He would drive back and stop at Madi’s gymnastics in full backwoods gear, take her home, and drive Connor wherever he needed to go, while Melanie would make healthy snacks and coordinate everything. For a long time Connor’s drive could be channeled into teams and open ice and backyard shooting, but eventually the Bedards did what every parent of a serious hockey kid has moved towards in the last 10 years or so: trainers, skating coaches, hockey academies. Tom has friends who have their own kids in hockey, and he tells them he wishes he could tell them they don’t have to spend the money to keep up, but that’s how it works now.

A couple days before Bedard had to apply for exceptional status to play in the WHL as a 15-year-old, Melanie was driving him to the gym. “I did not sleep the day before,” she says. “And I said Connor, I don’t think you should do this. And I know it’s what you really want. I know. But I feel like as your mom I’m going to be taking something away from you that’s so special; just the ability to make stupid mistakes that we make, and have regret.” She worried that under the spotlight, in the age of social media, people would root for him to fail, as they did when he was a young phenom. She said she’d still get mad at him if he did something stupid, went to a party he shouldn’t go to, whatever. But she would understand he was a kid, too. “And he said, ‘I don’t care if I go to a party,’” says Melanie. “‘This is something that I want. You can’t. As my mom you feel bad about that, but you don’t feel bad about taking away something that’s so important.’ “So we did decide to go ahead with it.”

Melanie moved to Regina to be Connor’s billet the past two seasons, because nobody knew what it would be like for a kid of his calibre, and as Paddock puts it, “His whole preparations are based around perfection, and she’s the only one that knows it.” (Another Bedard youth coach, Dan Cioffi of Burnaby Six Rinks, recalls Bedard would be the kid ordering chicken caesar salad and a mineral water at age 12, surrounded by kids enjoying burgers and pop.)

There are other moments, though. The mom who passes him her daughter’s phone number. The letter that purported to be from a boy who was paralyzed who asked for a jersey, but whose address pops up in other, vaguely similar, differently-named letters. The yahoos driving by the house at 3:30 a.m. yelling TOE DRAG AND RELEASE. The autograph hounds here and on the road, pros, everywhere they go, forcing the team to change some of its protocols. After one uncomfortable incident that Bedard laughed off in the moment, he came home and told his mom about it. “He said, ‘You know, I’m kind of realizing in some ways I have to be just a robot. Because you know that certain people are just wanting you to say this one thing that they can pass on,’” says Melanie. “And I said to him, I feel kind of upset, but I’m also proud that you’re mature enough to be aware of that. Because it’s so important.” “I think it’s a small sacrifice to make,” says Bedard. “I mean, I’m myself most of the day; I’m at the rink and home most of the time. If I’m walking to the car and someone wants a picture or something, that’s all good. And, you know, for me, I think if I had to change things, which I haven’t much, but just a few things to try to achieve my lifelong goal, I think I’d do that in a heartbeat.”

Coaches say that from a young age, Bedard was the kind of kid who was really attentive to his teammates, and it wasn’t correlated to how good they were. He could have asked for a trade from Regina at the deadline. He didn’t want to leave; he felt a responsibility. “I think I’ve just always been almost sensitive to other people’s feelings,” says Bedard. “You know, I never want to hurt someone’s feelings or make someone feel bad about something. I’m still young, and if there’s something I need to say no to, I try to get my agent or someone to do it for me; I feel bad about that."

"Like it makes me emotional, because I am so grateful. (Tom) learned so much in that moment. And he never has critiqued Connor. They talk about things, because Connor is his biggest critic. And I’m so grateful for their relationship, because what I’ve seen, and a big part of why I wanted to step away, was I would look at these dynamics ... Connor would say some of his teammates would be crying because they didn’t want to go on the car ride with their dad, with their parents. “And I thought, all these people in this machine, you are losing sight of the most important thing: your relation. Because even if they are the next Crosby, they’ll probably be done in their 30s and you’ve damaged that relationship that you could have had the rest of your life. Like, you’re gonna make everything in your world with your child about whether they scored a goal or not? That always was strange to me in that world.” (Melanie Bedard)

[atlanticcanada]

'The biggest rivalry': Bedard, Canada set for world junior semifinal against U.S.

Brandt Clarke was a month short of his sixth birthday.

The moment, however, remains etched in his memory.

John Tavares scored a dramatic hat trick for Canada against the United States in a wild 7-4 victory on New Year's Eve at the 2009 world junior hockey championship in Ottawa.

Clarke and his family were in the building -- hanging off every shot, save and hit from the stands.

"The electricity in the building," he said of what still resonates some 14 years later. "The red jerseys all the way to the top ... 20,000 people, winning the game against the Americans.

"It's unmatchable."

With another mouth-watering instalment of the bitter rivalry set for Wednesday thanks to Connor Bedard's overtime heroics for Canada in the quarterfinals, Clarke is confident his teammate and the country's best player -- just like Tavares that frigid night in the nation's capital -- will rise to the occasion.

"I don't expect him to take any steps back," the Los Angeles Kings defenceman said following Tuesday's brief practice. "All I've seen so far is him take steps forward. Even when it's hard to imagine him still being able to take steps forward, he's done it.

"I don't think that'll change."

Bedard has not only changed a couple lines in record books at the men's under-20 tournament.

He's torn it to shreds.

The presumptive first pick at the 2023 NHL draft set five national or tournament marks early in Monday's triumph against Slovakia before a breathtaking solo effort in OT nearly blew the roof off a frothing Scotiabank Centre.

Bedard has registered the most goals (16) and points (34) all-time by a Canadian at the tournament. He's also set the national record for points (21) and assists (13) at a single event, and has the most points ever by a player under age 18 from any country.

But for all the accolades, the 17-year-old North Vancouver, B.C., native has made a habit of quickly turning the page.

His headline-grabbing performance in the quarterfinals was no different.

"That's really incredible for him to be able shut out or ignore all the media and how much attention he's getting," Canadian goaltender Thomas Milic said. "He's a team-first guy. A quote I like is, 'A rising tide lifts all boats.' Us having team success is contributing to him and everyone else."

"He doesn't sit there and dwell on the biggest goal of the tournament," Canadian head coach Dennis Williams added of Bedard, who didn't speak to reporters Tuesday. "You wouldn't have known that after the game -- his focus was already on to the next challenge."

That comes Wednesday in the latest clash of the sport's North American powers.

"Every kid's dream," said U.S. forward and Winnipeg Jets prospect Rutger McGroarty. "Playing in a barn like this against your rival, it'll be a fun one.

"It just gets us juiced up to see that atmosphere, see how crazy it's going to be."

Whether it's the Olympics, world juniors, world championships or any other level, extra motivation isn't necessary when the countries hit the ice.

"Don't think we need to go in as coaches and get the room going," Williams said. "If anything, we've got to calm them down."

Tavares, Sidney Crosby, Joe Sakic, Haley Wickenheiser, Marie-Philip Poulin and many others have risen to the occasion in similar moments.

This Canadian iteration is hoping for the same.

"All of us dreamed of this as kids," said winger Brennan Othmann. "This is the game, this is the moment."

"The biggest rivalry," added forward and Ottawa Senators prospect Zach Ostapchuk. "And for us, personally, it's, big. It'll be really exciting."

For all the points Bedard has put up, the Americans are also dangerous, especially the top line of Logan Cooley, Jimmy Snuggerud and Cutter Gauthier, who sit second, third and fifth in tournament scoring.

"Skilled guys," said Canadian centre Logan Stankoven, who plays alongside Bedard and is No. 4 in the points race. "They strike fast and quick."

Taking the body will be a big part of Canada's mindset against the Americans, including trying to make life difficult for their undersized defence corps.

"They don't like the physical play," Clarke said.

For all the drama Monday, one area where the Canadians will look to improve is faceoffs after a success rate of just 45 per cent.

"We're chasing the game too much there," Williams said. "We were going to position before possession."

Canada lost to the U.S. in the final of the 2021 tournament in the COVID-19 bubble in Edmonton in the countries' last meeting at the world juniors.

"Super special," Milic said. "These are games I loved watching growing up. We're pretty fortunate to be able to be in this position to play in one and really have a big battle for our country."

Canada got to this point thanks to another spectacular performance from Bedard, who dropped to one knee for his own version of the "heartbreaker" celebration made famous by U.S. great Patrick Kane after scoring the winner against the Slovaks.

"That was pretty cool," Clarke said. "Especially in a big setting like that. The whole building's going crazy, the whole building's chanting 'M-V-P' for him.

"That's what he's been doing all tournament -- just breaking hearts."

Bedard and Canada will look to do the same against the Americans.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 3, 2023.

from CTV News - Atlantic https://ift.tt/uDa4pFx

[rinkrats]

Last summer, Colorado Avalanche star and fellow Nova Scotia boy Nathan MacKinnon told the world about his youth workouts with Pittsburgh Penguins center Sidney Crosby. MacKinnon was a teenager set to begin his NHL journey, and Crosby was already an established Stanley Cup champion with Art Ross and Hart Trophies. Yet as they raced up the dunes of the Newfoundland beaches, Crosby had to win.

Crosby won, again and again. Until finally, MacKinnon took the lead on their last race…and he was promptly tackled by Crosby, who then surged past.

...They are hockey’s Big 4. Gretzky, Lemieux, Howe, and Orr. Maybe it’s time for hockey to have the Big 5, which includes Crosby.

“Sidney Crosby checks all the boxes of Stardom in his 15 Seasons of NHL hockey. (Crosby is) a model of consistency and excellence. He fits right in there with the greats of the game,” legendary coach Scotty Bowman told Pittsburgh Hockey Now. “When they describe generation type players, he fits the bill perfectly.”

Dominance takes a different form than flashing red lights in 2020. Dominance is about puck control and a single goal more than the opponent, not a handful. It’s about overcoming adversity and winning.

In addition to the all-time greats, there is a second tier of players such as Mark Messier and Jaromir Jagr, who left indelible prints upon their time but were mere mortals compared to the Top Four. Crosby was part of that crew, but his continued dominance in the salary cap era, which doesn’t just suppress team greatness, it attempts to forbid it, carries him beyond great to all-time great.

Through it all, there has been Crosby. From the kid who willed the Penguins to the 2009 Stanley Cup, the superstar who cut the ice in Vancouver until he scored the Golden Goal to lift Canada to an Olympic gold medal on home soil, to the veteran leader who cast aside personal achievements in favor of two more Stanley Cups, Crosby had defined the generation.

It is also fitting in the first nationally recognized Outdoor Classic with snow falling and nearly impossible ice conditions, it was Crosby who scored the game-winner in a shootout in front of an international audience.

The game checked all of the boxes for the heart and soul of hockey. And so does Crosby.

...“The way I like to describe it is this — if you beamed Sid back into any era in hockey history, he would dominate. The other players would have to adjust to him. And they would have great difficulty doing that,” said longtime Pittsburgh Penguins broadcaster Paul Steigerwald, who had a front-row seat for Lemieux, too. “There is nothing he does that anyone in previous eras did better.”

Of players who have at least 500 points, Crosby is the active points per game leader with 1.28 per game. In nearly 200 fewer games, Crosby trails current active leading scorer Alex Ovechkin by just 15 points. Crosby has 1263 points in only 984 games.

Crosby won’t get to 1000 games until next season, whenever that might be, but he’ll soon surpass 1338 points, which would put him into the top 30 all-time. With another 327 points, which at the current pace is about four more seasons, Crosby will surpass Phil Esposito for 10th all-time.

“In the early 1990s, he would have scored 75 goals, over 200 points. He would shred people in the ’60s, ’70s, and 80s. Mario, Wayne, and Jagr would have had another player to contend with for scoring titles if Sid were suddenly to appear,” Steigerwald continued.

...Unfortunately, like his owner and briefly his teammate Mario Lemieux, Crosby missed nearly two full seasons in his prime. While back issues got Lemieux, concussions, and a soft tissue neck injury, which masqueraded as a concussion derailed Crosby.

With those lost seasons, Crosby would be approaching 1500 points. Over the last 14 years, which encapsulates the salary cap era, only three players have won multiple Art Ross trophies. Crosby, Pittsburgh Penguins teammate Evgeni Malkin and Connor McDavid are the only ones to win the award a second time.

Crosby doesn’t just have speed and skill. Or just toughness and vision. Crosby doesn’t just have hands and a hockey IQ above everyone else. He has all of those things. He is unique among current players, but perhaps not so unique among the all-time greats.

It doesn’t seem out of line to compare Crosby to Gordie Howe, who did everything, too. And does anyone want to bet against Crosby also playing until he’s 50?

“His conditioning, vision, hockey IQ, grinding ability, explosive speed, playmaking and scoring ability would be overwhelming (in any era),” Steigerwald concluded.

-Putting Sidney Crosby Among the All-time Greatest, 11 May 2020

[draikaesehoch]

Hi xD so since I have no clue about ice hockey feel free to tell me all about your favourite team or hockey player? ♥️

Thank you for sending this again (and fu to tumblr for swallowing my earlier reply).

Since I don’t really have a favorite player, I will just share my opinion and thoughts on the Oilers 😅 keep in mind I am still relatively new to hockey, so this is just me babbling. I didn’t fact check any of the stuff, so some of it could be bs… and honestly this whole thing is just me venting about this incredible team that most people don’t really take notice of.

I present you the Oilers:

They are one of the seven Canadian teams in the NHL. Based in Edmonton, Alberta. Usually part of the pacific division, due to Covid, they will form an all Canadian division for the 2021 season (I am still in denial about that though, it's going to be a mess and someone will cry, probably me).

The Oilers are struggling to make it to the playoffs, despite their talented roster.

Their superstar is Connor McDavid (first overall pick in the 2015 draft), he’s arguably the best hockey player alive. His speed is unmatched (yeah Barzal won the fastest skater competition but we all know Connor is the fastest player, especially with a puck). They put a lot of faith in him to get the team to a regular spot in the playoffs. He’s obviously the captain.

(this gif doesn't even do him justice!!)

And then they have this German dude, Leon Draisaitl, he was drafted in 2014 (3rd overall) by the Oilers. He didn’t have the best start and was sent to the WHL, but soon proved his potential. He got called back for the 2015-16 season. Had an incredible season in 2016-17 (with the Oilers making it to the playoffs and ending an 11 year playoff drought). He’s been getting better ever since and was named this year’s MVP (2019-20). As well as receiving the Ted Lindsay Award and the Art Ross Trophy. +Deutschland’s Sportler des Jahres Award! Which in a football (/soccer) dominated country, is HUGE!!

He has a super cute dog named Bowie. Leon is from Köln and like most Germans, he’s a football fan. Thank god he’s a decent human being and supports his local football club (and not some club like Bayern).

May I present Bowie 🥺💕 (the K, dude we get it, you love your hometown 🙄)

Other notable guys are Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (also first overall draft pick), Darnell Nurse, Oscar Klefbom and Adam Larsson.... and Zack Kassian, he’s kind of crazy, not really a fan of him tbh (but that’s because he likes to beat up a guy from the Flames I am unfortunately quite fond of).

Okay tbh all of them are notable and amazing, this team is so great once you get to know them.

They have had like seven coaches in the last ten years, so it's safe to say they are still on their path of finding themselves. I'm not sure about Dave Tippett yet, but compared to his predecessors he’s going okay. We will ignore that they lost to the Hawks in the playoff’s qualifying round, because what the heck was that?! But that’s another thing, their leadership is still fairly young and especially Connor has to deal with a lot of pressure and expectation, they just lack experience but if they can keep the current team together, it wouldn’t surprise me if they win a cup in the future.

….

Sooo... Connor and Leon, they play the most beautiful hockey together, like it so beautiful to watch, I am not even kidding, their passing is incredible, THEY ALWAYS FIND EACH OTHER (they are probably hockey soumates or some shit). I could go on about this forever, every time I see them play together, I remember why I fell in love with hockey.

but yeah having two so skilled centers on the same line isn’t necessarily the most efficient combination, there’s only so much time they can be on the ice together and only so much goals they can score, so they try to split them up. Makes sense I guess, because why have your two best players on the same line, when you can have them on separate lines and still have them produce just as well.

We still get to see them play together on the power play (or in overtime) tho and thank god because with their skill and blind understanding, makes the Oilers' power play the best in the league.

What else is there 🤔

Ahh, they got Jesse Puljujärvi back, which hell yes, I am so happy about that! I mean look at that precious ray of sunshine!!

I am most excited about Tyson Barrie though, I think he can really bring something to them team, first and foremost experience and stability but hopefully some personality as well. The Oilers are, for the lack of better words, kind of closed off and boring? I don’t necessarily feel that way but people call them depressed and stuff. I would say, they are maybe a bit more private and potentially less glamorous. But then again, they are a Canadian team and the Canadian media can be quite harsh when it comes to hockey, so it would make sense for most of them to try to stay under the radar.

Have a gif of Tyson and Ralph (because who wouldn't want that 🥺)

THE BATTLE OF ALBERTA:

Was kind of dead for years, is coming back to live, it’s basically like the derby thing in football. The Calgary Flames and the Oilers are both from Alberta, so it’s a regional and divisional based rivalry but boy is it entertaining! To keep it short, they hate each other and there’s lots of fighting and bad blood.

I mean there are goalie fights and all 😳🙌🏻

TO SUMMARIZE MY MESSY THOUGHTS, I LOVE THEM YOUR HONOR AND SO SHOULD YOU!!

Und danke dafür, dass Du mein Hockey stuff erträgst... Deine Asks und Kommentare sind immer so unglaublich lieb und ich bin so dankbar!!! 🥰💕

[andrewuttaro]

The End of the Eichel Era

Back in the lonely summer of 2020 I started a Youtube channel built around reacting to the Buffalo Sabres. My first series of videos in that regard was a recap of the prior 2019-2020 season: a season so crazy leading into the COVID pause that I thought it couldn’t be topped. My vlog reactions to the upcoming season would be the start of something new. I didn’t think it could possibly get worse than the season of the Duane Rant. Oh, Andrew: you doe-faced believer. Oh, how wrong I was.

After a season that saw a 17-game losing streak, a rightful coaching change, an injury carousel out of a cartoon including injuries untold to Captain Jack Eichel, the bar for a bad season has reached a new low even us rugged Sabres fans. There were rays of hope toward the end of this past season. A bevy of young players making their impact playing for pride on a feisty Don Granato led squad made another lost season, the tenth in a row without a playoff berth, somewhat enjoyable. Due to roster flexibility that bordered on frightening there was also reason to hope a roster that could finally make a postseason was within reach for a rookie GM that has no choice but to prove himself. There was hope. Was is the operative word there.

On May 10th, 2021, the organization’s most notable players gave their exit interviews to the team followed by brief pressers with the media. Before the Captain even appeared on the Zoom link the mood was dreary. Rasmus Ristolainen once again made it clear he would rather not be here. Sam Reinhart, a UFA this offseason, was non-committal at best about his future with the team. Then it was time for the Captain to speak… then Jake McCabe went first. Evidently his exit interview went long. When Eichel did get on the call what followed was nothing short of the siren marking the beginning of the end of the Eichel Era in Buffalo.

The root of the issues seemed to be disagreement about how to handle Eichel’s injuries. There was a broken rib prior to the season as well as something else still somewhat unclear. Team doctors evidently wanted him to not go forward with a surgery. He got a second opinion. The schism only grew. With five seasons left on his massive 80-million-dollar contract and a full NMC is affect all the power lays with the Buffalo Sabres organization. As Jack Eichel detailed his intent to look out for himself in no uncertain terms he was leveraging the only power he has in the situation which has gotten worse and worse: speaking publicly. If you didn’t hear any of these comments live or read any shortly thereafter you might lose the severity. To sum it up in one tidbit: Eichel literally referenced a hypothetical wife and kids he’ll have one day and how he’ll be a father. What this team has made him endure is on par with a major life event.

The insanity of the NHL’s Collective Bargaining Agreement rules on medical second opinions aside: the relationship between ownership, the front office and Jack Eichel’s camp is broken beyond repair now. When an employer makes you endure a health situation you don’t want to be in then you better believe there will be discord. There is no mending this fisher. There is no denying any longer that Eichel will move on one way or another. To put in bluntly: it is over with Jack Eichel in Buffalo. It is a matter of time now before a trade salvages anything for the all-star top line center in what will almost certainly be a losing trade for the Sabres.

Jack Eichel has been the face of the Buffalo Sabres franchise since he was drafted in 2015. He was the fruit of a contentious tank. A torturous rebuild followed that had to be rest in 2017 and again in 2018 and… is still continuing today I suppose. Jack Eichel has done everything he could. I think I speak for every reasonable hockey fan in Buffalo when I say the end of this relationship is the result of Front Office mismanagement of Eichel himself and the roster beyond him on top of so many other things. From the beginning of their ownership in 2011 Terry and Kim Pegula have hurt the name of the once proud Buffalo Sabres. It began with Pat Lafontaine’s ouster and now it is visited upon us with the impending departure of Jack Eichel. Four General Managers and seven coaches have tried to lead the Sabres under Pegula ownership and the only one who managed a playoff berth was gone the year after. The coming end of the Eichel Era is a symptom of the Pegula Era. And I didn’t even bring up the knockoff alumni jerseys or the myriad public relations catastrophes they have wrought on the blue and gold.

The final Chapter in Jack Eichel’s time as a Sabre is being written as you read this. Certainly, the Pegulas will have some kind of strategic response to Eichel’s comments through their good soldier GM Kevyn Adams shortly. This will get ugly or put in a better way: this is just what is already ugly becoming public. We could talk about how their reputation in Buffalo maybe saved by the recent success of the Buffalo Bills of the NFL and fantasize about them selling the Sabres organization as some virtuous self-realization of the harm they’ve done. That is fantasy. What is not fantasy is what this organization has become.

I’m turning 27 this month. Most people my age have only known this team as synonymous with sorrow, save for a few glorious years in the late 2000s. This was not the Buffalo Sabres of old. The first forty years of this franchise was something to behold even though it lacked a Stanley Cup banner. The terrible drafting is the one consistent throughout, but I digress: what are the Buffalo Sabres? What is this franchise? We keep reaching out in the dark for rock bottom praying to ourselves it exists at all. Every season since 2016 we have only seen regression. Every move has ultimately amounted to shifting deck chairs on the Titanic. The good moves and happy stretches like the ten-game winning steak in 2018 are clearly the exceptions not the rule in retrospect.

An impossibly long list of items from the Ryan O’Reilly trade that saw spare parts come back for a center who went onto a Conn Smythe and the Stanley Cup to acquiring Taylor Hall in a signing the owner contended would signal the team was going to win a Cup, not just make the playoffs. Taylor Hall is in Boston now where the last team that truly tested a good Sabres squad in an infamous instance of running-the-goalie in 2011 has been good for a decade. The Sabres goalie Milan Lucic ran, Ryan Miller, a legend in his own right, retired this season. It has been so long since a team worthy of gracing the ravenous hockey market that is Western New York has played that you’d be hard pressed to find a former Sabre who has made the playoff with them still in the league. If there was ever glory associated with the crossed swords it has faded from the public consciousness to the point a generation is unfamiliar with it.

When Jack Eichel is traded there is an outside chance a fair return will be achieved from one of about two teams in this league who could swing it. As Eichel acknowledged in his own comments, it’s the team that has all the cards in this: they can wait until the right offer comes along because clearly there is no intention for things to get better in Buffalo very shortly. Yet another rebuild, perhaps even another tank, awaits on the near horizon. With the Eichel Era coming to end in Buffalo its hard to imagine what’s next. In 2014-2015 we dreamed a young contender helmed by one of Connor McDavid or Jack Eichel might lead us to better days. Now those better days are just a song we remember from a hype video 15 years ago.

A team signs and unwritten contract when they acquire a franchise player as I wrote last year about this exact situation. It is now unquestionable that the Buffalo Sabres, or at least the owners of the franchise, have broken that unwritten contract beyond repair. Their continued mismanagement has cratered the franchise they bought with such zeal for the roundel crest. Now we venture forward into unknown depths few franchises have ventured into in this league and lived to tell the tale. The franchise probably survives for various external reasons but now it will be a living relic of how no number of frenzied fans, no amount of hope, can get you a sustainable team if you can’t build something worthy of the great athletes handed to you.

[iheartsunset]

Do you have any Allan headcannons?

Papa Louie Allan HCs

(Also I don’t that wanna say I’m going on hiatus per-se, but I just really wanna focus more on school since my grades aren’t doing so well right now, but I love being part of this community and I’ll try to be more active around breaks!)

-Allan Curtis is 22 years old and lives in Tastyville in an apartment building with many of his close friends. He’s known as the local greaser/bad-boy, but everyone knows he’s a sweetheart. He works as a professional hockey player and youth coach for many other sports.

-He totally watches the Youngblood music video like 80,000 times (just like I did).

-After years of bullying in Onion Town, Allan has actually banded together with some other bullied characters and started an anti-bullying nonprofit. There’s also him and Koilee kicking especially cruel bullies’ asses, but now that they’re both legal adults, they try to keep it as a last resort.

-He wants to build a flying car so that he and Lisa could recreate the ending of Grease in real life.

-He used to have a crush on Roy, but he started dating Kenji. While going on a sad walk while singing “Hopelessly Devoted To You”, he met Lisa on one of her many long runs. They just immediately clicked and they’re not dating, but they’re dating (yeah, it confuses everyone else too).

-His favorite shows and movies all involve greasers/rockabilly characters, especially Grease and The Outsiders. He doesn’t like other movies much and prefers to watch Grease every day.

-He loves old school jukeboxes and record players. He collects old school antiques, too, and drives an old motorcycle he bought from Akari.

-He and Roy are best friends because of their mutual loneliness throughout their entire school lives. They still have a strong friendship today. His other friends include Taylor, Chuck, Utah, Olivia, Koilee, Prudence, Cooper, and the Fan Kids.

-His entire wardrobe is full of different colored leather jackets and leather boots. They’re all faux leather, though, he respects them animals.

-He actually has put into motion the 5 Tony award-winning Grease revival where he plays every part except for Sandy, who is given to Lisa. Koilee and Carlo were promised the roles of Rizzo and Kenickie (James hates musicals and refused to take part), but they both got severe cases of mono and were stuck in the hospital until opening night. It was the best musical revival anyone had ever seen.

-He’s one of the only ones who can keep up with Lisa on her runs. Not even Connor can run alongside her for 7 hours without dying. Lisa’s also one of the only ones who can’t fall off his motorcycle, so it balances nicely.

-At Olivia’s parties, Allan’s always the one who starts playing Footloose by Kenny Loggins and then dances alone on the dance floor in front of everyone’s confused faces. Olivia thinks it’s very entertaining and has an entire folder full of videos of him doing that.

-Allan dresses up as Frida Kahlo on some Halloweens. It makes Brody laugh and he likes seeing other people be happy.

-It takes him 2 hours to do his pompadour hairstyle in the morning.

-He sometimes sings Greased Lightning in his sleep and it makes Lisa worried sometimes, but she also sings miscellaneous songs in her sleep, so she doesn’t feel good judging him.

-The Pizzeria is his favorite spot because not only can he “jokingly” flirt with Roy, Joy, and Papa, but he can also dance to the jukebox and eat pizza while doing so. He’s fine with the other restaurants just having speakers or boom boxes, but it just hits different in the Pizzeria.

-He and Willow used to go to high school together prior to her being disowned after her and her brother’s car accident. They were hockey rivals, but she had a huge crush on him that he didn’t return because he thought that she was pretty scary. She still has a small crush on him, but they’re good acquaintances now.

-Allan is my new favorite male character alongside W A L L Y I love them both to death

[workingforitallthetime]

have you read the new luca + adam article!!! so many things to take note off 😵‍💫 the fact that they’re Very Good Students, Actually. also the unspoken comparison of adam to connor bedard wrt to attention/pressure/habits/emotional maturity. the hobey baker comment at the end. luca leader and adam devoted follower

anon i have so many thoughts about this article. i am no longer a human girl, i am just a collection of thoughts about this article, loosely wrapped in girl-shaped skin.

first of all the poignancy of some of the quotes is absolutely killing me. “it was fourteen years, and then he left”??????? adam sitting quietly on his side of the car on the long lonely drive home to ontario, luca’s seat empty next to him, and saying “i think i made a mistake.”?????? also, luca framing it as “we just got to go down there and just play for our school and for each other”????? also coach talking about how it was good for luca to be able to establish himself at KUA first and that made him feel like a big brother to be able to show adam the ropes? i’m a puddle of ash on the floor.

the overt and unspoken contrasts with connor bedard are so fascinating too. naur’s comment about “online school and practicing hockey six hours a day”… that’s connor bedard, that is his life exactly. i’m interested in the parallels that can be drawn between this article and naur’s comment on the nhl podcast earlier this week that adam’s going 100mph at all times and sometimes you have to slow him down. it seems like adam’s just as driven as connor (e.g. luca’s mention of how much adam was on the ice between classes) and the difference is that adam has people around him who do make him slow down — take vacations, get mullets with his teammates, explore alternatives to the canadian hockey prospect mill — and connor does not.

i like to imagine julia fantilli listening to melanie bedard talk about how connor was only willing to go to hawaii if he could take his hockey gear and spend the whole time rollerblading, and thinking “you let the little brat get away with that?” and i seriously doubt that giuliano’s reaction to adam breaking his mother’s vase would be “it’s fine, you can break the next one too.”

in addition to the internal family values, the fantillis also seem to be very intentional about surrounding themselves with people who will reinforce the message that it’s good for adam to go on vacation sometimes and how he develops as a person is more important than hockey. this post, and the comments from both parents, are very interesting to me in that regard.

the story also reminded me of this old quote from adam:

it’s such a contrast to the bedard family dynamic as portrayed in connor’s tsn feature, which very much makes it look like connor is driving the bus and the rest of the family is there to support him. adam is not driving the bus. he’s one part of a very tight four-person decisionmaking unit (right down to the other three getting on the phone with luca to talk about the possibility of adam going to KUA.) and that unit’s philosophy is oriented toward adam as a person, not a hockey player. it just seems like such a good way to raise your kids.

[maybe-seggy-will-be-our-always]

A Transcript (lol)

Okay, so this got kinda long but here is my try at a translated transcript of this interview. I cropped Freddie’s part (sorry Freddie:/) but did most of the rest. It’s obviously not word for word and I did a bad job at inserting when they laugh and whatever but let me tell you! The entire thing is so lighthearted and Leon and Freddie’s interactions are drenched in sarcasm! This was so much work but so much fun so here you go @konecnynerd! Everyone who’s only interested in reading the ASG part or the Leon exclusive part might want to skip down to the very bottom, I tried to mark the different sequences! But let me tell you, the entire thing was so entertaining and I love their friendship so much, they are always a blast to witness! 

They talk about the Battle of Alberta and the All Star Game in the end!

Goldi: You’re both a bit lazy in regards to social media I’d say but your dog, Leon, seems to be an omnipresence!

Leon: Ha, yes of course! That’s the only reason why I am on social media.

Goldi: How do you have such a small dog? What do you say, Freddie, do you know him (the dog)?

Freddie: Yes, Bowie is super cute of course! Uhm… Personally, I did not meet him yet but am excited about my first encounter with the small guy (sorry, didn’t know how to translate this!) And when Leon looks the other way I’ll see what I’ll do with him but yes… It’s nice for Leon to have a loyal friend when he’s alone.

Leon: The best friend I’ve ever had! (Aw don’t shade Freddie like that!)

Freddie: Aha… After such a short time you say something like that.

(Okay but they’ve been talking like the entire time!)

Cut to the N.ICE intro woosh woosh swish

Goldi talks about N.ICE Showtime and introduces Leon and Freddie (Freddie doesn’t know about Leon joining them)

Cut to them golfing and their trick shot challenge and I’ll just point out some highlights:

Leon: Did you catch that (on camera)?

Leon: Boahh Junge (which is something that transcends translation

Leon: Jausa!

Leon: Jau Ciao!

They recreate their goal

Leon: Aw that rolled to the other side – poor you (in a very soft voice but he says “Du arme Sau”, which is uh “You poor pig” literally)

Leon: Backhand is always better.

Cut to the Freddie only interview (but I’ll skip that, tell me if anyone wants that?)

They talk about golfing, how training during Covid looks for the Kölner Haie, college hockey, the progression of the DEL season, and Leon visiting him or Freddie visiting Leon

Leon joins them and Freddie is not really surprised

Freddie: Sadly I can’t see him… Ah now

Leon: Ahhhh

Goldi: Can you hear us?

Leon: I can hear you!

Freddie: Is that a playoff beard or what?

Leon: Yes, I’m already letting it grow! (Goldie cackles) What about you? (Low blow leon aha)

Freddie: (Is offended but is laughing)

Goldi: So after hearing the season will be progressing you just thought you know what, I’ll just let it grow…?

Leon: Hah, I’ll just let it grow from now on.

Goldie: Was that something NHL PR gave you? A stick on beard for interviews to advertise the playoffs?

Leon: Maybe everything gets a bit hurried along if we push it like that (with the beards).

Goldi: Yeah, that’s it. So I’ve heard… You lastly talked a week ago or something, did he (Freddie) at least congratulate you properly for officially being top scorer?

Leon: Mnnnnhh yah, but then had to say something dumb in the end again. A no-go I thought (laughs). But that’s Freddie as we know him and that will probably never change.

Goldi: Now, you were so punctual… (Freddie interrupts) Sorry, what did you want to say Freddie?

Freddie: Something I wanted to add. I didn’t congratulate (him) obviously but didn’t want to be rude so I said something dumb – to balance it out.

Goldi: I think you’ll be able to cope. Who’s the better golfer between the two of you?

Both laugh

Freddie: By now I’d say me

Leon: Freddie took two lessons with a coach where he chipped the ball 25 m and suddenly he thinks he’s Phil Mickelson. But no, Freddie is the best, for sure.

Goldi: Freddie, what do you say?

Freddie: Uh

Goldi:  What do you think (mumblemumble) Will you be able to meet in the summer like planned? Will there be a moment for you to overlap? Anything planned?

Freddie: Uhm, I thought, well, Leon has to say something on that matter, but they might be off in September, then I think we’ll manage (to meet up) for sure. But that’s Leon’s call.

Leon: Uh yah, so. I myself don’t know how it’s going to progress here. But I think for sure that I’ll be able to go home for a month or a few weeks after the season. And maybe the DEL will be starting off then too and I can cheer on Freddie in Cologne!

Freddie: (I don’t know what he said here exactly but) You’ve been saying this for years but you never managed until now!

They talk over each other a bit

Goldi: Because you’re usually back (in Edmonton) by now then?

Leon: Yes! Because I then have to… Usually I only see some of their practice games but I really want to see a game in the Köln Arena… sorry LANXESS Arena again.

Goldie: Now…

Leon: Otherwise Freddie is going to be mad!

Goldie: So you both are not that big on Instagram, you’re both a bit lazy in regards to social media (so that’s just the opening sequence again!) I’d say but your dog, Leon, seems to be an omnipresence!

Leon: Ha, yes of course! That’s the only reason why I am on social media.

Goldi: How do you have such a small dog? What do you say, Freddie, do you know him (the dog)?

Freddie: Yes, Bowie is super cute of course! Uhm… Personally, I did not meet him yet but am excited about my first encounter with the small guy (sorry, didn’t know how to translate this!) And when Leon looks the other way I’ll see what I’ll do with him but yes… It’s nice for Leon to have a loyal friend when he’s alone.

Leon: The best friend I’ve ever had! (Aw don’t shade Freddie like that!)

Freddie: Aha… After such a short time you say something like that.

Goldi: That’s what I was getting at. Leon, I heard you play (he said “zockst” which is usually used for like video gaming) with him sometimes, you put down a ball and then the dog chases it while you play. You said he’s the best defense man, as a joke. That reminds me of street hockey as kids, when you played with the Tiffels brothers, so Bowie is a Tiffels replacement.

Leon: Haha, yeah I just wanted to say. It’s almost the same, they (Tiffels brothers) also chase the ball (Freddie laughs) and I just thought to myself “man, what’s up with Freddie”. No, Freddie and I used to play at…

Freddie: Kirschplatz.

Leon: Kirschplätzchen, we always brought a goal and rollerblades and always took 6 or 7 other boys and then… played them 2 against 6 and the 6 boys always had a 9 point lead in advance and we always won 10:9.

All laugh

Goldi: I always love when you tell that story because you’re still excited about it today.

Leon: Amazing! The feeling… insane!

Freddie: I’ll just add… My brother went with us all the time too. And we had a theory. I became such a good ice skater because when we were thirsty… my parents lived maybe 800 meters from there… I always was the one who had to go get water because I was the fastest of us all.

Leon: Dominik and I just chilled… we relaxed.

Freddie: And I sprinted, always thinking how fast can I be home, maybe I learned something from that (as a skill).

Leon: Mh, I think so Freddie!

Freddie: Thank you!

Goldi: Ah yes, Old school in early childhood… brings quality when you’re older.

Freddie: yeah for sure.

Leon: Like the Russians.

Goldi: In the USA it (the season) will resume, here in Germany we’re a bit worried but what unites us a bit maybe is how the NHLPA had a say in the process over there and helped discuss how that would work, in Germany we don’t have that, what I don’t like because I think there always should be a player’s representative present to listen and maybe voice their opinion. What’s your opinion on that. Leon, regarding the NHL and DEL and Freddie, here in Germany?

Leon: I’ll just start off now. I find it important. Of course I understand the business part of it all and of course that’s part of it, the owners and stuff. But in the end the boys, the players are the ones who present the game to the fans and that’s why I think the players should have the right to have their own opinion and having things just bypass them. And, as I said, that players, who represent the game, are able to voice their opinions and have a say in things. And I think they are great about that in the NHL.

Goldi: So that means there’s a selection of players, for example Connor McDavid, a friend of yours, and you’re not part of it but there’s certain players who attend meetings, that’s how it is in the NHL?

Leon: Yesyes! But the players who are in that committee, like Connor, they always report back to us and want to hear what we have to say and have millions of conference calls and what-not. They want to hear opinions of every single player. What we have to say plays a role like that.

Goldi: So what do you say Freddie? Especially looking at the DEL, regarding planning or the idea of a players union?

Freddie: I can only agree with Leon, I like how the NHL does that. We don’t have something like this here in the DEL. But that’s what we are trying to change right now. I’m still new, relatively new in the league but especially the boys who have been playing here for years, they have so much experience and know everything about hockey and I’d find it extremely valuable if they could join in on the discussions. Because in the end we are the product and it’d be reasonable to let them talk too in order to make the product better. And I don’t know why anyone would exclude that knowledge, the knowledge of the players.

Goldi: That’s what I think too, interesting that you’d both agree. And you, Freddie. Were you excited to maybe being able to play in the World Cup, with a not too stable season in Cologne. Maybe you would have been able to see Leon too, what Leon might now have wanted (the sarcasm has to be pointed out here, they love each other okay) Were you excited or did you know after the cancelation of the DEL that the possibility of a World Cup was slim?

Freddie: Well, after they canceled the DEL it was practically clear they’d cancel the World Cup too. Generally, yeah Cologne had a shit season and I personally wasn’t on top of my game either. So I couldn’t be sure I’d be playing. Would it have been the case I of course would have been super exited about that! Niederberger said that, the World Cup is like the icing on the cake at the end of the season. We know the boys for years and it’s just great together for Germany. Great fun at the end of the season. And go into summer break after.

Goldi: Before I say goodbye to you and talk to Leon for a few more minutes, what do you say about his season. He sounds great! Playoffs with Edmonton, Top Scorer of the League, All Star Team, re-live the Battle of Alberta, that’s what we’ll talk about later! The hate in this duel! And so on… What do you say about his season? Are you happy for him

Freddie: Yes, for sure! Insane season! We texted, when we were younger, that’s just, you look up to all those best players of the world and try to catch up to them and it’s so crazy that he’s now on top of that list. That’s sublime. And just a great thing. I already told him, he can be so proud of himself and yes, probably I am also proud of him, yes.  Even if that maybe sounds a bit dumb (dude what no! be proud of your bro!)

Leon: Thanks brother. (In the softest voice, what)

Goldi: But that’s nice. Normally, we as hockey players, don’t say things like that as often but that’s nice that it can be like that. And not only you are proud but the entirety of hockey Germany can be proud.

Freddie: And the crazy thing is… I’d say we’re best friends and I am so close to it (him) , that’s why Leon is normal to me but so far away for others and that’s… again cool and so different in a way.

Goldi: Cool.

Freddie: (Jokingly, but who are you kidding with that voice) I’ll start crying soon. (pretends to cry)

All laugh

Freddie: Sign me out! For today.

Goldi: It’s not that bad.

Leon: Ciao!

Goldi: Thank you for your time! I’ll talk to Leon for a bit now. Have a nice summer and I hope your golfing skills progress so we can test who’s better at it.

Freddie: Thank you. We can then make anther video and we’ll see who’s the better (golfer).

Goldi: That’s how we’ll do it!

All say their goodbyes

Goldi: I’ll try to sign him out.

Freddie: Yeah, kick me out.

Goldi: Or you’ll hang up that might be easier, ah found it.

Freddie: Just do your thing.

Switch to Leon only interview (and that’s probably what you wanted to see^^)

Goldi: That’s how it is in life, you’re out in a second. You’re still in Canada. Did you ever entertain the thought of coming back home or did you think that might be to risky, maybe they’d resume earlier than anticipated?

Leon: Yeah sure, I of course thought about going home. But somehow it didn’t work out and the days just dragged along and the reason why I didn’t fly home… oh now there’s Bowie…

Goldi: Oh he’s there now?!

Leon: (Picks Bowie up) and yeah, I didn’t know when we’d go back to playing so I didn’t want to fly all the way to Europe just to have to return to Canada two weeks later. That’s why we decided to stay here.

Goldi: Did you chose the dog after your beard? They look kinda similar even through the bad screen.

Leon: I’m trying to recreate his look right now.

Goldi: Looks kind of the same. Do you have the opportunity to skate on ice right now in Canada or is it just work outs? Do you have different opportunities over there, like the Swedes for example?

Leon: Yes, I’m currently at my girlfriend’s parent’s house in Ontario, close to Toronto and luckily I found a small rink and have been on it for the last few days. The first two days complete “Hackstock” (stiff and everything) but we’re getting there slowly.

Goldi: That feeling you’re talking about, going back on the ice, totally stiff and feeling like you don’t have any puck control, is that the same for the Top Scorer of the NHL?

Leon: Yes! I mean, of course! Especially the first 15 to 20 minutes feel like you’ve never been on the ice before. And you think, if we resume, I have no idea how I’m supposed to play in this league. But it’s all coming back fast.

Goldi: Coming back to you being Top Scorer of the League, really great and I am happy for you, and it’s for sure great publicity for German hockey. But overall, this season is for sure something you can be proud of! Not only are you Top Scorer (if they say that one more time I stg), you were at the ASG, Edmonton is in the Playoffs. Even with the shortened season, how satisfied are you?

Leon: Very! Mostly because we had such a successful season with the team and finally made people pay attention to us. We played successful hockey, which is very important and personally I am proud to having played such a great season. But still I think there’s a lot of room for improvement and without the entire team I’d only been half as good. Big thank you to the boys.

Goldi: Room for improvement, that’s what you always say. Someone who doesn’t know you might say that’s just a truism you say because it sounds nice but you are convinced that that is the case. You work your ass off even during the summers. Working and repeating important things. You’re not necessarily the person to compare yourself to others, you’re more one to say “I want to get better, what the others do is not my concern”. Do you think it’s part of attitude, that one does just always go on?

Leon: Yes, I think so for sure. In my opinion, even if it’s a cliché, you can always work on yourself and better the little things every day. That’s what I’m trying to do and that’s why I know I still have room to improve. Maybe in points or goals that’s not the case for me, no one knows that. But with the small things: Defense, bullies, penalty kill, power play and so on. The small things where I believe I can still get better.

Goldi: Getting better, that’s what I talked about to you last summer. I liked you (Oilers) getting James Neal into the team, then I think you did some good moves concerning the trading deadline, Yamamoto, who had been playing with you for a bit, who played a great season, who fit right in. I felt like you were pretty set for the playoffs but now with this big pause in between… Do you think that’ll be like a complete restart? Like you won’t be able to hold onto that good wave or do you feel like you’re still the same group that knows what they are doing?

Leon: Yeah, I for sure think that we’re still the same group and that we know that we, as a team, know we are were we are rightfully. Rightfully so in the playoffs. But of course the flow as a team and as an individual player might be a bit over and I think I’ll speak for everyone. Two and a half to three months have passed since we’ve been on the ice together and that’s (the flow) is getting a bit lost like that – you know that yourself Goldi – but the good thing is that that’s the case for everyone, for every team so there are no advantages for anyone.

Goldi: One more question, because I’m interested and I loved to see it – Battle of Alberta. It’s always talked about, Edmonton against Calgary, a lot of hate and aggression but I felt like that wasn’t as bad the last years. Now this year there was a messy move that, in my opinion, didn’t get punished in a way I believe it should have. From Tkachuk against one of your players. That brought back that rivalry in a way- where I saw you with a kind of grittiness, putting in even more effort – How much fun was that or was it over the edge and not good?

Leon: No, that was phenomenal. What it did for the entire World of Hockey (around the world). Amazing and I think, like you said, that this rivalry had been kinda lost over the years, this Battle of Alberta, because both teams didn’t have a lot of success and both teams didn’t have a big reason to give the other any grieve. That just was not the case. Now both teams fought for the playoffs, both teams were successful. Same, or similar standing in points and then something like that happens and things get unruly and yes, I think that was great for hockey, for the NHL and it definitely was a lot of fun being a part of.

Goldi: I’d imagine! And as a joke, you kind of took that with you into the ASG, when you’re “Kollege” (fellow player I guess) passed you the puck. Did you know you were mic’ed up or did you only realize after?

Leon: Haha, no I knew! For that weekend, that was only fun and games and we were all there for the same reason and it was fun. The funny thing was our first game after the ASG was against Calgary and it just continued as aggressively as before.

Goldi: Resumed to previous things!

Leon: Yeah.

Goldi: Last thing maybe. How does the plan for the playoffs? Are there any specifics? Or are there no tangible ideas yet?

Leon: No. NHL is still at the beginning stage of planning and we don’t know more than you all can read everywhere. I’d imagine we’ll be able to practice in small groups on the rink again the following weeks and from then on I think they’ll look from week to week how things go. How and when the season will resume

Goldi: Thanks for your time Leon! Good luck for the playoffs! Do your thing! Maybe we will be able to catch up in the summer, play some golf – did you play a little?

Leon: Yes, a few times! Last weekend I went two times so my game is getting better too.

Goldi: You still got some time!

Both say their goodbyes and out 

—

I think I wrecked my wrist doing this lol

[cami-chats]

Gotta be damned because I want it all

Fandom: Check Please

Pairing: Kent Parson/Connor “Whiskey” Whisk

Warnings: In later chapters, some homophobia and involuntary outing, falling out with family

Chapter 1 (Haven’t come out of my cage and I’ve been doing just fine) of 5 Read below or on AO3

Whiskey knew about pressure and expectations. When he got to the Aces, everyone acted like he was just starting to feel it. 

When he told his parents he wanted to play pro hockey, they'd... tried. They'd tried to be supportive. There had been a month long period between him telling them and them agreeing to it, when they tried to change his mind. 'We live so far west, Connor. Any chance you have will be if you claw your way up, fighting tooth and nail for every inch. You'll have to prove that you're twice as good as they're expecting.' He knew it was because they wanted him to be sure. It wasn't going to be easy, like taking P.E. or joining the baseball team at school. He was going to have to travel, practice every free moment; he was going to be tired year round. 

'Hockey is expensive. If you change your mind, we won't be able to pay for a different extracurricular for you,' Mom said, and she was so worried about the possibility of him changing his mind that she didn't stop to think about how Connor knew what he wanted-- he wasn't exactly what someone would call fickle. His parents made sure, right from the start, that he knew the kind of commitment he was getting into, and he dove into it headfirst. He couldn't explain the exhilaration that came from being on ice, from racing around on his skates and keeping an eye on the puck and other players. 

To be fair, it didn't start to feel like pressure until he was sixteen and everyone was talking about him. Who was his high school sweetheart? How good were his chances in the draft? Would he crack under the pressure like Jack Zimmermann had? (Zimmermann, who everyone constantly compared him to. Apparently the way they moved on the ice was similar; their focus on the ice was similar, and Connor didn't give two shits.) Was he at a disadvantage living where he was instead of in Canada or along the east coast? He'd talked to reporters before and watched what was said about him to see how it was coming along, but now it felt like it was everywhere. Reporters fucking everywhere, picking him apart. He was struggling to keep his grades up as it was without worrying about the latest article that said they didn't think he was going to make it to the next draft. His parents told him how proud they were of him, his friends said they expected for him to be the best, and more than all of that was the burning need inside to prove himself. 

He'd started pushing himself when he was twelve and telling his parents that he wanted to play hockey for the rest of his life, and he was still pushing himself when he made it first in the draft and got to be with the Aces. Las Vegas Aces. It was like the name was hovering in bold at the forefront of his mind, occasionally giving itself a shake when it thought he hadn't freaked out about it recently enough. 

Las Vegas Aces, Captain Kent Parson. 

This... was a dream come true. Nothing less. Kent Parson had won a Cup his rookie year. Kent Parson was his Captain, and Whiskey had always loved watching the way he moved on his skates-- like he'd been born to it. 

Scraps was housing him for this first year, and apparently him and Kent were tight. So Kent Parson, living legend, was there when Whiskey was moving in. Not that he had much to move in. His parents had been reluctant to admit that this was a permanent move (hopefully he wouldn't get traded, the Aces were exactly where he wanted to be), so he didn't bring much with him. But he didn't want to bring much anyways. He didn't need school shit; he didn't want to poke holes in Scraps's wall with posters, and he didn't have any books or movies that he couldn't bear to part with. He brought clothes. Music. One framed picture of him and Jenny because she'd given it to him as a going away present, and she was his best friend. 

All of this was to say that his first conversation with Kent was about pressure. That wasn't what he'd been hoping for, but maybe it was better than a nondescript 'welcome to the team, don't party too hard' speech. Kent was leaning against the doorway to his room, watching nonjudgmentally as he unpacked. There was a backwards snapback atop golden curls, and Whiskey had plenty of practice in not staring. "How do you like Vegas?" he asked as an opener. 

Whiskey shrugged. The climate was familiar, but he didn't care to explore the city. He was here for hockey, not to get wasted and gamble his signing bonus away (he'd paid for Jenny's meal plan at college, because they had both been planning to go to Samwell if the draft didn't work out). 

"Look kid-" 

"I'm not a kid." He knew that he was compared to everyone else, but he didn't want for them to think of him that way. He was younger, yes, but not a kid. 

"Sure," Kent said with an easy going smirk that, while appearing sincere, Whiskey thought was appeasing. "What I mean is, there's a lot of eyes on you for getting first in the draft and picking a team out here." 'Out here'. So far west. Whiskey didn't get why everyone had such a stick up their ass about it. 

All he said about it was, "You did it." 

"Yeah, and it felt like everyone was waiting for me to fail. You're gonna get a lot of questions about how you're dealing with the pressure dude, and I want you to know that it's not big deal. We're not dropping you if we don't win a Stanley Cup this year." 

"You won the Cup your first year," Whiskey said. 

The smirk was back. "See? Shit like that is why I don't want you to worry. It's no big deal, man. If we get it this year, awesome. If not, whatever, there's always next year. Especially for you, there's always next year." 

It was obvious that Kent was waiting for a response, so Whiskey nodded. He didn't agree, but he nodded. 

"Now that that shit's outta the way, I'm looking forward to having you on the team. Like the way you shred the ice, man." He pushed himself off from the door frame. "See you at practice." 

Whiskey nodded, and Kent left. He didn't realize that he'd been holding his breath until he was alone again. Kent could say all day long that it would be fine if he fucked up, but Whiskey knew the truth of the matter: you get one shot. Maybe not one shot at the Cup, but one shot at the big leagues to prove yourself. 

*

Whiskey didn't know how rookie years were supposed to go, but he was pretty sure you didn't get bumped up to first line after a week and a half of practice. He was pretty sure the coaches didn't tell the captain that they should take an extra hour after practice for the next few days, just the two of them. He was more than sure that the captain of the team didn't usually have the extra time to spend an hour with every rookie. The coaches said it was going to be a few days, but Whiskey knew that that was a first estimate, not a solid timeline. They wanted to see how well this practices went-- wanted to see if the way they clicked would turn into them being a pair. If it didn't work out, Whiskey might stay on first line, but the extra practices would stop. If they started to do well, they'd probably be encouraged-- that's the way they always phrased it; 'you're encouraged to take these extra practices and push yourself harder but you don't have to'-- to spend as much time on the ice as they needed until they had a sixth sense for where the other one was on the ice. They'd get the second option, that much was obvious from how they started performing during practice. 

He didn't need anyone to say the words to his face for him to know that they were thinking about Zimmermann when they saw him and Parse skating together. Parse and Zimms, that's the dynamic everyone wanted. And they always said it together, like it was one word. Whiskey didn't give a shit because he was here and Zimmermann was at college. It would be another two years before he signed on with anyone, and by that point, Whiskey wouldn't be dispensable; he'd make sure of it. 

And all the while, Parse was telling him not to stress. Focus, but don't worry. Take it one practice at a time, don't worry about playoffs because they didn't even know if they'd be in them yet. (The Aces had gotten to the playoffs every years since Parse signed on, but sure, this year-- the year that Parse and Whiskey were tearing up the ice together-- was going to be the year that they didn't make it.) 

They were in the middle of one of those hour-after practices when Whiskey got a phone call. He'd dragged his bag out of the locker room after official practice, so he skated over, peeled off a glove, and fished his phone out. Jenny. He couldn't just ignore a call from her. "One second," he told Parse, who nodded, seemingly unbothered by the interruption. He slid it to answer and held it up to his ear. "What's up?" 

"Uh, we had plans to watch Resident Evil, remember? You weren't online. And really? Ignoring my texts is a dick move, Whisk." On anyone else, those words would've sounded frustrated, but Jenny was just teasing. 

"I forgot." 

"Dude, it was your pick for movie night." He never forgot movie night. If he needed to cancel, he always told her as soon as he knew he wouldn't make it. "You okay?" 

"I'm at practice." 

"I thought practice ended at four for you. Did I mess up time zones? I googled it, I can't believe I messed it up. Shit dude, hang up before your team gets mad at you!" 

"You're fine, it's an extra practice, just me and Parse." 

"Parse. Parson? Like Kent Parson??" she asked, voice climbing higher. Everything that came out after that sounded like it had been said with a single breath. "Dude! Connor! Oh my god!!! Woah woah, wait this isn't, like, a remedial thing, is it? I know you like to be all stoic, but if you're having a breakdown and it's fucking up your playing, it's okay to tell me. I won't tell your parents, and I can try to skype you more often if you think it'll help. Or- god, I should let you get back to practice and you can tell me about it later if you want to." Jenny was the best. Nervous at times, but the best. 

"I'm fine. Sorry I forgot. I should be home in an hour, I'll text you." 

"Okay. Love you! Kick ass out there, Whiskey." 

"Love you." He hung up and tossed his phone back on top of the bag. "Sorry," he said, skating back towards Parse-- who was doing slow circles near the middle of the rink to give Whiskey some privacy. 

"It's fine. Who was it?" 

"Girlfriend," he said, because that was the story they were going with. 

People normally pushed. Not a lot, but they always wanted to know her name or ask how long they'd been together and what she thought about hockey. At the very least, they said some sort of joke to let Whiskey know they were cool with it-- or something like that. But Parse just nodded and said, "Ready for more dumbass drills that we don't need?" 

*

Jenny sent him a well wishes text before his game. So did both of his parents. So did each of his four siblings. So did all of his friends from high school. Whiskey didn't bother reading all of them. He barely even read Jenny's. 

Parse was a good captain when he wasn't trying to convince Whiskey not to worry. The pre-game talk boiled down to: we're awesome and they suck so let's kick ass. 

Whiskey knew what kind of attention was on him as he skated onto the ice: is he going to live up to the hype? did he deserve this? He was going to make them regret even thinking those questions. As Jenny liked to say, he was worth all this and more, and it was about time the rest of the world saw that too. 

One goal and one assist when they won the game 2-1. Not bad. He could've done better, but apparently that wasn't a universal opinion based on all the knocks to the helmet and pats on the back the team gave him. 

He checked his phone by rote at the end of the press and showers, but it was more of the same. All the people that sent him well wishes for a good game sent him congratulations. Jenny's text in particular was exuberant, lots of keysmashing, exclamation points, and all caps messages. 

Most of the guys congratulated him on the goal before they left for the night, but fucking Parse had to make it awkward. "Nice game." 

Whiskey nodded, digging his thumb into the arch of his left foot so it wouldn't cramp up on him in the middle of the night. It was always the left foot, and it was always directly after a game and never practice; he didn't know why, but it was annoying. When Parse didn't immediately keep moving, Whiskey said, "That was a sweet shot you made." 

Kent snorted. "Thanks. Looks like it was a damn good decision to put us on a line together." 

"Yeah." 

It was silent for a minute as they went about getting dressed. Their stalls were right next to each other, which meant that Whiskey caught glimpses of tan, muscled skin even though he wasn't looking. His foot was really pissing him off right now because it still didn't feel better. "It's not a big deal if you fuck up at the next game, y'know." 

Whiskey's hands stuttered over his shoelace for a moment, but Parse probably didn't notice. 

"I know it feels like the end of the fucking world if you don't do well, but it's not a big deal. Most rookies don't make it on the team of their choice or make a goal in the first half of the season let alone their first game. Even if you start sucking, no one here's going to care." 

Whiskey got the feeling that Parse was going to keep going unless he agreed with him, so he said, "Yeah." He could feel Parse's eyes on him, and it was clear that he didn't believe Whiskey. It would've been annoying, but he dropped it instead of pushing, and it felt like Whiskey could breathe again. 

*

He had a point streak going. No one that he only heard from over the phone noticed. After his first game, the supportive texts had tapered off. His parents still sent them, when they remembered when his games were. They tried, but they didn't follow hockey-- they followed their son. Jenny, on the other hand, knew about all of his games and watched them when she could. Between her school work and getting used to a new state though, Whiskey didn't expect for her to be on top of it. Besides, he didn't need people telling him 'good luck' like it would actually help how he played. 

The other Aces knew about the point streak, and they joked that they'd be making him take vodka shots after each game that he kept it going if he were legal. Parse knew about the point streak, and he was still worried about the stress that Whiskey was supposedly going to crack under. No matter how many times he told Parse that he was fine, he didn't look convinced. He just... he would always fucking smirk and knock his knuckles against Connor's shoulder and say something like, "Whatever you say, man. Wanna grab some coffee?" And Whiskey always wanted to even though he kind of didn't like coffee, but he declined. Parse didn't mean anything by it other than they were becoming a popular duo on the ice and he was Whiskey's captain, but Whiskey didn't do one-on-one outings unless it was with Jenny. 

He shouldn't have been surprised that Kent would keep offering when his streak inevitably ended. The only reason he said yes this time, was because he didn't open with sympathy. They were getting dressed after showers, and he said, "Wanna grab some coffee? We're gonna be on the red-eye flying back, and I don't think I've ever seen you sleep on the plane. Don't worry about it, dude, you'll get used to it after a year or two." 

Whiskey should say no. He didn't want to. Not making a goal this game wasn't a tragedy. They still won the game, and he'd gotten two assists. He'd played his best game, and that was what mattered. "Yeah." He'd figure out what to get once they actually got there. 

It was pretty damn obvious Parse was surprised by him agreeing, but he didn't let it show other than an extra smug smirk on his face as they left. Parse kept up a bit of chatter as they took a cab to the coffeehouse he recommended, but it was about the game they'd just finished, so Whiskey didn't have to pay too much attention. Mostly he looked out the window and didn't shift to accommodate the restlessness his body kept insisting on feeling. 

Whiskey felt like a kid trailing after Parse as they got out of the cab and walked into the coffee shop. He looked at the menu and felt his stomach curl at the idea of drinking anything with espresso in it. There were blended drinks, and those were basically milkshakes, right? Not that he'd had a lot of milkshakes that he could remember since he'd been trying so hard to stay in shape for hockey, but he had vaguely good memories of them. And then he remembered that it wasn't allowed in the current diet plan. 

Parse ordered, then looked over at him expectantly. 

"What?" 

"C'mon and order." 

"I can pay for myself." 

Parse raised an eyebrow-- with that fucking smirk on his face-- and nodded towards the register. 

Whiskey could either deny it again and get embarrassed when Parse insisted, or he could give in. He grit his teeth, then muttered, "Small lemonade, please," to the cashier. He knew that Parse thought he was overreacting. It was a lemonade. It cost, at most, three dollars. Even before Whiskey had gotten his signing bonus, he would've been able to pay for someone else's drink at that price, and Parse had been in the NHL for years now. It wasn't a big deal. He couldn't unclench his jaw. 

Parse didn't make it A Thing, and Whiskey let himself be grateful that he didn't always push. Parse commented on the song playing over the speakers as they waited for their drinks. Something inane about coffee shops playing indie songs instead of pop. "Want to walk back to the hotel?" 

"Sure." 

Parse didn't say anything for a while, and Whiskey hoped that he knew where their hotel was, because he had no idea. You'd think that cities would be the same no matter which side of the country you're from, but apparently not. He might as well have been walking around in Britain for how little he knew what was going on. When he did start talking, Whiskey wished he would've kept his damn mouth shut. "I know this isn't something you want to hear, but you remind me of Jack." 

Whiskey was about to take his chances finding the way back to the hotel by himself, but Kent continued before he could turn the other direction and leave. 

"Not the way you play, but you have this look like you're one bad game away from freaking the fuck out. He nearly died when it got to be too much for him, and I don't want that to happen to you." 

This was not a conversation he ever wanted to have. Pressure wasn't new. He'd lost games before, and he'd been fine. He figured out what he needed to work on, and then he practiced until it wasn't a problem anymore. The stakes were higher now that he was playing pro, but he knew how to deal with it. Some of the guys out there had been playing almost as long as he'd been alive, and he was supposed to be able to match that. If he let himself get too comfortable, he wouldn't be game-ready. He wasn't pushing himself more than he could take and all he wanted was for everyone to shut the fuck up about it. "I'm not suicidal," he said, having to shove the words past his teeth. His jaw felt like it had been welded shut, and he couldn't figure out how to unstick it. 

"Zimms wasn't either. He OD'd on his fucking anxiety meds that he got from the doctor his parents sent him to. It was all legit and that didn't do him any fucking good. He was so out of it that he couldn't think through taking twenty of them wouldn't make him twenty times less anxious. You're doing great out there. You don't need to win every single game to be worth something." It made him feel a little better to see that Kent didn't want to be having this conversation either. It also helped to know that this wasn't about Whiskey. It was about Parse feeling guilty for not helping his friend earlier. One little glimmer from Whiskey made him think of Zimms, and now he was wigging out over it. 

"I don't have anxiety." 

Parse snorted. "Yeah okay." 

It would sound defensive if he repeated it, so he took a sip of the lemonade. He didn't know if it was supposed to taste this sugary or if it was a bad choice by that shop. 

"Look, you don't want to talk about it, and I'm tired of feeling like I'm looking over your shoulder all the damn time." 

"Is there a trick to telling you how to drop it?" Whiskey asked, mostly not joking, but if Parse got upset, he was going to pretend that it was. 

"Just promise me that if it ever gets bad, you'll ask for help. Me, one of the guys, a friend, your parents, I don't care. Just- someone." 

Whiskey could've insisted that he wasn't in a position of needing help-- not now or anytime soon-- but that would've taken longer and Parse would've kept worrying about him to the point that he wanted to avoid him. Avoiding Parse wasn't anything he ever wanted to try and do, so he said, "Fine." Then, when that sounded insincere, he added, "I will." 

Parse nodded, then took a drink of his coffee. "Now that that bullshit's out of the way, do you think that Harvey can keep up with..." he continued on, and they fell back on the safe topic: the other team's stats. They weren't on the home stretch for a playoff's spot yet, but Whiskey had to think ahead to make sure the timeline was solid in his head. 

*

They made it to the playoffs, but all Whiskey could think about was the fucking stupid mistake he'd made in the last game. He hadn't missed a good pass that completely since he was fourteen fucking years old. And he'd missed it from Parse of all people. 

The media scrum after that felt like so many layers of bullshit, but he kept on his media smile and answered all of the questions like he was supposed to. 

Parse didn't ask him how he was afterwards, and Whiskey almost wished that he drank alcohol because that would make getting to sleep easier. Parse clapped him on the back like he did every time they parted ways, and that was that. 

He'd fucked up at a game-- over something so goddamn simple he felt like clawing his hair out-- and other than two questions from the media, there hadn't been a reaction. The coaches might ask if he and Parse needed more one-on-one time, but that was going to be the extent of it. 

Jenny didn't even mention it when she said that he had a great game. He didn't know if that's because she hadn't noticed or if it was a conscious decision on her part not to bring it up. Either way, he was happy not to talk about it. 

*

For all that Whiskey and Parse had talked about playoffs and the Cup, he was still shocked when they made it to the final round. Aces versus Penguins. It felt like his mind was a static screen on an old television. Crackling loud enough to be annoying but nonsensical enough that it could be tuned out if you tried. There was the occasional jump like a mental exclamation point just to keep things interesting. 

This didn't happen. Rookies didn't win the Cup their first year when they were playing on first line unless they were Kent goddamn Parson. Whiskey knew himself; he was no Kent Parson. He felt like he couldn't breathe. Jesus christ this was a bad time to have that mental break Kent had been worried about. It was the first game, he needed to be in the right head space to bring his A game because anything else wouldn't cut it, not at this point in the finals. 

As fate would have it, Kent was the one to get him out of his head. He kicked Whiskey's leg as they were getting suited up, more of a nudge than anything else. 

Whiskey looked over at him. Any hope he had that nobody noticed how much he was freaking out was dashed when he saw the expression on Kent's face. Always smiling, the bastard, but it was less teasing than usual. "If we lose, we lose." 

Whiskey snorted. "You don't tell anyone else on the team that." 

"Nobody else on the team needs to hear it. Getting this far your rookie year? That's some gold star level shit. You've got the rest of your career made, whether we lose or not. We've got at least four games before it's all down the gutter anyways. Have you ever had four piss poor games in a row?" 

"There's a first time for everything," Whiskey muttered. 

"Win or lose, you and me are going to celebrate. You'll finally get a proper introduction to the queen of my life, Kit Purrson." 

"Did you name her that yourself?" 

"I am my own biggest fan," he said with a wink. 

"Not true," Whiskey said, shaking head. The words slipped out before he could stop them, but Kent wouldn't think anything of it, right? He was one of the most popular players in the entire league, plenty of people admired him. 

"Does that mean that if we win, you'll be my biggest fan?" Kent said, and there was a lilt there, almost flirtatious. But no, that was just in Whiskey's head. 

"If we win, I'll be your new best friend." 

"That makes it sound like we're not best friends already." 

Whiskey was about to refute that, but he paused before anything came out. Shit. When did that happen? "I'll fight Kit for the position." 

"Saying that my best friend is my cat?" Kent let out a low whistle. "Harsh, Whisk. Real harsh." 

Inexplicably, the tightness in his chest was gone. 

*

They won. They won. Holy shit, they won. Connor was smiling so widely it felt like his face was going to get split in half. When the Cup made it around to him, he felt like he was fucking glowing as he lifted it over his head and cheered. Kent and Connor had both gotten a goal in the final game, and the one before this, the Aces had gotten a shut-out. The time before last, they'd won in overtime. They'd lost two games, but he'd felt pretty good about it, and now they had won. 

Whiskey was feeling the high of victory, and he'd like to be able to say that it was an impulse decision after the dust settled, but it wasn't. The reason he'd had the courage for it was because he was a fucking rookie and he'd gotten a goal in the game that won them the Stanley Cup, but no, it wasn't an impulse. If it had been an impulse, he wouldn't have waited until after the game when it was just the two of them heading back to the hotel so they could change for the team's victory outing. (Scraps had decided that the second best player on their team didn't need a babysitter. "If you can get a hattie, you can find your way back to the hotel," he'd said with a snort, knocking a fist on Whiskey's helmet after he'd brought it up after a game.) 

Kent watched Whiskey rummage through his bag, amused. "I know you packed victory clothes." 

"Scraps made me," he muttered. This was a pretty small bag, he didn't understand how he was missing it. 

"That's how I know you packed 'em." 

He finally found the button-down-- dark red and tighter than he normally would have have gotten for himself because Jenny had bought it for him and said it made him look hot-- and yanked it out victoriously. And, of course, dark jeans for the other half of his outfit, but he'd found those as soon as he opened the bag. 

"That's what you're wearing?" 

Whiskey gave him a flat look-- or as flat a look as he could managed when he was still smiling from the win. "Are you doing more plaid?" 

"Hey, I wasn't judging," Kent said, holding his hands up in surrender. "I was surprised you even have a shirt with buttons." 

Connor flipped him off, but he was grinning. 

"All my plaid has buttons, don't give me that. All you ever wear is t-shirts." 

"They're comfortable," he defended, getting to his feet. He pulled off the compression shirt he'd been wearing after the game and slid his arms through the sleeves of the button-down. 

Kent snorted. "You say that like my clothes aren't comfortable." 

"How would I know?" Connor asked, starting at the bottom and working his way up as he fastened the buttons. "I don't get why you're all dragging me out, anyways." 

"You don't know?" Kent repeated incredulously. "Dude! We just won the Stanley Cup! This is a once in your career sort of event, you need to get wasted and play shitty drinking games." 

"I'm underage, I won't be able to drink anywhere we go." 

"Connor," Kent said, laying his hands on his shoulders and affecting severity. Connor's hands froze halfway up his shirt to look Kent in the eye. He had this fucking gleam like they owned the goddamn world and they were going to make the most of it. "We won the Cup. Nobody's going to fucking card you. And even if they want to, you don't question the guy that comes in with a bunch of obviously over-age professional hockey players." He started to get his normal smirk back, and all Connor could think was that he wanted to kiss it off of him. So he did. 

He leaned forward, hands going from his own shirt to fist in Kent's. 

It was only a fraction of a second before Kent was kissing him back, hands sliding up to his neck as they both shifted closer to get to a better angle. Kent met him for every kiss, both of them pressing harder and harder until both their lips were swollen and Connor was about to have to move his hands so he could see if Kent was as effected by this as he was, but a loud knock on the door stopped them. 

"Yo, Whiskey! Stop primping we gotta go celebrate!" Swoops shouted. 

Connor cleared his throat quietly, then yelled back, "I'm almost done!" 

"You seen Parse? Bro's not in his room!" 

"We were talking shit about all of you that didn't win the Cup your rookie year," Kent called in the direction of the door. He took half a step back, and Connor reluctantly let go of his shirt; there were wrinkles where he'd gripped the fabric so tightly that it wasn't bouncing like it normally would have. 

"We're all champions today, asshole!" There was a loud thump that sounded like he'd kicked the door. "Get downstairs in the next five minutes or we're not waiting for you!" Swoops was never one for keeping his mouth shut, so when nothing else was forthcoming, it was obvious that he'd left to go wait downstairs like he said. 

"We should probably go," Kent said, ruffling his hair. It's not like Connor had had his hands in it, but it looked a little messy, regardless. 

"We could stay here," Connor offered tentatively. 

Kent's eyes shot to the side, and Connor's stomach dropped. "That's uh-" The hand that was in his hair clenched, and it looked painful. He let go after a second. "I'm your captain," he said quietly. "If anyone found out, I could get kicked off the team. Nobody else would sign me, and-" 

"It's fine," Whiskey said, offering a lopsided smile. He combed his fingers through his hair then buttoned his shirt the rest of the way. "I wasn't thinking about any of that, you know? Felt good, so I just kinda..." he trailed off, not knowing where he was going with it. Anything he said would be a lie, anyways. Kent would probably be able to tell. 

"Yeah, it's fine," Kent said with a responding smile that looked a little less awkward than Whiskey's own. "I don't wanna- um-" he cut off, messing with his hair reflexively. "It probably wouldn't be a good idea to hook up with any guys unless you're planning on coming out." 

Whiskey shook his head, because that was something he never planned on doing, right alongside this conversation that he never wanted to have. All the guys-- Parse included-- thought that he had a girlfriend, and it would be for the best if he continued to let everyone think that; it's why him and Jenny had gotten together in the first place. "Go on," he said, slapping Parse companionably on the shoulder, "you should get changed before Swoops follows up on his threat." 

Parse snorted. "He wouldn't do that." 

Whiskey raised an eyebrow. 

"The captain pays for the first round," he explained, and Whiskey laughed, shaking his head.

[the-ships-to-rule-them-all]

Puck it chapter 4 liveblog

btw @bipercabeth @jasonsmclean enjoy <333

under the cut because this is going to be long af

He doesn’t want Jason to think he doesn’t respect Annabeth, but he also doesn’t want to break his promise to her. But that promise is already broken. Jason already knows. And Percy really can’t handle the thought of Jason thinking he doesn’t respect women. “You have feelings for her, don’t you?” Jason asks, his tone a bit lighter, eyes a bit softer. Percy sighs and the words rush out of him on the exhale. “Yes I do Jason I’m so fucked please help.”

ME SCREAMING A LOT!!!!!!!!!!! they matter so much to each other omg. and Percy having loyalty to Annabeth even in this, I am DECEASED 

A sigh falls past Jason’s lips; his shoulders deflate and he ducks his head with a slight nod. “I figured, but I also figured I need to say it straight up. I can’t get mad about you not telling me when I’ve been keeping this from you.” “Trying to keep this from me.” Percy takes a risk and grins slightly. “I’ve known for a while now. But I appreciate the honesty. I don’t want this to be something we fight over. We’re better than that.”

DARLING IDIOT CO-CAPTAINS WHO ARE BEST FRIENDS

That’s… a lot of ‘no’. But I respect the last one. I’m glad you guys prioritized, I guess. But you’re seriously okay with all of that? That’s gotta be a lot on your mind.”

“Yeah, I guess it is. But it’s worth it to be with her. Like, the sex is great, but she’s just so good to be around. I’m definitely saying it all wrong, but something just… pulls me to her? It’s hard to explain. She’s not an escape from everything, but she calms it all down. Like at the first party, I wasn’t doing well, and Annabeth gave me a way out. Then we just kept talking, and she was going to walk home alone, and I— one thing led to another.” Percy sighs and messes up his hair. “Sorry, I don’t mean to make this about me, but if we’re getting it all on the table, you deserve to know why.”

PERCY JACKSON IS IN LOVE WITH ANNABETH CHASE IN EVERY SINGLE FUCKING UNIVERSE

“Wow, we’re so fucked.” Percy can’t help but laugh. They’d realized their feelings within 24 hours of each other and still took an entire month to talk about it.

FIRST OF ALL THIS IS THE MOST HOCKEY THING IN THE WORLD AND WOW!!!!!!!!!!

“Should we pay him for his emotional labor? I feel like we should pay him for his emotional labor.” Jason jokes.

I CACKLED

“I accidentally rigged Secret Santa on purpose.”

OF COURSE YOU DID PERCY! OF COURSE YOU DID 

“I knew you’d be mad if I rigged it just for me to get Annabeth, so I rigged it so you’d get Piper, too!” Percy holds out a fist, waiting for a fist bump. “You can thank me now or later, whichever you prefer.”

PERCY JACKSON YOU ARE THE GREATEST

Except Jason wants to be so much more than that.

Ever since the Halloween party, Piper’s been talking to Jason a lot more than she did before, and she talked to him a fairly decent amount before the party. Of course, she’d gotten so ridiculously drunk at the party that she ended up puking so she apologized profusely to him for putting him through that, even though he’d wanted to stick around. (Oh man, he’s sounding cheesier by the second when it comes to her.) Since she’d been so wasted, he doesn’t want to bring up the dancing to her, especially since he’s convinced she’d only danced so close because she’d been so drunk.

Still, there’s a tiny part inside of Jason that hopes maybe she’d been aware of her actions even though she’d been drunk.

Jason’s always been a rule follower. It’s a fact, plain and simple. He sometimes bends the rules when they’re unfair or unjust, but overall he doesn’t dare break them. Especially when it comes to hockey. He’s not one to defy his coaches or trainers or talk back to his captains (before he became one, of course).

But now with the stupid no dating rule, Jason’s tempted to defy his coaches, which scares the shit out of him.

LOUD LONG SCREAMING JFC JASON *SHAKES HIM* THAT’S SO FUCKING ROMANTIC I WANT TO DIE FUCK YOU BOTH

But the smiles and jokes have made him only want to break the rules more.

YOU LOVE HER YOU WANT TO MARRY HER YOU WANT TO HAVE HER BABIES

Annabeth swings a leg over Percy and leaves him stranded on her bed, his hands still fastened to her headboard. One second he was on top of her, kissing down her neck with the intentions of going far lower, and the next she had him flipped and restrained. Suddenly she was pressing down onto him and teasing him relentlessly, forcing him to beg for release (which she’d eventually granted, but only after making him beg). Annabeth and that damn tie.

oh my fucking god this entire scene was so fucking hot!!!!! also how’d you know that hockey and bondage is like a thing 👀👀👀👀

ajklfdsjfdsladsfjaklfsdajlkfdasjlk annabeth being jealous, annabeth tying him up, Percy with that satisfied smirk I just 

So he pushes his heart out of where it had leapt into his throat and sits back down on the edge of the bed, pulling her into his lap as he slides back. She follows and Percy pulls her face to his, letting her set the pace and meeting her there movement for movement. If he can’t claim her as his, he’ll be damned if he doesn’t show her that he’s hers. - I WANT TO DIE

that’s all he wants right now. That’s all he’s going to want for a very long time. WELL I’M IN A GRAVE RIGHT NOW GOD THAT’S ROMANTIC AF

Matching with your boyfriend? That’s cute.” Annabeth says from behind him.

Percy turns to look at her, fully taking her in for the first time today. She’d followed the ugly sweater rule, but only barely. It wasn’t one of the gaudy or loud ones he knew would make an appearance tonight; instead she’d settled on a light blue turtleneck sweater with grey squares making up that classic Christmas print and setting off every different shade in her eyes. She looks more cute than anything.

Her eyes are fixed on his sweater, which is black with red details and the word ‘HO’ stitched onto the front. Percy feels heat flood his cheeks as he tries to play it off, but it’s only a matter of time until the entire team sees Jason’s matching ‘WHERE’S MY HO AT?’ sweater. - OK NO NO NO YOU CANNOT DO THIS TO ME!!!!!!!!!! THEY DEFINITELY MADE OUT EARLIER AND I WANT TO MURDER NO GIVE ME ALL THE FUMBLING FIRST KISSES OH MY GOD 

“It’s a Rangers sweatshirt.” He says slowly. “You hate the Rangers.”

“To be fair, I still think they suck. Islanders for life and all that. But what do you think?” Her voice betrays her smug words. - THE NEW YORK RIVALRY I AM DEAD AND BURIED OH THIS IS THE SWEETEST THING ANNABETH 

Annabeth doesn’t pull away or refuse him though, so he holds on for a bit longer than he should, one hand resting on the back of her head and holding her to his chest while the other finds her back. Her arms loop around his waist, her fingers lacing behind his back. Percy takes in as much of this moment as he can before she pulls away, because he knows he won’t be the first to do so.

When she does pull away, it feels almost reluctant. He lets himself believe that, cling to that for a moment as she looks up at him with those big gray eyes. And as she does, Percy realizes that he is completely and utterly ruined for anyone except her. - JFC I’M A WRECK

“You know at some point I’m going to need to see this on you.” - POST HAT TRICK SEX, I CALL IT

“You,” he can’t help the way he leans into her, far too close to be out in the open like this, “are impossible, Chase.”

“I’m flattered.” Annabeth scoffs. - THESE ABSOLUTE DORKS I LOVE EVERYTHING

As long as Annabeth is here, Jason’s ultimately edged out. - OUCH

“Bisexual people exist, Leo. ”  - HE’S ALREADY SMARTER THAN ALL HOCKEYS EVER, SORRY JASE I LOVE YOU BUT YOU’RE TOO SMART FOR THE NHL

Thanks, captain.” She takes the cup back and takes a sip and Jason would be a dirty liar if he said he didn’t stare at her lips the entire time. - ME: DYING

The consequences might be worth it, though. - YES JASON GO AFTER HER

“I didn’t say it was for me,” is Reyna’s cool reply. - I LOVE EVERYTHING SO SO SO MUCH OMG REYNA GETTING A DILDO!!!!!!!!!

Before Percy can look at Annabeth, his head whips around and he settles his glittering green eyes on Jason. “I know what we’re doing tonight,” he stage whispers as he winks.

“Do you guys need condoms? Some lube?” Connor asks, lifting up his newly gifted bottle of lube and box of flavored condoms.

“Don’t worry. We’ve got a nice supply,” Percy responds, wrapping an arm around Jason’s shoulders.

“Percy, not in front of the kids,” Jason complains, and he’s not embarrassed until he sees Piper giggling behind her hand. - *BOUNCES* GIVE ME THE BACKSTORY - hockey fandom has corrupted me and now I ship them to a ridiculous degree *shrugs*

Inside the box lays a brand new hockey stick. When he says brand new, he means brand new. The paint is shiny and glossy and he can just imagine how it’ll feel when he uses it on the ice. It’s white, blue stripes painted onto the butt and the bottom of the shaft, just before the blade. On the heel of the stick, he can see GRACE 1 painted in red letters. It’s the nicest hockey stick he’s seen gifted to a college player. The only thing he can compare the quality of this is to NHL and Olympic equipment. - I LITERALLY SCREAMED OUT LOUD LIKE IN MY DORM A VERY HIGH PITCHED SCREAM PIPER MCLEAN PIPES BABES YOU GOTTA KNOW PLEASE 

god every single one of the gifts just demonstrates how well they know each other, how much they love the other person already and I am in TEARS

Holy fuck, Piper did that. - MY REACTION SAME 

the two California kids bonding over their warm state and the fact that they’ve found a home on the ice - say with me AWWWWW

“Jason.” She takes a step closer to him. “I want you to have it. You deserve it. You love hockey and…” She falters and she bites down on her bottom lip. “I wanted to give you something meaningful. I just didn’t have the guts to do it without using Secret Santa as my excuse. I’m just so lucky I got you.” - dfaslkdjfdsajlkdfsjaklkjdfslakljdsajlfsdkakljszdfjoirewaklcszioojewfkmflsiouearwjoweiofjfdwerijefojfeidljfiawfjcewuoirijffuiwoewjdkoeioewuoriwejafwK

THAT’S ROMANTIC AF PIPER

“Shut up.”

Before he can think straight, her arms wrap around his shoulders and she angles her face up until he feels her lips press to his. He doesn’t hesitate to bring his hands up to her hips, holding her there and soaking in the fact that this is real. Here he is, giving into the temptation, allowing his heart to win the ruthless battle over his head. All rationality and self-control go out the window as he focuses solely on kissing her. Her lips taste like peppermint and are just as soft as he’s imagined them, which also brings back the influx of memories of the persistent daydreams that’d plagued his mind for weeks. Yet every expectation pales in comparison to this moment. He feels like he could melt from the heat coursing through his body, engulfing him in a fiery embrace. - FALLS ON THE FLOOR, SCREAMS, COMBUSTS - god you guys write the romances so well, they’re totally unique and this was PERFECT

Nothing,” he lies easily. While he usually can’t lie to save his life, he finds this lie effortless. “She was just being a good friend, Percy. Nothing more.”

A look of disappointment floods Percy’s face. “Really?” he asks sadly. “Damn. I was hoping for a good conversation or at least a kiss. I’m sorry, man. That sucks.”

“Yeah.” Jason shrugs and tries to look crestfallen. “Oh, well. Rules are rules.”

“Right.” Percy shakes his head once and sighs. “Rules are rules.” - *buries head in hands* JASON I HAD HOPE FOR YOU, oh well I guess this does mean you can survive the NHL

If this is what Jason has to do to be with Piper, so be it. - OH FUCK

fklasfjslkdafjskldaajfklsd guys this was so fucking good and beautiful and perfect and the perfect mix of angst and fluff and I JUST WOW 

[fyrapartnersearch]

SHAME SHAME SHAME

everybody's people watchin' everybody’s punch clockin’

hey how are ya my name is emmy and i’m here to search for a new rp partner. a bit about me, i’m 22, canadian, work two part time jobs and attend uni full time and i go by she/her pronouns. i reside in the mountain timezone and i am thrilled to hopefully start writing with you. 

why should you write with me? because i promise that if i pick up an rp with you i’m gonna put 100 and 10 percent of my effort into our story. i’m looking for a long term gig, someone who i can really weave a plot with, someone who digs the cut of my jib. i want us to be able to sob over our characters together late into the night. i want us to exchange songs, playlists, posts found on the internet, aesthetic boards, whatever reminds us of our characters/our plot.

i will probably spam you with pictures of my character’s playby and i want to see mad pics of yours, too. i want us to go through our character’s struggles together as well as be able to cheer together when our characters get a hold on their situation and come up on top. i want us to inspire one another with our writing. it’s gonna be great. you & me honey. 

right now I'm looking for 1-2 new rp partners who are interested in something long-term and fully fleshed out. think 'mains'. 

gee, that sounds nice! i’m inclined to agree! but a few things you should know before you go any further: i write anywhere between full lit to lit + to novella style, so expect posts of at least 4 - 6 paragraphs baseline. sometimes i crank out 10. or just 5. depends entirely on what’s going on. i write according to situation, with a great amount of detail spent on what my character is thinking/feeling in response to yours. the replies you get will be fully fleshed out & enthralling. i am a stickler for grammar and spelling, though nobody’s perfect, i do occasionally have my slipups. all lowercase text is strictly kept to ooc communication. i can be sporadic with capitalization ooc but still keep good spelling. i will never pressure you into posting or writing ridiculous amounts just to match my post. i want you to have fun too! if i’ve had a bit too much to drink or am about to hit the hay, i’ll wait to post until i can give my post my full attention. usually i’ll be able to post at least once every week, sometimes multiple times a week depending on work & schoolwork. i'm available for ooc chat almost all the time. i also totally understand life happens and sometimes we just need a breather. ♥ i have bipolar depression, and sometimes my depression kicks my ass, but i’ll let you know when that happens.

oh goodness, what else? i write predominantly m/m pairings but i am open to m/f and f/f as well. i do not write high fantasy settings, sorry doll. my interests mostly align with modern day, slice of life kinda stuff, aside from the fandoms i do have. i don���t have many limits besides excessive gore, scat, mpreg, and writing smut for sake of smut. i love my romance just like anyone else does, but it’s got to have plot. our characters have to have chemistry or else i get bored. i haven’t doubled before but i think i’d be down for it with the right plot. usually i prefer that we play one character each, or we play multiple characters within a plot, but not usually more than one plot at the same time. but!!! i am totally willing to try new things!! just be patient with me as i learn m'kay? i have had several threads going at once with one partner which can be super fun. also most of my characters are pretty kinky but like, i prefer that we talk about kinks and limits one on one as opposed to airing out my character’s laundry. also- i wanna be your friend ooc. let’s chat. i find it’s so much easier to have muse and post if i enjoy the virtual company of the people i’m writing with.

ok but what do you write? 

what *don’t* i write? kidding. here’s a bit of fandom for ya. if i’ve got plots listed, they’re the ideas i have, but i’m totally open to yours as well. stars denote how much i’m craving them. i’ll list the canon characters i write after i list the fandom: 

mafia 2: vito scaletta  ***plot for mafia 2 a: we explore the dynamics of a relationship between vito and your oc. your oc could be in a position of great risk- think outside of the mafia, possibly a police officer, prostitute. some position where power dynamics could be played with. if the pairing is m/m we also deal with the themes of internalized homophobia and coming to terms with one’s identity. 

*bioshock 1, 2 & infinite: brigid tenbenbaum, andrew ryan, frank frontaine & eleanor lamb, sofia lamb & booker dewitt 

**marvel cinematic universe: tony stark, steve rogers

***greater marvel universe: logan howlett, carol danvers  ****random plot: we do a crossover and we ship sharon carter/carol danvers. i just. uuugh i have a lot of feelings about them and i have hella muse for these babes. lemme know if you’re down to give this a shot i will love you forever no word of a lie. 

but honestly where my heart lies is within oc rp. here are a few plots i have of mine, stars denote how much i’m craving them:

****(m/m) power & politics: my oc is a prestigious state senator, who lives a double life. he is currently in the closet with no intent on leaving it anytime soon. however, a certain someone falls into his life, making him question what he thought he knew for certain. your oc breaks down the walls my oc has put up and changes him into a softer, better man. however, with an upcoming presidential campaign on the horizon for my oc, the limits of the secret relationship will be pushed and pulled beyond what both parties have ‘signed up for.‘

****(m/m) the guardian: your oc is a newcomer to the nhl but is quickly making waves- think connor mcdavid style. he’s young and impressive, but mostly, impressionable. he starts to get battered around by both his teammates and opposing teams. after a few hard hits and fowl play within the game that have cost your oc bench and recovery time, the team’s coach calls in reinforcements to boost the team’s morale and serve as a protector to your oc. my oc is a player who hasn’t got the talent part but has got a huge heart. not to mention… huge hands. good for makin’ fists. good for fightin’.  my oc protects your oc during the games, coming to your oc’s aid, picking fights for your oc and protecting him on the ice. as such, the two players grow attached to one another.. perhaps too attached for the captain to be comfortable with. possibilities for a love triangle and other complications, for sure

***(m/m) too good to be true: our ocs start out in the whl, both as promising wingers. their good chemistry is vital to bringing back their team’s success. however, one of our ocs starts to get too attached to the other, and when an nhl draft separates them, one of our ocs is all too eager to cut contact and try to forget. the two excel in their nhl careers without one another, and end up on nhl teams with a history of deep rivalry. occasionally, the gloves hit the ice, fueled by the tension of unresolved feelings and the pressure of the respective teams to keep up the rivalry. the two are reunited when they are both chosen to play nationally for the same team, and are forced to reconcile what they have both buried so deeply within them. 

***(m/m) big money: these two ocs play for rival teams in the nhl. while their teams have a history of tension, our two ocs take it to the next level. audiences are more excited to watch these two fight than they are to watch the game itself. there’s a market in the violence between these two, and a reputation to maintain on both ends. if the public found out that these two were secretly seeing one another, their careers would both be over. 

**** (m/m) sugar daddy: my oc is a law student studying in your oc's country in order to get their degree abroad. they're from eastern europe and uh. broke af. they settle into an arrangement with your oc where your oc agrees to ~pay him for his company after they meet while my oc does camming online to make ends meet. we could take it anywhere- your oc could whisk mine off his feet and 'save' him or. be toxic & trashy and make my oc's life hell.

okay and, here are just some general prompts that could be intertwined with the plots above, or could be something we use to springboard into our own rp:

my oc has serious commitment issues. they often go around ‘ghosting’ individuals after 4-5 dates, with little to no explanation of why. your oc falls for mine, and is the first to confront my oc about their shitty habits. 

your oc and my oc were best friends, but they lost touch over a stupid fight they had when they were preteens. they can’t believe that they’re seeing one another in a bar, halfway across the world from where they met. 

your oc and my oc were flames. my oc proposed to yours, but yours turned them down. they never spoke again… until they were sharing a crammed elevator, with my oc being completely intoxicated, and still confessing their feelings for your oc. 

your oc is a huge fan of my oc’s nhl career/political career. your oc wins a contest to meet and have dinner with my oc. while my oc expects a boring night out, my oc is completely surprised by how well they hit it off with your oc. 

my oc, your first oc and your second oc all grew up together. your first oc has always been pining for my oc’s attention, and is thrilled when my oc and your first oc finally get together. they develop a long term relationship, but my oc knows it would devastate your first oc if they told them that they have been seeing your second oc for most of the relationship. 

i recognize that a lot of these focus on the nhl/the lives of professional hockey players- please don’t be worried about hockey knowledge/nhl jargon/whatever else goes through your head! i’m more interested in sport as a realm for drama than i am for following the rulebook and being 100% accurate to life when it comes to hockey. there’s a lot i don’t know and am still needing to learn, myself! if you know a lot, great!! if you don’t, let’s figure things out together! as for general oc ideas, here’s a list:

professor x student

veteran x civillian

cop x criminal 

psychiatrist x patient

** OC superheroes (I have a lot of muse for this one!)

street racing, fast-and-furious-esque setting

rival gangs 

** nhl/hockey based (lol obviously)

small town canadiana or americana 

fun, fluffy romance based modern settings

darker themes such as addiction, abuse, etc - i find it cathartic sometimes to write about violent material buuuut this has to be really fleshed out between us

historical setting- preferably, the second world war/1940s-1960s 

light worldbuilding - new to this but wanting to learn

honestly whatever you can pitch to me that isn’t high fantasy :)

i can expand on and work with any of these ideas, these are just like, topics. whatever i do with you, i promise it’ll be fleshed out, with tons of opportunity for drama. 

hell yeah let’s do this pal 

if any, and i mean any, of this piqued your fancy, pleaaaase shoot me an email at 

↳ ehmmywrites@gmail.com ! 

i will respond! but please send me something thoughtful! i’d like to hear what part of my ad that you’re interested in/why you chose to contact me. i am most wanting to rp over email and talk over google hangouts but i can be open to skype, too.  i sure look forward to hearing from you!   ♥

emmy