#i have learned a lot about hockey in recent months but this i don't get

[sportsthoughts]

ok this is one genuine question i have about hockey... why do the games never start on time

[puckpocketed]

hi!! I was wondering where or how you do you research for players and teams, and just hockey in general? do you have any favorite blogs or other resources? thank you~

okay picking thru web rot for the sharks primer has prepared me for this one lmao here's the quick answer because i really need to eat some pie and go to bed. Hockey is my all-consuming interest at the moment and I haven't watched actual television or films; or read anything non-academic that isn't about hockey in.... 9 months? If it seems like I am taking in a LOT of information in a short amount of time it's because I am. I listen to hockey things at 2-5x speed depending on if its a video on youtube (locked to 2x), a podcast (3.5x is my ideal speed), or my screenreader (5x) and often take notes, save articles as pdfs to go back to, and transcribe things for fun (only recently am putting my transcriptions as addendums to gifs... very rewarding <3). When not studying for my actual degree, I am reading about hockey or listening to something hockey related or watching hockey or writing about hockey or learning how to play hockey. i am so serious. please don't assume that this is normal, optimal, or even something I would wish upon other people. I am in Love with her in thee most wretched and irrevocable way. She's my hobby in the sense that shes my sun and im building my wax wings and looking directly at her light and thanking her for blinding me. amen.

more seriously, if I'm going down a player rabbit hole I will try many of these things - though not necessarily all of them, and not in this order (and i'm sure i've forgotten one or two things I usually try... lordy):

I go to spotify/apple podcasts and throw in player names just to see what comes up and listen to basically everything.

if they are on an NHL team, there are likely MULTIPLE podcasts dedicated to that team. trawl through their podcast archives, especially post-game podcasts where discussion is happening about their performance. sometimes there are even interviews <3

i do the same with youtube if I can...!

throw their name into reddit, tumblr, twitter and scroll. endlessly. just trawl through everything that I can possibly get my hands on. The more obscure the player the easier this is, because there really aren't that many things to find out about them and not many people are talking about them at all. <- this is how I make contact with people who are the only person that knows about this one (1) guy and then we hold fins forever. <3

find out who the teams beat reporters are. if youre looking into prospects, even juniors teams have people covering them. the writing might not be the highest quality but you WILL eventually find fun details if you go digging.

check: elite prospects articles, the hockey writers articles, find out the player's home town and see if their local paper has anything on them (basically, check any and all databases that use a tagging system or have a functional search engine)

helpful things to tack onto the end of google/youtube/database searches: "media availability" "post-game" "interview" "feature" "profile" "scouting report" "draft" "debut" "review" "highlight" "tournament"

if they're a player from a non-english speaking country it's worth throwing their non-romanized name into google to see what you can get. google translate the website // chatgpt translation are two options - not ideal and not to be trusted 100% over actual translation done by a fluent human speaker.

Instagram stories are the bane of my existence because they're so ephemeral

tiktok is a parallel universe to me. I do not have the app. any browsing I do on it is solely via googling "[team name] tiktok official" and clicking around on my desktop PC. I've only ever done this for M.Chrona's gf (who is much more famous than him) but if you're really doing down the rabbit hole of player research, some of their WAGs will post about them. <- as always, be respectful/not weird.

facebook for older stuff... genuinely makes my skin crawl so I avoid it and its a last resort LMAO but yeah teams used to post on facebook and everything!!! <- again. dont be weird and stalk peoples families or friends asjklakjl

"[player/team name] gettyimages [day/month/year]" <- substitute getty images for: flickr, hockeyshots, dreamstime, alamy

Substack is good for general hockey stuff if you can stomach the dreaded idea of subscribing via email or getting the app <3 I like: Jack Han (hockey tactics newsletter), Sean Shapiro (shap shots), Adam Gretz (adam's sports stuff), Thibaud Chatel <- for the analytics nerds, Alex MacLean <- his Scouting The Scouts series is what got me into substack in the first place, Greg Revak (hockey IQ newsletter) <- this is the one that's got me on development stuff atm SUPER rec because there's gifs and charts and many many hyperlinks included for citations <3

i should do a book rec at some point but uhhhh its getting late and im hungry <3 thank you for asking + reading if you got this far, I hope it was a helpful peek into my process?

[irish-urn]

Rando question in my head (since it seems like they pick you up!).

Don't answer this if this is too spoilery about what you're going to do. In your LWL series universe, in your opinion, what is the biggest thing at the current moment (after your recently released Part 3) besides the yet-to-be signed divorce that is holding Casey from letting herself have Derek?

Is it fair to say that my read of your LWL-universe Derek is that he is already there and ready to have Casey and its a matter of waiting for her to be okay with crossing that line?

I do love asks!!! I looooooove chatting. I am a very talkative person.

So, regarding my sappy LWL series, yes: Derek is ready to be with Casey whenever Casey is ready for that. But also... He's not in a rush? Like, it's been 20 years of quietly loving her, they've found a good rhythm together, they are creating a family... Like, in a lot of ways, they *are* together. And she knows his intentions, and she didn't say No, she said, Not yet. He's lived this long on a lot less.

Now, it's a lot... More for Casey. In Canada, unless you're filing because of abuse or infidelity, you have to be separated for a full year before you can file for divorce. Casey is "fortunate" that Peter lives away for 6-9 months of the year, because she's been able to claim that she and him have been living apart since, like, October. That shaves some months off. But still -- there's at least 4 months before she can file, and then who knows how easy Peter is going to make it for her. And while it isn't uncommon to date while you're only separated, it's still... Kinda frowned upon? Like, it may make the divorce process more difficult because it conplicates things.

Furthermore, consider who's all involved in this triangle: an internationally playing hockey star, a -- what I think from Casey's work uniform makes her a prosecutor? -- and a rockstar that's famous enough to make the social media news when he and his daughter have a disagreement (see the beginning of the movie)... Who's also her stepbrother who has been living in her Guest House for the last 9 months, and is on her kids' emergency contact and pick-up list. Like... That's... Tangly. The wrong person picks up that story, and it could make things very difficult for ALL OF THEM.

But, tbh, those are just the technical aspects. There's also the whole: will our family (both their little group of 6 and the bigger McTuri clan) accept this? That's been the biggest obstacle since she first thought Derek was cute when she was 15 -- and it hasn't changed.

But REALLY the big thing holding her back is: what if I ruin us? What will I and my children do without Derek (and Skyler) in our lives?

I think I alluded to it somewhat, but I'll probably let Casey dwell on it a little more, but Casey cares for Derek an awful lot. And she adores Skyler. And so do her children. All of them are very important to each other. And Casey... Is divorcing her husband. She has just failed in her longest relationship. She is a *failure* (this isn't ME talking, this is Casey's guilt). And Derek hasn't had a serious relationship since Skyler's MOM and look at how that turned out! Derek twitches every time Skyler mentions her name!

So... That's scary. Because if she starts a relationship with him, it CAN'T fail. It HAS TO WORK. it's too important for it not to.

And that's... That's an awful lot of pressure. That's very scary. And she's still healing and learning what she's worth. That takes time. She just needs some more time to heal and learn and gather her courage.

But she's getting there (maybe sooner than everyone thinks. 😉)

[coppermouth]

i haven't been here long and i don't have a horse in this race, but i also don't think the content/flavor of hrpf has changed as much as some people think it has. here's my perspective as someone who did a kind of accidental chronological speed-run of the last 15 years of hockey fandom:

i started reading kane/toews fic before i knew anything about what happened in 2015—before i knew anything about either of them or any other player in real life vs their common fanon depictions—and all the most popular stuff on ao3 (that's still up) is quite fluffy. imagine my surprise to learn about pkane the actual human after reading about this weird little goofball twink for months. i was really under the impression when i first entered this fandom that the majority of fic was very edges-sanded-down escapism, not unlike the billion-and-one ofic m/m hockey novels that romance readers eat up.

if anything, my personal understanding of how hrpf fandom has shifted over the years is that authors have started to grapple more with the reality of hockey culture because of what happened with kane. his ship dominated as this fandom was coalescing, before any major drama, so there was maybe a certain willful ignorance that we could all participate in. but when the rug got pulled, the people who stayed had to think about how to balance reality with fantasy probably harder than they'd ever had before.

now that i've caught up with the times and have branched out into reading more recent fic, i see a pretty solid mixture of hockey-romance-softness and "realism," and it seems to depend on the author and the ship more than saying something about the broader culture, but it's true that a lot of fic from the 1988 era is wiped from the face of the internet and i don't have access to much of what was being hosted on lj vs ao3, so i am missing some context.

but! there's A LOT of hrpf now; the fandom is only getting bigger and producing more content. i think it's just as ikely that what we're seeing is more a result of the circles we float in coupled with the nature of fanfiction as an escape rather than a categorical shift. the stuff that gets popular generally tends to be on the fluffier side. and because there's simply more fic now than ever before, maybe it takes a little more digging than it used to to find the darker/more nuanced/morally gray content.

but it's definitely still there. because i'm reading it!

[sheshopelesse]

Tagged, sort of, by @sineala

RULES: go to spotify, go to your On Repeat playlist (it’s curated for you), put it on shuffle, write down the first 10 songs.

Let's do this.

Scuffle, Dessa. I love the stutter-step rhythm of this one. It's early Dessa, and lacks a lot of the polish of her more recent stuff, but I'm incredibly here for it. Also, "You just spread those broken wings / You spread those busted wings / You fucking walk."

February, Barnaby Bright. Okay, mood shift? I think of this as a definitional spring song, even though I've been told it's definitely about winter. Sounds like some propaganda from someone who didn't grow up in Chicago. "February, February reminds me that winter's behind me"

Win It All, The Orion Experience. Possibly this whole thing is going to be mood whiplash. This is a hockey song! Maybe it wasn't intended to be, but that's what it is now. It's also upbeat and catchy af, as you'd hope from The Orion Experience. "When the world pushes you down (You get back up) / And when it knocks you around (You get back up) / And now you fight a little harder (You get back up)"

Make Out, Julia Nunes. This is also hockey! Less obviously, though. Came across this song bc it was in a vid on twitter. Now it's unfortunately adorable forever and there's nothing I can do about it.

Electric Bones, Findlay. I'm a sucker for a song with a good, thumping, driving beat. Does it make you want to walk faster, and in time, while feeling a little predatory? That's my kinda song. "We're going nowhere, nowhere seems to me to be the right way to go / As if that's not enough, I am not yours, I'm not even my own"

Missing, London Grammar. Quintessential London Grammar. Longing and angry and sort of...celestial about it. "I worry that one day you'll go missing / And who will notice when you're gone?"

Girls Against God, Florence + the Machine. Oof, been feeling real mentally healthy this month, huh. This is pretty much the only song that can chase the vibes from Missing, but it replaces them with the same feelings, only bigger. "When I decided to wage holy war / It looked very much like staring at my bedroom floor"

Jackrabbit, San Fermin. Big, brassy, and triumphant in an unexpected way. Sometimes running away from something is running towards something else etc etc "Run for the hills, honey, run for the hills, honey / Run for the hills, don't look back"

Landsailor, Vienna Teng. Look, I'm a fanvid girlie from way back. Of course I have Vienna Teng on my frequent listens list. "Oh I am altered now for good / Shield these eyes no more"

This Song Has No Title, Elton John. Hah, okay, this is a funny one. From a Good Omens playlist I made back when I dabbled in that fandom. Ngl, it stands up. "And each day I learn just a little bit more / I don't know why but I do know what for / If we're all going somewhere, let's get there soon"

And that's some songs! Like Sine before me, I'm not much on tagging particular people, but if you see this and feel so inspired, consider yourself tagged by me. I love collecting new music.

[snapbackslide]

something happened last night that 4 years ago would have made me the happiest person on the planet. 4 years later, all it did was send me into a panic, reignite feelings i have spent years burying, and make me question everything all over again. it almost feels dangerous to post here now.

i haven't had to avoid this platform in a long time. tumblr has been my safe space ever since i got into hockey. i've been here since 2016, and no matter what happened, i always came back, it was always my best resort. to the point where i'm no longer active on any other social media platform, only using them for news. and also because everyone who didn't want to hear from me anymore was there.

but now that i've found out that the person i have been avoiding for years, and doing my best to stay away from, is also here, active and in my interactions, i feel like i'm back to where i started. tiptoeing, frantically refreshing, staying longer than i should, unable to clear my mind and think of anything else.

i feel small. i feel like i need to disappear again. every time someone asked me for space, i dealt with it the best way i could. i've tried begging them to stay. i've tried begging them to put themselves first. i've tried ghosting. i've tried long answers, short answers, actually giving them space, checking in later to let them know i still loved and cared about them, and i've tried never reaching out again. every time, i got the exact same result. loneliness.

i'm tired of being expected to be the bigger person, to reach out first, to be the one to make the first move, and attempt to make amends. i've tried. i did everything i could.

last night i made the decision to unblock almost everyone, everywhere. i'm not trying to do anything anymore. i just want to be at peace. blocking someone only means that their profile is stashed away somewhere else on my account, like i'm still holding on. and i don't want them there anymore. i'm letting go.

i don't know if they're going to see this. it's terrifying that they might. i never want someone i don't speak to anymore to be aware of the person i am now - that's scary. they once knew everything about me. last night sent me back 4 years ago and made me feel like i was still stuck there, and nothing had changed. but i know that's not true. i've changed. i might still be just as anxious and sad, and my heart is still the same and maybe even more loving now, but i've grown a lot.

i don't know that they even realized whose post they liked. have i become so unrecognizable that my layout looks too generic, the username doesn't ring a bell, and my personality doesn't come out anymore through the words i use? not even by the first person mentioned in that infamous post? is it because i haven't reblogged my trademark hockey player in 8 months? maybe.

i don't know what to do or how to move from here. i spent the night shaking and crying and wondering how i got here. a few weeks ago i posted about how shitty it felt to get a proof of life from that same person, not knowing they were here. i don't even know if i myself have accidentally interacted with them in those last 4 years. that was the reason i blocked everyone i wasn't on good terms with, so that would never happen. i'm not trying to disrespect someone's wishes and cross their boundaries when they've specifically asked me to disappear from their lives. i thought i did. but here we are.

the hockey world seems too small sometimes. i keep running into everyone i once loved, and yet i can never tell them that again. that's the most hurtful part. i don't know how to love from a distance. and i'm so scared now to be seen again, to be aware of how they feel about me now. or worse - to learn that they don't even remember me or anything about me at all.

i said i've been changed by the recent events and i really mean that. i feel unable to hate or hold resentment towards anyone, any player, any team. i hold so much love for everything that this league is, everything it has brought me. i found family online and every time i went to a game, when i was desperate for community and i didn't know what it meant to be vulnerable with a friend, and allow them to truly know me. all my favourite players have brought me so much joy, even the ones who eventually broke my heart. i still check on them from time to time to make sure they're okay.

every year has been special in its own way. but i haven't felt this level of excitement in 3 years now. since we signed everyone in 2021, and i made that hype video before knowing what kind of ride we were in for that year. i've been uncharacteristically excited for it all to start again, then august happened. as it does, with july, every year. i was so excited. now i'm just scared.

and for the first time i almost understand what people who don't like fall mean. i playfully fight with my dad every year over it. it's my favourite season, he hates it. he calls it the season of the dead. he says it's too melancholic. and i guess that's what made it comforting for me, it's when i feel the most connected to nature. but this year, i feel a little too connected to it. like instead of healing me, it's going to take me down with it. instead of healing, it's grieving.

timing and my intuition have been troubling lately. when certain people signed with certain teams this past summer, i thought i was only going to become more hateful. and when i landed back in my city and i had lost two more people, it all started to resurface. my past self. thousands of pictures i had saved over the course of 8 years. flames and jackets and johnny, so many memories came flooding back to my mind, i found screenshots and conversations that reminded me of just how much love there was in my now broken friendships. instead of feeling empty, i felt so blessed i got to experience such fulfilling, meaningful, profound connections with people across the entire continent.

and i know that they loved me. they really did. and my love for them will never die. even if i now get a moment of anxiety every time i click on my activity tab, and on my inbox. even if i feel tempted to click on their profiles and inevitably see something that will hurt my feelings. it's the price i have to pay for all the love i was gifted. it's the curse i was given for the blessing it is to love too hard and too deeply, that when it goes sideways, it needs to die forever. grief is the price we pay for love.

grief is the price we pay for love.

[three-headed-monster]

draft stuff? draft stuff.

welcome back to my FAVOURITE time of the year, the nhl draft! this years' draft is a little different from last years' considering, well covid, but that doesn't mean that there isn't content and that the content isn't as good as ever.

as your resident draft informant (yes i am dubbing myself that), this is basically my masterlist of all of the important draft stuff that you're gonna need to know everything about the upcoming draft prospects (you know, to predict which one you want your team to draft)

so this is where you can find every single recent tsn and media avail leading up to the draft from after u18s. the only one that isn't in that thread is brennan othmann's which you can find here.

you can also take a look at my fun draft primer! i talk about most of the important umich and team canada hockey boys in this primer, as well as a couple of fun extras on the last slide

wanna know more about the underrated draft boys but don't want to watch a long video to do it? you can find out a little bit more about the chl ones with their meet the future series where the players themselves talk about their lives and their game. as well, the get to know series is quite similar; a minute and 30 seconds each to tell anyone interested about their style of play and their life.

wanna know more about the ohl boys from this year's class? they do a draft prospect profile series every year, which you can find here. the videos are a bit longer, but you usually get more of a media avail situation, where the prospects answers questions in an interview format and maybe tell a fun story or two in there

highlights? the whl has got em. you can find all of them here, along with their get to knows and their road to nhl draft prospect profiles, similar to the ohl ones.

since the qmjhl guys weren’t at u18s, they feel kind of glossed over, but fear not. there is plenty of qmjhl prospects content which you can find here. this search page mainly nhl prospect analyses that the qmjhl does, get to know features, and qmjhl top prospects of each month.

not just into draft prospects but also nhl prospects? check out the chl’s sunday spotlight. 5 questions, 5 answers, all with the goal of learning more about your favourite draft children.

another great resource is podcasts! there are two i’d recommend to people trying to learn more about specific draft prospects. i could go on forever and ever about how much i love showbound but i’ll just say every episode is packed with fun stories and good times. they mainly interview ohl boys, but it’s always a good time. as well, chump talk is another great one for ohl guys, but they interview pretty much anyone and everyone. for them, i’d highly suggest pinpointing which prospect you want to know more about specifically so you can look for that specific episode.

but wait? what about the ncaa boys? while i’m not as informed about them as i am with my chl boys, umich hockey just did a huge draft show with their top 4 prospects, clips of which can be found on their twitter. this is also a great place to find any other interviews from the ncaa boys cause they’re typically rbed. their youtube page has lots from the season as well. @kentjohnsons will know more than i do for any other non-chl but ncaa boys in this class, so hit her up if you want to know more.

in terms of articles? i got you. scott wheeler has amazing prospect coverage, and just scrolling through his twitter account gives you a look at some of the articles that he's written for the athletic. if you don't have an athletic subscription, sign in via google, that'll give you three free articles. the notable ones i would say if you want to read more about the major prospects are william eklund's article, owen power's article, and the matty beniers article. here's a thread too to all of the work he's done for the draft this year, including scouting rankings and mock drafts. sportsnet has coverage too, although it's quite limited compared to tsn's and the athletic's, but there are a slew of prospect of interest articles that you can find here. i'm not american so i honestly don't know but nhl network has slowly been putting out some video content of the ncaa guys and the americans, so there's a chance that there are articles there too. most teams have also done draft profiles on the top prospects, but i'll link to some of the sabres ones because those are the ones i've looked at the most and are most familiar with (most of them are similar though). the nhl also has draft articles up on their site, mainly mock drafts, top prospects and interesting narratives.

speaking of narratives, @workingforitallthetime put together a wonderful little primer of the narratives that are gonna be present in this year's draft which you can find here. may i also add though ontario is Small apparently and all of these guys are buddies with each other which means bestie vibes :))) do with this what you will.

as for european prospects, i honestly don't know much about them but william eklund and simon edvinsson are the primary top prospects from there this year. i'll link both of their media avails though and they both have athletic articles written by scott wheeler as well.

missed the u18s and all the content? no problem. the iihf still has their u18 webpage up where you can find articles, videos, and photos about anything and everything that went on at the u18s. you can also find highlights of the team canada games on their new and much improved video finder. the chl also has interviews up from u18s and wjc here.

i hope that people end up finding this useful and that it was helpful to everyone on their journey to learning more about the prospects for this year's draft! that's all i have pretty much, but if you want to know more, you can always send me an ask and i'll try and find it for you! if you want to add to this, feel free to rb or send me an ask with your addition! this is just everything that i know and i have off the top of my head for those who want to find out more about the draft.

[generallybarzy]

hey there, stranger. i

SERIES MASTERLIST

summary: when you mention being lonely, Rebecca Seidenberg sets you- their babysitter- up on a blind date with Mat Barzal.

an: hi, i’ve been mia for a few days now due to some stuff, you all know what happened, but anyway here’s something to make my absence better! i know there might be some details that don’t make sense irl but just roll with it please I love the strangers to lovers trope so much. 

word count: 1.6k

Okay, you were lonely.

Ever since moving to New York for your first year of college, endless amounts of studying and work and more little jobs on the side to make ends meet living in the big city had taken up most of your spare time, leaving few opportunities for dating. Even when you did go on dates, they rarely lasted long enough to be called relationships, and not once have you had a serious relationship. This was your 20s, you were supposed to be out there living your life, weren’t you? Stupidly falling in love and getting your heart broken and learning along the way. But instead, you were busy trying to focus on that degree, leaving any hope of a love life behind.

Of course, there was nothing wrong with focusing on your degree, it was a degree you'd been looking forward to getting and you had been lucky enough to get accepted to your dream school, but it would be nice to have a significant other you could hold at the end of the day. Right? None of your many, many dates ended well, though, and though you were still young and didn't need to worry, you were lonely and felt late to the party as all your friends were falling in and out of love. It may have been dumb, but you were beginning to believe you’d never find the right guy.

And that’s where Rebecca Seidenberg stepped in to help.

She was a friend of your mom's and aunt's, and, though you didn't know her personally when you first moved out, word had spread through your family and to family friends, and she reached out to let you know that if you ever needed help in the big city, she would be there. She had been practically a mother figure to you since last year when you moved to New York all alone at 19 years old. She and her hockey player husband lived on Long Island with their children, just a quick commute from your city campus, and apparently, your mom had been in constant contact with her since your big move, checking in and asking someone to watch out for her little girl. You got a call one day asking if you needed any extra cash because, according to your mom, you were good with kids, and the two could use a babysitter for the night.

So, while you resided in a dorm room in the city and worked on campus between classes, you spent a lot of your Friday nights and weekends out on Long Island babysitting for the Seidenbergs when they went out on date nights.

They all quickly came to love you, especially the children, and you found it worth it to spend your weekends with them rather than out on any shitty dates or getting drunk at some stupid, dangerous frat party like a lot of college students. You loved their family, you loved all the genuine love, and could only hope that one day you'd have a relationship with that much love in it. You didn't like to admit how much you wanted a boyfriend, maybe it had something to do with your own insecurity, but you didn't want to think you needed a man. Maybe it had something to do with your fears, too. You didn’t want to get messed up again. You didn't need a man, but how great would it be to have someone there at the end of the day to curl into and rant to and love? It would be amazing. Okay, maybe you were a hopeless romantic. But you’d never admit it.

But about a month ago, as Rebecca was talking to you about a date Dennis was taking her on next week, you were feeling particularly romantic and hopeless. Your second year in college had just started up again, and you had returned to New York from your hometown to settle back into your lonely dorm room. All your friends were either meeting up with their partners after spending the summer apart, or dealing with the loneliness of having to be separate from them for the upcoming year, but you had nobody like that, and just let it slip.

"I wish I could find a guy who loves me like that." You lamented after commenting on how the Seids looked at each other with absolute heart eyes. "It's starting to feel like I'm just destined to be alone."

"What?" She looked at you incredulously, laughing a little as if she couldn't believe you hadn't found anyone. "You're still young, you have plenty of time!"

"Yeah, realistically I know, but I've been on so many dates, and none of them are ever successful.” You groaned, maybe a little dramatically as you thought back to all the dates you’d had since moving out of your parent’s house last year and coming to New York. “And all my friends have, like, solid relationships, or are at least messing around, and I can’t even do that. I feel so far behind.”

“There’s no timeline on love.” She spoke wisely, like the motherly figure you’d been missing. “You’re not falling behind. Anyway, the chances of you meeting the love of your life this young are pretty slim.”

“I know, and I’m not looking for the love of my life. Just… someone, you know?” You thought for a moment, just of having someone to smile with, to hug and to kiss after a hard day. You hadn’t had a true boyfriend since your last year of high school, and that hadn’t ended well. You had fallen hard for the wrongest person in the world, and he had done nothing but hurt you for months. It had definitely messed you up a bit, but you wanted nothing more than to forget about that whole ordeal and come out of your shell again, to love again. “I don't know if I'm being too picky or my standards are too high or something, but I just attract the wrong types of guys."

"Hmm." She gave it thought for a moment, and you knew she was going to work some of her motherly magic. "Well, what are you looking for?"

"I don't know. Just someone who's genuine? Someone who's really passionate and has a big heart. And funny, the guys I date always have the blandest humor and it makes dates so awkward and I'd have to force laughter. Someone who actually cares. I don't think that's too much to ask for, is it?"

"It's definitely not." She laughed for a moment. "I actually know someone who fits in those categories really well."

"Really?"

"If you'll let me, I think I could get him to go on a date with you."

"No, no way, blind dates aren't my thing."

"What's your thing? Dating apps?" You laughed at the playful chirp, but unfortunately, it was true. "Come on, I know it'll go well, even if you don't end up together. He's a great guy!"

"Alright, fine!" You laughed a bit, at both how excited she was and how excited you were to meet this guy she spoke so highly of. "It better be worth it."

"Trust me, you'll love him."

And that's how you ended up here, sitting all alone in the corner of a little coffee shop in Brooklyn, fiddling with the strings coming loose at the sleeves of your oversized sweater. It had been getting chillier out in the past few October weeks, and even though it was cozy and warm inside, you kept your sweater on for comfort, so you had something to fidget with and calm your nerves.

You were so nervous, you were overthinking everything you were doing. Were you dressed okay? Jean, a cute turtleneck with a loose sweater thrown over top, a cute little necklace- too casual? Not casual enough? Was your hair a wreck? You’d thrown it up in a cute bun but had it become a wreck since you walked here through the breeze? Your makeup was simple, but had it covered up the fact that you’d been breaking out due to the stress of your recent surge in classwork? You had already ordered a drink but immediately rethought it. Was it rude to order before he showed up?

As much as you trusted Mrs. Seidenberg, you couldn’t help the nagging feeling that this date would go horribly. He would be here any minute, you were sure of it. You could feel it.

And you were right.

The door to the coffee shop rattled open and in stepped a man who quickly drew your attention away from everybody else. In dark jeans, a tee, and a nice-looking black bomber jacket, he didn’t really stand out, but there was something about him- his aura, the way he held himself, that made him so appealing. That immediately drew your eyes to him. He had dark hair that looked soft to the touch and made you want to run your fingers through it, and his brows were furrowed above searching eyes as he looked around the room, making you think that maybe he was looking for someone. Maybe he was looking for you. Maybe it wasn't too much to hope that this man was your blind date. And the moment his eyes fell on you- the only person sitting all alone in this cafe- your eyes locked. Only then did you realize you’d been staring. His eyebrows quirked up a little bit and you saw a little smile start to pull at the corners of his lips. As he approached your table, you realized your prayers were answered.

He moved in long strides, almost gracefully towards you, and you were so mesmerized with how he approached you that you almost missed his beautiful voice when he spoke to you.

"(Y/N)?"

Breathless, you smiled. "Hey there, stranger."

[badhockeymom]

Barkov @Urheilucast 3: Friends and mentors

Patrik Laine

Host: Have you sat inside Pate’s yellow Lambo yet?

Sasha: No I haven’t, he has already sent it to Canada. So I haven’t got to blast pop from rolled down windows on Hämeenkatu.

Host: Does anyone even ever get a ride in that car besides his family? 

Sasha (laughs): I don’t know, you have to ask Pate that. You have a few questions for him already.

Host: I’m a ride or die fan of Pate’s yellow Lamborghini, you know, I ask all my guests the same question. Nobody has got a ride on it yet.

Sasha: That’s weird then. I'll have to be the first.

Jaromir Jagr

Sasha: Everything didn't go the way I wanted when I started that season. I have to thank my coach at that time, Gallant, who believed in me and said don't worry, just play, you're a young guy with great potential, it may take a while but I trust you. How long did it take, about 30 games I think, until I got my game going, started to produce points, score goals and defend well. Then, on the trade deadline, we got my next mentor, Jaromir Jagr, and that was the beginning of another story.

Host: That is something I wanted to ask about. Jagr is one of my greatest childhood idols and favorites, I had a picture of #68 on my wall. What’s your favorite memory of Jagr as a teammate?

Sasha: I don’t have one favorite memory. I have the whole time he was on the Florida Panthers, from the first day to the last day I saw him on my wing, it was total – I was living my dream. It took a moment to realize that I’m playing in the same line with the player who’s second in points in the world – the history of the game. I have played with Ville who I saw as a legend, I’ve played a couple of games with Selänne, but then it’s Jaromir Jagr who is – he is who he is, he needs no introduction, I don’t have to explain to anyone who he is. It was – every day I tried to watch him, look at what he does and copy him. I didn’t copy his skating, it was – he was 45 at that time, but I tried to copy everything else.

Host: Did you copy his habit of going to the gym in the middle of the night?

Sasha: That’s something I haven’t done yet, I haven’t hit the gym in the middle of the night but I’ve copied everything else. But I have a good story about that: We had an away game, I think it was in Nashville. I had been in Kulikov’s room for six hours, we had played FIFA and ordered in a lunch, then in the evening we had room service dinner in the room and played some more FIFA, and at ten PM we stopped, I went out to the hallway, rubbed my eyes there, ready for bed. A door opens, Jagr pops out in the hallway, he has a weight vest on, ankle weights on his legs, a hockey stick in his hand. He asked, “Where are you going?” and I answered “I’m going to sleep, it’s 10 PM.” He said, “Look, you’re 20 and you’re going to bed at ten, I’m 45 and I’m going to the gym.” He didn’t say anything else, he just left for the gym.

My next move was to go into my room, sit down and look at myself in the mirror. And I said, “Okay,” and started doing some squats and push-ups in my room. I took it from there, it was the first example I got for what you should do during the season and ever since that night I’ve made it a habit to go to the hotel gym in the evening, or for a run, and stayed after games and practices for extra workout. It was another turning point, a decisive moment in my career.

Host: What a beautiful story. The way it was presented to you, he set an example, no yelling or scolding, just stating calmly that “I’m going to the gym and I’m 45.”

Sasha: I’ll have to give myself some credit there. Not everyone would take the lesson home with them the way I did, many young players would laugh at it, maybe call a friend to tell the story, guess what just happened, and get their sleep, but I did take what I could learn from that situation and I think it helps me to this day.

Ville “Nemo” Nieminen

Sasha: Ville was a huge figure in my career, he came in kind of without saying anything and took me to the next level, if not the next one after that. He showed me the importance of hard work, I got to work with him and got some really great experience. To have had that kind of persons working with me through my career, I have grown up with them and through them, became a better athlete and a better person.

Host: Nemo was my guest two, three months ago and he spoke very beautifully of how you shot pucks on their backyard and how a natural mentorship but also a genuine life-long friendship started to develop between you two. It’s got to have a huge significance in a young player’s life, who you choose to look up to. In that sense, Nemo’s impact in your development must be absolutely crucial.

Barkov: True. I can’t speak highly enough of how he has helped me ever since I saw him for the first time, or was on the ice with him. I think he had his son Viljami with him and he left Viljami on the other end of the ice and came to pass and shoot the puck with me and my friend at the other end. It has started from there - I don’t think it was a friendship at first, we knew each other and have been around in the same circles, he has known my father for longer, but the older I have grown, the more I have got to know him as a person and the closer friends we have become.

Host: It’s a great narrative and of course it is only a beginning of your story, you have constant communication with each other and you learn off of each other all the time. What Nieminen - coach Nieminen now, of course - said very wisely was that he thought he was teaching Barkov but what happened was that Barkov was teaching him. This seems to be a two-way street.

Sasha: I guess so. I don’t know how he felt it but I have learned so much from him. If he hadn’t come to the team on my second Liiga season with Tappara, I don’t know if I had been anywhere but I’m happy he came on and I’m happy we got to play in the same line and train together for a whole season, a whole year, and ever since then every summer. It has helped me a lot. And I believe strongly that he does learn something from me. Now, as a coach, he has been able to coach me as a player for many months over the recent years, and not only me, he has had other players too, and he has been able to pick things from it that he can take to his coaching career.

***

Bonus: as Sasha said briefly, he has played with Teemu Selänne, but he has played against him too. 

(Teemu Selänne, Patrik Laine, Aleksander Barkov, Jari Kurri tennis doubles in the annual Bermuda Cup in Finland)

__

I’m making a series of posts where I translate bits of Aleksander Barkov’s guest appearance at a Finnish sports podcast Urheilucast. - Part 1 - Part 2