#if this turns into a bunch of angry messages I *will* turn anon off tho

[himbeaux-on-ice]

Lehner and Flower are both great goalies, and I'm glad they want to try to use them as a tandem rather than a Starter v Backup. However I will say I only pay attention to VGK due to Flower and like I think he deserves the world but like so does any and every goalie imo. So like I don't know whats going in the VGK fanbase but like treat them nicely guys both of them 💜💜💜

(this turned into a whole-ass essay bc I got on a roll with getting this take off my chest lmao, thank you for your ask and I’m so sorry lol)

It just is so completely bizarre to me that every time Flower is not in net for one (1) game, there is a certain set of Vegas fandom that views this as some kind of conspiracy/egregious slight against him. Like. Guys. He cannot play every game! As somebody who was pretty much ready to cry tears of relief when Montreal finally got Carey Price a solid dependable backup this year, believe me, you do not want him to play every game! It’s not sustainable.

The man had maybe 2-3 games off over a six week stretch because Lehner was injured, and yet there were people who were upset that he was on the bench on Friday. They viewed it as if DeBoer was unfairly “punishing” Fleury for letting in a few more goals than usual in Wednesday’s game against San José (which they WON)... rather than, uh, letting the 36-year-old league vet who just played two solid months of Vezina-worthy back-to-back-to-back hockey get some rest now that your other NHL-caliber goalie is back?? It was just so bizarre. And the venom on some of the comments, it totally threw me!

Like. Vegas fans. Listen. I am Montreal fan whose favourite player in the WHOLE LEAGUE is Carey Price, the magic superstar goalie who the current iteration of that team was built around instead of a star forward or a star defenceman. I understand your goalie being the face of the franchise, I understand wanting to turn on any game and get to see him play, and being a little disappointed when he doesn’t. I know exactly where you are coming from.

What I don’t understand, and what totally baffles me, is this bizarre alternate universe that has been concocted in some fans’ minds where this franchise is supposedly out to sabotage and bully their incredibly popular, and right now incredibly successful, star goalie, just because he’s not given 82 (or in this case 56) starts in a season.

(Rest of my thoughts under the cut to be merciful to the dashboard lol)

I dunno, it feels like maybe too many people took that ridiculous sword painting stunt last year at face value? I came into caring about this team just a few games before that happened, and maybe that is why my perspective on all of this is so different from fans who came into this franchise at the beginning when Flower was the crown jewel of it or who followed him here from Pittsburgh. When I showed up, Lehner was starting playoff games and Fleury was seemingly sulking about it. It actually took me a while to come around to Flower as a player because of it, because that was not a flattering first impression!

Listen, I’ve never believed that an agent would do that without having the client’s blessing, and I’ve never thought it was anything other than poorly thought-out and more than a bit immature. I also believe you can be a nice, good person, and still do asshat things sometimes, which is what I think allowing his agent to do that was. I understand why he was mad to not be starting, but I also understand that in the playoffs you don’t have time to hand out starts just to be nice, and at that time, Lehner was giving the performance they needed to get wins. Nothing personal, just business. But people have taken it very personally, and bought the narrative from that painting completely.

This year, circumstance has handed Fleury an unexpected chance to take the spotlight as a full-time starter, and he has had an incredible, spectacular bounce-back season which has put him in the Vezina conversation in what, his sixteenth, seventeenth season in the league? Hooray! You love to see a story like that and I am genuinely pulling for him to win that damn trophy, dammit! Buuut I’ve also been worrying with all these starts, how long before he burns out and can’t keep pace with standing on his head and working miracles for 60 minutes every second night? Is it good for a young developing goalie in Oskar Dansk to be thrown into all of this every time Flower needs a night off? What happens to the team if he gets injured (which increases in likelihood the more games he plays)? Etc etc

Now, I’m relieved, because the other goalie, who put himself pretty damn high up in the Vezina conversation last year, is healthy and ready to start games again. And that means Vegas, lucky lucky Vegas, should (if Lehner is still up to form after his time out) have TWO excellent goalies to swap in and out of net every night. Nice!!

No longer do the other teams in the division get to hope and pray for “maybe it will be the rookie in net tonight...” Nope. It’s going to be one of two excellent NHL goalies, both well-rested because they’re trading nights, ready to ruin that other team’s day. Do you know how many other franchises would kill for that right now? Leafs fans go to sleep at night and dream wistful dreams of having your goalie situation.

If it turns out Lehner isn’t where he used to be after the concussion, and it becomes clear that there’s a marked performance difference between the two of them, then yeah, it might make sense to give Flower a majority of starts down the road. But as it stands right now, Lehner won his first game back, and now that he is healthy his showing last year has more than earned the benefit of the doubt for a tandem situation.

Nobody who looks at his numbers is going to perma-bench a goalie who is giving the performance Flower is giving this year. He steals games, even when the team maybe isn’t helping him out as much as they could. You don’t have to worry about that. IMO, Vegas fans for now should really genuinely appreciate that he’s now going to get to rest up a bit more before the playoffs, and then the conversation can be had in May once we’ve seen them both perform about who gets the most starts when Vegas goes on their postseason run. Oh, to be spoiled for choice...

But like, the anti-Flower conspiracy isn’t real, guys. It’s just not. He’s the face of your franchise. He is playing amazing. If there was doubt about his future with the team before, he has spent the last six weeks drop-kicking (poke-checking?) it into outer space. And in doing so he has more than earned the chance to catch his breath, sit on the bench and be a well-padded spectator for a few games out of every handful. His play will be better for it.

And knowing Flower? He’ll still have a big ol smile on his face the entire time. 😁

[realcube]

CELEBRATING YOUR BIRTHDAY 

characters ♡ bokuto, tendō, matsukawa & suna

tw ♡ gn! reader, timeskip! bokuto (all sfw tho), swearing, reader wears makeup (matsukawa), swearing, mentions of death & food 

cred ♡ thanks to anon for this request <3

KŌTARŌ BOKUTO

♡ he was literally counting down the days to your birthday, he even took the day off practise to celebrate it with you so imagine his surprise when the special day finally rolls around and he wakes up to an empty bed

♡ at first, he thought that perhaps you were just around the house somewhere but nope, the place was completely empty and even worse, all signs pointed to his theory that you had gone to work/school on your birthday 

♡ outraged. he was absolutely outraged. 

♡ firstly, he tried calling you but you wouldn’t pick up, even after his many attempts so his next resort to call your place of work/school reception 

♡ obviously he managed to get a hold of you then-

♡ he was originally gonna yell about how you lied to him about taking the day off on your birthday but there was no way he could be angry at you — almost ever — so instead, he made the quick decision of telling you to have a nice day before hanging up 

♡ you were kinda pissed that he wasted your time like that but how could you stay mad at him? he’s fkn adorable! he blew you audible kisses over the phone for good luck!

♡ you laboured your way through the day, putting in great effort yet through it all, the only thing on your mind was how much you wanted to just pass out on the couch with bokuto as soon as you got home. you weren’t even sure if you had the energy to change into your pjyamas.

♡ however, when you finally did arrive home, there was no need to put yourself through the onerous task of changing clothes as the first thing you were greeted by when you stepped foot in your own home was a chorus of cheers of ‘surprise!’ followed by people spilling out into the foyer from the kitchen and living room 

♡ then there was bokuto, the loudest of them all leading the crowd, blowing into the party horn while dashing up to, throwing his arms around your shoulders to pull you into a tight hug, ‘happy birthday, sweetie!’

♡ a light gasp escaped your lips at the sudden hoots, and the unfamiliar — and frankly uncomfortable — sight of many friends swarm towards you had you on edge but when you felt bokuto wrap you in his warm embrace, you knew you were home

♡ he held you close until you were forced apart by many guests tearing you away to personally wish you a happy birthday

♡ now that the initial shock had died down, you noticed that there wasn’t as many people present as you thought, it was a humble gathering of all your closest friends 

♡ there was a massive pile of bright-colored gifts lying on the stairs, and it was hard not to immediately acknowledge them as the sheer mass and number of the presents scattered across the steps prevented anyone from being able to go upstairs

♡ the following day, you were made aware of the fact 90% of those presents were addressed from ‘your best ace husband ;)’ which was pretty straight-forward considering you only have one husband; kiyoomi sakusa. 

♡ jokes, you married bokuto but sakusa was also at the party. he originally just wanted to drop off his gift then leave but bokuto persuaded him to stay, though he seemed to be regretting it now as almost everyone at the party now shared an unspoken goal to slam sakusa’s face into one of the cupcakes that decorated the circumference of your cake

♡ speaking of the cake, bokuto remembered what type of cake was your favorite from the wedding planning and he was so chuffed with himself. in fact, he was so confident in his cake picking ability that he ordered a massive 3-tier monster of a dessert 

♡ neither of you would be able to finish it before it goes bad so you ended up cutting it up into pieces  and sending each guest away with a little goody-bag with a slice of cake inside lmao 

♡ once you had finished your goodbyes and everyone had filed out of your home, you flopped onto the couch and let out a deep sigh of relief. well, it was only a sigh for a few moment as it became a wheeze when bokuto laid down on top of you 

♡ ‘happy birthday, (y/n). i’m sorry if i tired you out.’ he hummed, fiddling with your fingers as his lips curled into a shaky smile

♡ ‘i’m a bit sleepy but i had an amazing time. thank you so much, kō.’

♡ bokuto smiled, his heavy lid falling shut as he finally rested his neck, being able to fall asleep comfortably now that you’ve told him that you had fun

SATORI TENDŌ

♡ unlike bokuto, he’ll actually mention your birthday a few weeks prior to the celebration so he can plan the perfect date :3

♡ ‘so do you wanna go to the aquarium or the theme park? because i know we’ve went to the park before but they remodelled it apparently. plus, maybe the aquarium is a bit underwhelming for such a special day, but it’s up to yo--’

♡ ‘we won’t really get to spend much time in either. if you consider the time school finishes, the train ride and the time the aquarium and park closes so maybe we could just chill at my house instead.’

♡ tendō deadpanned for a moment, the most unamused look taking over his features until he suddenly burst out laughing, cackling as if you just told the joke of the century, ‘seriously, (y/n)? you’re gonna go to school on your birthday.’

♡ ‘yes, of course.’ you replied in all seriousness, resulting in tendō awkwardly beginning to stifle his chuckles.

♡ he frowned, slumping back into the seat beside you, ‘c’mon, it’s your birthday, though! you deserve the day off.’

♡ you shook your head, kindly declining his suggestion, ‘i have a test on that day.’

♡ ‘all the more reason to ditch!’

♡ now it was your turn to deadpan

♡ tendō tossed his head back while letting out a sigh  of defeat, draping his arm around your shoulder to lovingly pull you to his chest, ‘alright, then. whatever you want, dear.’

♡ you smiled, glad that you didn’t need to disagree with him any longer — and you were even happier on the day. even though you insisted that he keeps things small on your birthday, he still managed to find a way to make things extra asf by getting you a massive plush that was about half the size of your stature and a hamper of homemade chocolates ><

ISSEI MATSUKAWA 

♡ honestly, he’s never been the best at giving gifts but he tries extra hard for you 

♡ like if you off-handedly say that you are cold during class, he’ll buy you a bunch of new jackets, jumpers and gloves

♡ or if you say you need more mascara, he’ll buy you exact same one you usually wear 

♡ he’s observant enough to notice and remember the exact shade and brands of all your cosmetic products but he’s not observant enough to pick up on the subtle hints you drop as to what you want for your birthday 

♡ you can never guess what he’s gonna get you and that adds to your anticipation for the day 

♡ if your birthday is on a school day, he’ll bring in a batch of homemade cupcakes (which hanamaki helped him with) and stick a candle in one of them for you to blow out 

♡ he offers you one but they are all pretty stale- just smile and nod while your teeth feel like they are being shattered trying to bite down on the cupcake 

♡ it might set off the fire alarm but oh well, just count that as another present

♡ oikawa will probably get you something like a bouquet and try flirt with you so at that point, matsukawa and hanamaki begin using the cupcakes as weapons 

♡ they are a two for one deal so you’re going to be spending the day with both of them tailing you like lost puppies

platonic RINTARŌ SUNA

♡ (requester specified) your birthday is on the same day as his so ofc he’s going to be a little salty abt it 

♡ you both created a game to see who receives the most birthday wishes and whoever won gets ¥1500 from the loser’s birthday money

♡ for the past few years, he’s usually been the winner by just a few but this year, you made it a point to befriend all him teammates in order to ensure victory 

♡ having to pretend to be friendly with atsumu — who wasn’t very good at hiding his massive crush —was definitely a challenge but you powered through 

♡ in fact, you may have played the role too well as both the miya twins gave you a gift 

♡ osamu gave both you and suna a plastic bag filled with some food he made and water bottles

♡ as for atsumu, his gift to you was a massive hamper filled with an assortment of many different luxury confectionary which didn’t look cheap at all but it didn’t feel appropriate to question the price so you simply took it from him with a bright smile

♡ of course, suna was excited (and very hungry) as he expected the same gift but he was more than disappointed when all he received was a bag of chips and a slap on the back

♡ he goes out of his way to tell every teacher it’s your birthday in hopes that they’ll make the class sing happy birthday to you 

♡ but it pisses him off to no end when you add that it’s his birthday too so he ends up getting roped into your misery 

♡ also your thumbs are going to be sore at night swiping through all the various candid pics that suna took of you throughout the day (in less than flattering poses) which he uplaoded to almost all of his social media stories with stupid ass captions 

♡ but dw bc he’ll eventually post a nice photo of you with a sweet message

♡ ‘happy birthday to @(y/n) . i would die for you, bitch (even though you annoy the hell out of me every single day 🤠).’ 

[sulkybbarnes]

Ok so I watched endgame on friday and basically I was so disappointed with what they did to bucky/steve and how they literally had one (1) second together onscreen and it was like they were saying goodbye for an hour not that buck knew steve was leaving forever??? also idk if I believe that he'd abandon his best friend to go back and marry peggy because she already had a family? Basically I'm just upset they didn't do justice to bucky/steve...but I'm curious - what did you think of the film??

ENDGAME SPOILERS AHEAD (AND IN THE ASK, so don’t read it either)

Hey anon! I stared at this for a good ten minutes before deciding how to answer it, and settled on keeping my answer under a read more so here we go:

Let me start by saying that I haven’t seen a Marvel movie since Captain America: Civil War (with the exception of Black Panther) and I haven’t been to see Endgame myself nor am I going to. But I got a play by play of the movie from close friends, read multiple articles, and heard every opinion before reaching the conclusion that I was very right in deciding not to watch the movie bc I hate what they did with it, and I would have fumed even more if I had to sit through it in a cinema. Let’s break down what I think about it and clarify some things first though.

The whole time travel plotline with Steve was shitty writing that left a lot of people confused, but basically there are supposed to be two versions of Steve by the end because he created a new branch in time. Basically, one Steve did go into the ice and live out his life until the moment he went back in time and created the second Steve that lived out life with Peggy in the new branch of time. This supposedly means that Peggy’s family wasn’t erased (even tho I personally still don’t get it lol) but I have read like five different accounts on whether or not this makes sense, and to me that means that the movie failed spectacularly. If you need article after article and essay length explanations for your audience to understand what you did post-movie then you didn’t do your job right. Here are two articles on the time travel and you can decide which one you agree with: article 1, article 2.

Now let’s leave the technicalities of it behind and focus on characters. Steve Rogers has meant the world to me for a long time and I adored his character. He and Bucky got me through a tough time in my undergrad uni so they mean a lot to me, yes, but I want to point out that my opinion isn’t solely formed bc I shipped them together but because I truly believe the ending Steve was given ruined his character. Like listen I am bitter that they threw away the only love story that made sense to me in MCU (Steve and Bucky) but this isn’t about that. The fact of it is that the same writers who made Steve kiss Peggy’s niece at her funeral in Civil War and said it doesn’t matter because Peggy was a one month thing to Steve are the ones who wrote endgame and decided that Steve’s love for his friends who are a found family, his best friend, this new world and new life he has, and everything he built basically didn’t matter just bc he didn’t have a romantic love interest and that.. really grates on my nerves with the message it sends. 

This message is also reiterated with them killing off Nat. The fact that they killed of Nat bc she can’t have children and doesn’t have a family sends the same message. Once again Marvel says that unless you follow certain heteronormative criteria then life isn’t worth living or having. They sent Steve back to be stuck in his past and walk away from his family and future, and they killed Nat off in the spirit of the same underlying message of unless you have Het Love and a family then whatever else you have doesn’t really matter. And I truly despise that. This post  explains it well I think.

As for the Steve/Bucky part, which yeah kills me too.. we all know that had one of Steve or Bucky been a woman then they’d be played up to be Marvel’s greatest love story ever written. I never hoped they’d let them be together bc I knew better but still… sending him to be with Peggy (who I love, this isn’t anything against her I swear) when he knew her for so little and they had no more than a fling, and making him walk away from everything else he has is the epitome of them doing one last hurrah to prove he’s in heterosexual love with someone. I just find it so insulting bc they mocked his and Peggy’s relationship before to justify him kissing Sharon and it’s adding insult to injury. 

I wanted Sam to get the shield (only good thing that happened) and I wanted Steve to walk away and have a life… hell, fine what fucking ever give him a new blonde girl as a love interest but. Not this quick-fix poorly thought out ending that negates everything Steve stood for. Him walking away from the best friend he fought the entire world for, and the other best friend who fought the world with him and became a brother for someone he knew for a month in the 40s… who moved on and had her own life and children (and deserved way more than being an afterthought fix-it in this stupid movie) makes me really angry and sad to think about.

My last point is their well known queerbaiting which they did once again here. They queerbaited saying there’ll be a gay character you’d never expect in Endgame, and it turned out to be a nameless background character who’s in the scene for like 10 seconds. That lgbt representation! Side note: I will forever be bitter that marvel queerbaited the shit out of Stucky. Remember when they released an entire alternate universe comic promising Steve and Bucky will be together by the end of it then killed Bucky off at the very end? Yeah lol I will never forgive them that one.

I also heard they put Thor in a fat suit and made a bunch of jokes about it???? Which is seriously disgusting, I don’t even have words for it. 

Anyway, in conclusion: Fuck Marvel.