A Life Time of Ice Time

"Wow," Matt said when I had finished telling him about Sarah and the events of last night's dinner. "You guys should go on the Jerry Springer show."

I rolled my eyes at him. "I don't think that it's that extreme." I looked out onto the ice. They had gotten us pretty good seats, or at least that what Matt had said. I didn't think they were very good since besides the fact that I couldn't follow the puck, the players were blocking our view. I watched as Jonathan skated out onto the ice. "Come on Jonathan!" I called to him and he turned his head back at me momentarily. "Hit the ball in the hoop for me!"

Matt buried his face in his foam finger beside me. "I am just going to pretend that I don't even know you." He rose to his feet and started chanting "fight” as two guy on the ice dropped their gloves and started punching each other.

"They're allowed to just fight like that?" I asked before two of the refs broke it up.

"Um, yeah." He sat down, disappointed that no ones teeth had gotten knocked out. "It's hockey."

I scanned the ice and watched as the players skated around. I really didn't get why this was so entertaining. They just kept skating back and forth and back and forth. People were screaming like something miraculous was happening. "I don't see anyone with the name Mikita out there."

"Of course not," he said as he shoveled popcorn down his throat. "He doesn't play anymore."

"Well then people probably think that I'm an idiot!" I looked down at the shirt that Matt had lent me that had Mikita written on the back. "Why would you give me a shirt of someone who doesn't even play!?"

"Cause he is a legend." He said taking a long sip of his Pepsi, never taking his eyes off the ice. "And trust me, that is not the reason that they think you're an idiot." I made a face at him before I crossed my arms and leaned back in my chair. The current score was 2-1, with the other team winning. They had a wheel with a wing sticking out of it, but I was too stubborn to ask Matt what their name was.

A heard a chorus of "aww"'s when a buzzer sounded and I looked over at Matt as he started to collect his stuff. "What are you doing? Isn't there another quarter left?"

"No," he said as he pulled me up from my chair. "Thery're called periods and there is only three.” He sighed and shook his head. “Maybe you should've done at least a little research before coming to the game."

“Well sorry,” I said sarcastically as I picked up my purse from the grimy floor. “I don't remember there being this many rules.” Patrick caught my eyes as we started to leave. He signaled for me to sit back down and I pulled Matt back as he started to squeeze his way past me. “He wants us to wait.”

Matt sat back down and leaned his head against the glass. “Shoot.” He stood up suddenly as he looked around.

“What's the matter?” I asked as he leaned his head in his hands.

“I didn't bring anything for them to autograph!”

I rolled my eyes at his overreaction. “Isn't it enough for you to just meet them?”

“Do you think that anyone is going to believe me without proof?” He sat back down and I watched as the guys went back into the locker room. Patrick tapped Jonathan before waving for us to follow them.

“I think they want us to follow them,” I said but I remained in my seat.

“Then let's go.” Matt stood back up and pushed me gently.

“There probably going to the locker room!” Matt stared at me blankly, as if this didn't matter. “Don't they change in the locker room?”

Matt rolled his eyes in realization. “Oh come on, grow up.” I slowly made my way down to the tunnel where Patrick was waiting for us. “Hey, maybe you'll get to see him shirtless.” I slapped him gently in the stomach as we reached Patrick's smiling face.

“Hey guys,” He started to wobble on his skates in front of us. “Did you enjoy the game?”

“Definitely.” Matt practically skipped up to him so that it would be easier to have a conversation. “Your goal was awesome!” Patrick laughed slightly as he said this. “Howard never saw it coming!”

“Thanks.” Patrick said as he turned back to me. “Did you have fun?”

I shrugged indifferently. “Sure.”

He laughed slightly under his breath. “For some reason that doesn't really convince me.”

I smiled as he slowed down so that I could talk to him. “It's just I don't...remember that much about hockey.”

“What made you forget?” I saw Matt glance at me from the corner of my eye, just as curious as I was on how I was going to respond to that. Luckily, I didn't have to when he opened the locker room door. “You'd better be decent people! We have guest!”

“Jonny, I think you're girlfriend's here!” A voice that I would later recognize as Adam Burish called out. I didn't know why my face fell when he said Jonny and girlfriend in the same sentence.

“Feel free to ignore the more-,” He paused as he tried to think of a polite way to rephrase what he had planned on saying. “-animated guys on the team.” I nodded and looked at Matt but he wasn't really paying attention to me. He was staring intently at the wall in front of us that blocked us from the players. “And don't be afraid to back-sass them.”

I heard Matt snort at that. “Please, if there is one thing that Taylor is not afraid of, it's back-sassing.” I slapped him in the arm and Patrick laughed at our small banter.

I cautiously followed Patrick into the locker room. Matt pushed me so I more like stumbled in rather then walking. I almost fell but a pair of arms caught me. “Whoa there.” A Swedish accent said. I looked up and thanked him when he helped me to my feet. “No problem,” He laughed before sticking out his hand for me to shake. “I'm Niklas Hjalmarsson.”

“Taylor.” Matt glanced around the locker room, open mouthed.

“And you are?” I tugged on Matt's arm when Niklas spoke to him.

He stared, wide eyed up at him. “I-I can't remember.”

“That's Matt.” I said as my eyes followed him as he wandered around to meet the other players. “Sorry about him. He might have been dropped as a baby a couple of times, if you know what I mean.” He laughed quietly before leading me around and introducing me to the other players. I walked over and sat in Patrick's stall while he went to shower and started to talk to Jon. “You look like a robot with all of that gear on.” I smiled up at him as he started to slip off his jersey.

He laughed and I noticed a guy whose name I remembered as Kris Versteeg glance questioningly in our direction. “You sure know how to pick 'em Tazer.” He shared a laugh with the guy next to him and Jonathan blushed slightly.

“Whatever that means.” I whispered to Jonathan and he smiled lopsidedly down at me. “You guys had a good game today.” I said as I leaned back into the stall. I sat right back up again when I realized it smelled worse then I was expecting.

“You were right Tazer.” A guy that had the name Dustin Byfuglein hanging above his stall said to Jonathan. “She knows absolutely nothing about hockey.”

“Hey, you told him that?” I slapped Jonathan's muscular arm as he slipped on a regular shirt. He glanced at me sheepishly. I rolled my eyes at him. “Actually,” I said, standing up and walking over to Dustin. “I know a lot about hockey.” He raised his eyebrows at me expectantly. “For example,” I clapped my hands together as I sat down on the bench across from him. “I know that the puck is impossibly hard to follow, you guys fall down a lot and stand up ridiculously fast, you usually try to go for the hard shot when you have an opportunity for an easy one to show off, you like to fight a lot, and I bet half of you don't even have a single tooth in your mouth that was originally yours.” I crossed my arms and smiled in satisfaction at him.

He laughed slightly under his breath as he adjusted his tie. "Oh, you showed me."