Long Live

“Wait, you had a 25 game point streak?” Lauren asked her father never in her life has she heard about this accomplishment. But she guessed it was her fault, she never took interest in hockey or anything that her dad did. She figured by ignoring all of his accomplishments she was treating him like a normal dad.

“Yea, during the 2010-2011 season.” Sidney said looking at the picture in his hands. It was right after the lost to the Islanders and he had to shave the mustache of his so Emma was holding a razor in the picture with a huge smile on her face. “It was also the first season Emma went to every game.”

Sidney Crosby hasn’t heard from Emma Hill for a good 2 months. He of course worried about her but he knew that she would call when she called. After Shuttck Saint-Mary’s Emma took off to Europe leaving her world behind her which included Sidney. He never got a proper good-bye from her like how people get the in movies. She told him this right after graduation while she was getting in her car.

Now it has been 5 years since Sidney has seen Emma in person for more than a few weeks and he wished she would just settle down already. Emma would variously send him pictures from her travels all over Europe and Asia. He was mad at the fact that she barely called him and when she did it was for only a couple of minutes. He was mad that he didn’t stop her from leaving. But most of all he was mad that she was experiencing life while he was here in Pittsburgh.

Stuck in Pittsburgh currently going over the do’s and don’ts when HBO comes to fill them. All of the Penguins team was sitting in the press room with Mario in the front talking about the various things that no one was really listening to. Sidney wouldn’t need to be told on how to act, he was already acting like a role model since he got in the NHL.

“Excuse me, sir you have a guest.” Mario’s assistant said interrupting the meeting. She was an old lady, she reminded Sidney as one of those people who just never left the Penguins organization.

“I’m in a meeting right now, so can it wait?” Mario asked trying not to be rude but didn’t really want to deal with anyone at this current moment.

“Turning down a guest, didn’t your mother teach you manners Mr. Lemieux?” A familiar voice rang out in the conference room. At first Sidney couldn’t believe his ears, this couldn’t be the voice that Sidney wanted to hear every day right? She was supposed to be in Europe and not Pittsburgh!

“What do we owe to this surprise Ms. Hill?” Mario asked laughing as he saw the small girl appear with a pixie haircut in a tank top, flannel, jeans and some shoes. Everyone in the room noticed how skinny she got since the Olympics.

“I need a place to live?” Emma asked questionably wondering how everyone was going to take the news. Sidney was just watching her the whole time not knowing if he should be mad or happy to see her.

Questions weren’t asked nor answered between Emma and Sidney. He wanted to believe that she had finally decided to settle down. That she was ready to take life seriously like he had for so many years already.

“Are you ready?” Emma asked as she was going to drop him off at Consol Arena so he could catch the bus to the airport. The Penguins were going to face the Islanders and Sidney was looking to continue his 25 game point streak.

“Yep, let’s go.” Sidney said looking at his girlfriend. Not long after Emma had moved in with Sidney did he ask her to be his girlfriend. With great hurt and sorrow in her eyes did Emma turn Sidney down saying that in time he’ll understand. He didn’t want to understand later he wanted to understand now. He wanted to understand why she had turned him down.

Sidney couldn’t believe what was happening. The Penguins were in the shootout with the Islanders, one of the lowest ranked teams in the league and the Penguins were like number one. He of course scored in the shootout but the thing was that wouldn’t count as a point. So his whole streak came to an end in the last game of decade.

To say that Sidney was disappointed in himself for not being able to continue the streak was accurate but he didn’t dwell on it. He held his head like a hero because it’s been the longest streak since the ’92-’93 season. And he’s tied with Wayne Gretzky so nothing wrong with that. But the media made it out to be so much worse, every questions they had was about the streak.

“I’m actually sad that the thing is being shaved.” Emma said as she handed Sidney the razor. He was standing in front of the sink looking at the mirror.

“I thought you hated the it.” Sidney said looking surprised at Emma. She would always complain about how weird it looked on him and he should just shave the thing.

“What can I say? It grew on me.” She replied shrugging her shoulders looking at her camera. She called over Jordan Staal so she could get a picture of her smiling and handing over the razor to Sidney.

“Well it’s going bye-bye.” Sidney mumbled as he was shaving his mustache that he has been growing for so long. Of course it looked like some 18 year old boy’s mustache but he was proud that he had one. Max’s handle bar thing also put his mustache to shame.

“Look at it this way, its going to be an end of a decade in a few days. Then from Winter Classic on it’s going to the be age of Sidney Crosby.” Emma said as she sat on the counter of the sink that all the guys shaved their mustaches in.

“Age of Sidney Crosby? I think you’ve been hanging out with Gary Bettman for too long.” He replied laughing at Emma’s words. Well he wasn’t really laughing it was more a giggle and he was giggling at the thought of having a Sidney Crosby age.

The thing was that Emma was right when it came to the age of Sidney Crosby. After the 2010-2011 season it seemed that everything about Sidney just multiplied by 10. More people started to recognize who he was, players started to respect him more and everyone wanted a piece of Sidney Crosby. This “age” continued until Sidney had retired from playing hockey.

“Thanks for picking a boring story compared to the other ones fuck face.” Marc Andre Fluery said to Jordan Staal still using the nickname from so many years ago. It was the nickname that he would always say when Jordan Staal started back in the lineup and it just sort of stuck.

“Shut up Flower.” Staal said throwing one of the pillows on the couch to at the retired goalie. Marc being a goalie of course dodged the pillow with ease and let it hit Max.

“How about all of you shut up so we can let dad continue?” Lauren bitched at them which wasn’t surprising. If she had something on her mind you were going to hear it even if you didn’t want to.

Everyone got quiet after Lauren shouted at them. Sidney never found any stories of him and Emma boring but that was just his opinion. Digging deeper in the box Sidney came across a container of video tapes. The tape that he was looking for was the one of his and Emma’s first day of Shattuck-Saint Mary’s.