A spotlight of my own

The summer 2010 was the best and then it all came crashing down. I guess I should of known, what team in their right minds what take a girl in the draft? I should of known with Bobby too, He knew about me before I even knew his name. I should of taken the hints laid out in front of me, I should of known.

Those four words circulated through my head for the rest of summer and fall, ‘I should of known.’ Every time someone mentioned anything about ice, winter or hockey I would recite those words in my head.

Never once did I cry. Never once would I let myself be broken. Never once would I let it interfere with my new life.

My new life was spent at Ralph Wilson Stadium with Jr, Danielle and my dad, Cowboy Stadium with Dom and whomever came along. I ignored all media, supposedly the Penguins had released a statement saying that I quit and it was the headline of every sports station for a few weeks. Me and Danielle become best friends and would do everything together. Even if her and Jr ever were to break-up Danielle had said she’d always be there for me and I believed her.

I told my family what happened in LA with the Penguins and Bobby as soon as I got home. I wanted to forget it and the longer I kept it in the longer I’d feel like shit. Thankfully they rarely ever mentioned hockey since that point. Dom would occasionaly ask if I still wanted to play but the answer was always the same, No.

Not once did I answer my phone from anyone other then my family. The only friends I had were from hockey and I couldn’t trust any. I figured maybe Jon, Pat and Emerson weren’t in on the plot but I didn’t want to risk it. Eventually I threw out my phone, deleted my face book and got rid of my email. Bobby would periodically blow up any of them saying how sorry he was and that we should talk but obviously I didn’t want to, I didn’t need to.

Fall came and I enrolled at University of Buffalo. I decided on still staying at home rather than living at campus, people still remembered me as Shauna Jeno, the hockey girl and I didn’t want that to carry over to college. Sadly it did, after about a month of classes the UB club women’s hockey coach contacted me and asked me to come out and skate. I originally stuck with my guns and said no but she kept pushing and it wasn’t like it was a division 1, or highly paid attention to college hockey team, so I began skating with them.

The girls on the team became my only circle of friends. I became best friends with a girl named Lex. She was born in Boston and came to UB because she wanted out of Massachusetts. Lex had been playing hockey since she was 4 but never played boys, She was amazed at first when the coach introduced me and gave my background. Lex and I became the queens of Buffalo, I was finally legal to go into clubs so it seemed every week we’d go out once a night. Not only was it the best times of my life but it also helped me forget my past.

It was one Monday morning , January 7th 2010, that the new life of Shauna Jeno came to a hault and was thrown back into the old.

I was with Lex at our home rink in Amherst, little did I know it was the practice rink of the Buffalo Sabres and they had just got done practicing when Lex and I took the ice alone. For 45 minutes we skated around passing to each other and shooting when we noticed a guy watching us in a Sabre jacket. He had glasses and gray-ish hair, he didn’t look like he ever played hockey either.

“Do you know him?” Lex asked as she came up beside me on the boards.

“Nah…” Just as I was about to say more the man was greeted by two other guys. They talked and the original man opened up the door to the ice and waved us towards him.

“You lead Lex.” Lex was out-going and would of taken the lead anyways, She was one of those girls that was the life of the party, the ‘it’ girl, the complete opposite of me.

We skated over and stopped at the door, I then realized one of the men, not the glasses guy, was Lindy Ruff, the coach of the Buffalo Sabres. I immediately wanted to skate away and almost did but then the glasses guy spoke.

“Hello ladies. How’s the ice?” He seemed genuine but no way was I going to answer.

“Hi sir, Ice is great do you want us to get of?” Lex responded in her thick Boston accent.

“No no, I actually would like to speak to you Shauna Jeno, I’m Mr. Pegula, the new owner of the Buffalo Sabres.” He extended his hand to Lex, “And you are?” He asked as she shook.

“I’m Lex Napoli. I’ll leave you guys to talk then, nice to meet you!”

She moved through the men to our locker room leaving me alone with the 3 guys.

“Shauna come on off the ice, let’s go sit down.” Mr.Pegula said as he moved out of the way. I glidded off the ice and sat down on the benches next to the rink so that I was facing him. “Shauna I know you probably have a hundred thoughts going through your head right now about why me, Lindy Ruff and Ted Black but I assure it’s nothing bad.”

“Yeah,” I let out a small chuckle and began twiddling my thumbs.

“I heard about what happened with Pittsburgh way back when and I offer you my condolences. What they did was dirty and not appreciated by most in the league. You are a phenomenal player and what they did to protect Sidney and get publicity was completely out of line.”

I nodded not quite understanding where this conversation was leading to.

“Well Shauna when I sent you that letter before the Draft I was being serious unlike Pittsburgh. You are one of the best players I have ever seen and it’s obvious you haven’t missed a beat these past few months. So with that I’d like to ask you one question before Mr. Black, over here speaks, Do you still love the game Shauna?”

I smiled but looked back down at my skates. I still loved it. I loved the sound of ice beneath my skates, the rush of scoring, everything about hockey I still loved. I looked back up at them with fire in my eyes, I needed to get back in the league somehow. I wanted revenge and I’d stop at nothing to get it.

“Yes.”

The 3 men exchanged glances, Mr. Black pulled out a pen and paper before speaking, “Shauna the way you left Pittsburgh leaves us a loop-hole we would like you to take advantage of. We are here to offer you a 3 year contract with us, The Buffalo Sabres. If you sign you can start tomorrow or wait a week, no longer…it’s all up to you Shauna but we know what you want, revenge and we’d love to help you get that.”

I smirked at them and images of the Pittsburgh asshole’s faces rushed through my head, then Bobby’s. I could prove him wrong too, I was good enough and if the Sabres wanted me and I was going to make them need me.

“Give me that paper. I’m starting tomorrow.”