Just A Hockey Player

“I thought hockey players were supposed to go out and party,” remarked Ryan jokinly one day on the way to the training camp. For the past week and a half, Ryan’s day had consisted of waking up, going to training camp, going home, and crashing on the couch, watching TV and movie with the guys in her building. She was well aware of hockey players’ reputations, but she would be shocked if any of her closest teammates would be interested in hard core partying.

“Oh, don’t you worry,” replied Boyler. “Once we recover from training camp and we have off days, the partying will begin.”

“Man, we all know you’re the first one to go to bed, you loser,” remarked Mac.

As the bickering continued, Ryan marveled at how well she had gotten to know the guys on the team, and the guys in her building in particular. From Bickel, with his thundering footsteps and snarky comments, to Boyle, who had a monstrous heart to match his size, to McDonagh, who would be silent for long periods of time before contributing to the conversation with a witty remark, to Kreider, who spoke, moved, and did everything else as fast as he could skate on the ice. And then there was Ryan’s best friend and roomie Stepan, who was goofy and always knew what to say to make her laugh. It amazed her how these group of young, crazy, drastically different hockey players had become her family.

Ryan looked to her right and locked eyes with Step, which seemed like a common occurrence recently. Blushing, but not exactly sure why, she tore her eyes away after a moment

Yesterday, the second Wednesday of training camp, had been the last day of conditioning, and Ryan was excited to actually use pucks in practice. She knew that things were going to get a little rougher, but Ryan wasn’t too concerned. Plenty of guys had made the transition to the minors to the NHL, so why shouldn’t she? Besides, it was just practice. What did concern her a little, though she would never be able to admit it to the guys, were the pre-season games. Ryan pushed aside these thoughts as she entered the training facility.

About an hour later, after stretching and some warm-ups, the team started some odd-man rush drills. Tortorella put Ryan on a line centered by Step with Kreids on the left wing. Things had been going well so far. Ryan’s line had already scored on Mac and Callahan, and she couldn’t wait to let him hear it when they finished for the day.

On the next run through, it was Ryan’s line against the Bick and Vernace. Ryan was skating down the right wing, with Vernace right in from of her. She faked like she was going to stick handle past Vernace, but passed the puck to Step in the middle instead. After Ryan had gotten rid of the puck, she felt a bone-crushing collision and excruciating pain in her right knee as she flipped through the air before slamming back into the ice, followed by her head. The impact left her breathless and slightly dazed.

There was a moment of complete silence on the ice. Not even the scraping of skates on ice interrupted Ryan’s train of thought which was "I must look like an idiot" quickly followed by "Oh my god why the hell does my knee hurt so much." She didn’t open her eyes, partially because she didn’t want to see her teammates’ reactions. And then all hell broke loose.

She herd Bick yell something as he skated closer to where she lay on the ice before the sounds of a fight broke out. She was in trouble. If she didn’t get out of the way, the two fighting nearby could fall on top of her. And then not only would she be winded and writhing in pain from her head and knee, she would also be squished.

Ryan finally composed herself enough to open her eyes, and the scene greeting her eyes was almost as confusing as what she was hearing. She saw almost everyone stunned motionless, except for Bick and Vernace, who were engaged in a bloody fight, and someone skating quickly towards her. She tried to move, in case whoever was skating over was going to join the fight. She soon discovered that it was impossible to move because of the pounding in her head, shooting pains in her knee, soreness in her back, and her inability to breath. Thankfully, it wasn’t another brawler, but Step, who kneeled down next to her on the ice, blocking the fight from view.

“Are you alright, Ry?” he asked, clearly concerned.

“I … I can’t move, Step.”

“So don’t move.”

“But, I can’t breathe, either.”

“Alright, just relax.”

Finally, Cally, Dubi, and Boyler broke up the fight. From what Ryan could see, it took both Cally and Boyler to hold back Bick.

Ryan started breathing more normally, and asked Step “Help me stand up, will you?”

“Are you sure - -“

“Well, I can’t just lie here all day!” she interrupted. Step grabbed her under her left arm, and Mac skated up to grab her right arm. Getting up was alright, especially because her headache had subsided. Staying up was the problem. She tried to put weight on her right leg, and fell right into Step. He put his arm around Ryan’s waist, with her arm over his shoulders, so she could stay on her feet. She was happy to see that Vernace had blood dripping from his nose while Buck looked fine.

“VERNACE!” yelled Tortorella. “What the hell do you think you’re doing? This is training camp! Go clean out your locker. I don’t know where you’re going to play, but it sure as hell won’t be here.” He turned to look at Ryan. “Stepan, help Davis to the training room.”

Ryan discovered it was even harder to stay on her feet once they left the ice, and she found herself relying on Step a little more than she would like to. They finally made it to the trainer’s room.

“So, what exactly happened?” asked Ryan as they waited for one of the trainers.

Step sighed before answering. “From what I saw, after Vernace saw he was beat, he stuck out his knee.”

Ryan would have liked to talk to him more, but the trainer walked in and Step returned to practice. As the trainer looked at her knee, she smiled to herself, despite the pain. She knew it was stupid, but she was happy that Bick had defended her, and even happier that Step had been concerned enough to skate over to her.