marLIES

Carter Ashton walked into the Ricoh Coliseum to prepare for the Marlies upcoming game. Today they were playing the Hamilton Bulldogs, then again, when don't they? Carter walked into the dressing room and placed his bags on the ground in front of his stall, then headed for the washroom. He finished his business and headed back to the locker room.

“Hey Jussi!” Jerry D'Amigo greeted Carter on his way by.

“It's uh... I'm Carter.” Carter said timidly.

“Oh, sorry... I thought you were Jussi.” Jerry replied before walking away. Carter groaned to himself. This used to happen every once in a while, but now it became a daily occurrence. Everyone on the team seemed to always mistake him for the Marlies back-up goalie, Jussi Rynnas. Carter usually brushed it off before, but it became more and more frequent. It wasn't just the team, either. Even the fans mixed the two players up.

Carter sighed and went back into the dressing room. He sat down and started to unpack his equipment. He started to put on his armour and padding when the Marlies coach, Dallas Eakins walked in.

“Good news, Jussi.” Dallas started, looking at Carter. “You're starting tonight.” Dallas patted Carter on the back.

“But... I'm not Jussi... It's me, Carter!” Carter replied, getting a little frustrated.

“Don't pull this Carter crap with me. It wont work.” Dallas responded, pulling over a bag full of goalie equipment. “Now get your pads on, it's almost time for warm up.”

“But I'm not Jussi!” Carter yelled. “That's Jussi!” He claimed pointing at the actual Rynnas. Jussi said nothing, only throwing his hands up.

“Shut up, Jussi! Stop trying to get Carter to do your job.” The Marlies captain, Ryan Hamilton, said, tossing Jussi's mask at Carter. Carter looked over at Jussi, and he was already geared up, even wearing Carter's jersey. Carter let out a deep sigh and started pulling on Jussi's goalie gear. It smelled bad. Like sweaty Fins. Gross, Carter thought.

Carter pulled on Jussi's jersey and he felt like a whole different person. He felt fat in all this gear.

“All right, boys. Let's do this!” King Hammy shouted from the centre of the dressing room. The rest of the team stood up.

“Woo!” They howled, getting pumped for the game. The team headed out into the hall and lined up. They headed onto the ice to warm up. Carter felt top heavy. He wasn't used to all this extra weight.

Carter didn't know what to do. He had never played goalie before. He skated over to the net mimicking his past memories of practice and what the Marlies other goalie, Ben Scrivens, was doing. The team shot pucks at him and Carter tried his best to stop them. He didn't do too well.

Warm up ended and the Marlies skated off the ice and back to the dressing room. They sat down at their stalls to catch their breathe and rest.

“Alright, boys.” King Hammy said once the team had caught their breath. “These are a big 2 points that we need here. We need these points if we want to keep 1st in the conference. I don't know about you guys, but I want to stay in first. Now who's with me?” Hammy beamed with adrenaline.

“Yea!” Joe Colborne cheered.

“Let's do this!” Mike Zigomanis said, standing up and lifting his stick into the air. He walked over to Ryan. The rest of the team stood up and walked to the centre of the room, too.

“Marlies cheer!” Nazem Kadri yelled.

“HU-WOO!” The rest of the team responded, punching the air above them.

“Let's go!” Jake Gardiner said. “Starters first!” He said, looking over at Carter.

“Damn.” Carter mumbled as he walked out of the dressing room into the hall with the team right behind him. They stood in line, waiting to hear their cue. As soon as they heard “Bring em out, bring em out” boom across the Ricoh, they filed out onto the ice. Carter skated over to the goal crease and attempted to unclear the ice. He almost fell.

The Marlies stood for the anthem and skated some more. Carter was nervous. He couldn't help but to think that he was gonna be the reason hat the Marlies would lose to the Bulldogs, and lose the 2 points that they needed to keep them in first.