Sequel: Captain of My Life ›
Oh Captain, My Captain
Oh Captain, My Captain (Sidney Crosby) 040:
Chapter Forty
“Sorry Brandon, but I’m gunna have to embarrass you in front of your family,” I teased as we stood in front of each other on the ice.
“I think I’m going to embarrass you in front of your Dad and friends,” he mocked and I smirked.
It was the big game, I’ve been so excited for it and I was ready to prove to my cousin and the rest of the boys on his team that I could beat them. We were on the ice warming up when Brandon and I skated towards the center of the ice and had our annual family trash talk match. I saw some of his players come over and they looked at me and then looked at Brandon.
“Well, well, well, Alex Conners,” Milan Lucic said as he smirked, “Why are you wearing pants? You look better without them.”
“Hey man, come on. We talked about this,” Brandon said and I shook my head as Milan was talking about the People magazine cover, “We’re good here, go warm up.”
They left and Brandon and I took off our one glove and shook hands and wished each other luck. It was sort of a tradition for every game where we play against one another. I put my glove back on and then skated back over towards my team and Geno smirked towards me.
“What did Lucic say?”
“Just made a comment over the People cover,” I said and Sidney sighed in frustration.
This Peoples cover thing was starting to become an issue and I was definitely getting sick of it. I should have done more to not take that picture, because it was starting to get ridicules. Last week when we were playing against the Flyers, I literally was being looked at like I was a piece of meat from those boys, actually it wasn’t just the Flyers, it was like that for every game we’ve played so far.
The buzzard rang, telling us to go into the locker room so that they could get the ice ready for us and so that we could do last minute checks to our skates and sticks. I sat in silence going over in my head ever move that I know Brandon could do, and knowing that he was probably doing the same thing in his locker room.
“Alex!” I looked up to see Coach standing in front of me, “I know we’re going up against your cousin tonight. Is that going to be an issue?”
“No Coach, Brandon and I don’t make it personal on the ice, we never have.”
“Well that’s good to hear,” he said and then walked away.
“So Brandon Adkins is really your cousin?” Cooke asked and I nodded my head.
“This should be an interesting game,” Eric Tangradi said and I nodded my head.
I was excited, but I was also nervous, scared even, I’ve seen what Brandon’s teammate, Milan Lucic was capable of, and I knew that he was a dirty player. I’ve never played against him, until now, but I’ve seen plenty of videos that make me want to be cautious around this man. The Bruins were a team full of fighters, even Brandon’s been known to throw a few good punches and winning some fights. I’ve never been one for a fight, arguments are usual as far as I get, the closest I’ve gotten to being in a fight was last month with Ovechkin.
I sighed as it was time to head out onto the ice, and the first line was picked and sent out onto the ice. I sat on the bench and watched as Sidney, Geno, Kunitz, Dupuis and Orpik. Sidney faced off against Bruins Center #37 Patrice Bergeron, and won, shooting the puck to Geno and this game officially began.
Within ten minutes of the game starting there were already three fights, one of them was James against Bruins defenseman #21 Andrew Ference, he won that fight and Ference skated off the ice with a possible broken nose. Not only were there so many fights and penalties, the Bruins managed to score a goal were up by one. I was frustrated because Coach wasn’t putting me on and I wanted to go out onto the ice. Milan was already showing off and boarded Dustin Jeffrey right in front of us and flipped him off of the ice. I glared at him when he smirked towards me and then I looked down towards Dustin to see if he was all right. He was groaning and holding his head, and I knew this boy was hurting bad. Lucic was sent to the penalty box for two minutes, and Coach tapped my shoulder telling me to go out of the ice.
‘…I get it! He’s trying to keep me away from Lucic!...’ I thought as I skated to the right corner on the Bruins’ side for a face off. Cooke was facing off against Bruins Center #46 David Krejci and lost. I groaned and then chased after it as Krejci skated down the ice and then passed it to Brandon, I
smirked and tried to skate in front of him to steal the puck, but he tucked it back in and smirked towards me.
“You’re gunna have to find a new trick, Alex!” he said and I smirked and then body checked him and stole the puck.
Usually only defensemen do body checks, and I was nowhere close to being a defenseman, but I had my trick in hand, and it was a legal hit because Brandon had the puck. I skated down the ice, passing it back and forth between Kennedy, Dupuis and I. Kennedy had the puck and I skated around the net and once I hit the corner of the next, the puck was passed to me and I managed to get the puck past goaltender, #30 Tim Thomas, scoring a goal for Pittsburgh and making the game tied.
“Just because you know that trick, doesn’t mean I don’t have more,” I told Brandon as I skated past him and went over towards my team to get praised for scoring my fifteenth goal in the season.
“All right, Alex!” Geno said and tapped my helmet.
“Nicely done,” Kris said and I laughed because he was a defenseman and he was impressed for me stealing one of his moves, and doing the move well.
Coach nodded his head towards me, showing that I did well and then I smirked. I stayed on the ice while Cooke and Kennedy were replaced with Letang and Orpik. Geno, Dupuis, Letang, Orpik and I were on the ice with Bruins, #33 Zedeno Chara, #63 Brad Marchand, Krejci, Brandon and #18 Nathan Horton. Lucic had about twenty-five seconds remaining in his penalty and I was wondering if Coach was going to pull me off if Lucic didn’t go back to the bench.
Orpik faced off and I stood next to Horton fighting over who’s stick was going to be in front and grab the puck first. Orpik won the face off against Marchand and took the puck and passed it to Geno, who darted down towards the Bruins net. Geno tried to pass it to Dupuis, but Horton intercepted it and headed back down towards our net that was being occupied by #92 Tomas Vokoun.
Vokoun must have thought that Horton was going to shoot the puck behind the net to pass it to someone else, so he went behind the net to stop it before Horton did pass it, leaving the net wide opened for a goal.
‘…Shit…’ I thought as I bent down and pressing my skates hard against the ice to build up speed. I passed Horton and slid on my stomach to block the puck from going into the net after Horton shot it.
I felt the puck hit me in the rib and saw it hit the ice; Letang grabbed it and went down the ice as I quickly got back up and followed. Lucic was out of the box and I cursed as I almost took an elbow to the face by him, but luckily I saw it and ducked, skating past him and over towards the bench so that my replacement could come out.
“You all right?” Coach asked and I nodded my head, “All right, good job.”
Sidney sat about four people down from me; he bent forward and looked at me, mouthing ‘are you all right’. I nodded my head and smiled towards him and then looked back at the game.
The second period ended with the score tied one to one and we all walked back into our locker rooms to catch our breaths and plan for the next period.
-Brandon-
“Damn, I didn’t know that she was going to do that!” Nathan Horton yelled as he threw his stick on the ground and I sighed.
‘…I didn’t think she would either, damn Alex, you really have gotten better…’ I thought and then listened to Lucic bitch about my cousin saying how she shouldn’t even be in this sport.
Coach was pissed because we were letting Alex get into our heads and it was turning our game off. Lucic said that he was going to fix the problem and I didn’t like where that was going to head. Alex might be our opponent in this game, but she was family, and I wasn’t going to let anyone critically hurt her.
“Sorry Brandon, but I’m gunna have to embarrass you in front of your family,” I teased as we stood in front of each other on the ice.
“I think I’m going to embarrass you in front of your Dad and friends,” he mocked and I smirked.
It was the big game, I’ve been so excited for it and I was ready to prove to my cousin and the rest of the boys on his team that I could beat them. We were on the ice warming up when Brandon and I skated towards the center of the ice and had our annual family trash talk match. I saw some of his players come over and they looked at me and then looked at Brandon.
“Well, well, well, Alex Conners,” Milan Lucic said as he smirked, “Why are you wearing pants? You look better without them.”
“Hey man, come on. We talked about this,” Brandon said and I shook my head as Milan was talking about the People magazine cover, “We’re good here, go warm up.”
They left and Brandon and I took off our one glove and shook hands and wished each other luck. It was sort of a tradition for every game where we play against one another. I put my glove back on and then skated back over towards my team and Geno smirked towards me.
“What did Lucic say?”
“Just made a comment over the People cover,” I said and Sidney sighed in frustration.
This Peoples cover thing was starting to become an issue and I was definitely getting sick of it. I should have done more to not take that picture, because it was starting to get ridicules. Last week when we were playing against the Flyers, I literally was being looked at like I was a piece of meat from those boys, actually it wasn’t just the Flyers, it was like that for every game we’ve played so far.
The buzzard rang, telling us to go into the locker room so that they could get the ice ready for us and so that we could do last minute checks to our skates and sticks. I sat in silence going over in my head ever move that I know Brandon could do, and knowing that he was probably doing the same thing in his locker room.
“Alex!” I looked up to see Coach standing in front of me, “I know we’re going up against your cousin tonight. Is that going to be an issue?”
“No Coach, Brandon and I don’t make it personal on the ice, we never have.”
“Well that’s good to hear,” he said and then walked away.
“So Brandon Adkins is really your cousin?” Cooke asked and I nodded my head.
“This should be an interesting game,” Eric Tangradi said and I nodded my head.
I was excited, but I was also nervous, scared even, I’ve seen what Brandon’s teammate, Milan Lucic was capable of, and I knew that he was a dirty player. I’ve never played against him, until now, but I’ve seen plenty of videos that make me want to be cautious around this man. The Bruins were a team full of fighters, even Brandon’s been known to throw a few good punches and winning some fights. I’ve never been one for a fight, arguments are usual as far as I get, the closest I’ve gotten to being in a fight was last month with Ovechkin.
I sighed as it was time to head out onto the ice, and the first line was picked and sent out onto the ice. I sat on the bench and watched as Sidney, Geno, Kunitz, Dupuis and Orpik. Sidney faced off against Bruins Center #37 Patrice Bergeron, and won, shooting the puck to Geno and this game officially began.
Within ten minutes of the game starting there were already three fights, one of them was James against Bruins defenseman #21 Andrew Ference, he won that fight and Ference skated off the ice with a possible broken nose. Not only were there so many fights and penalties, the Bruins managed to score a goal were up by one. I was frustrated because Coach wasn’t putting me on and I wanted to go out onto the ice. Milan was already showing off and boarded Dustin Jeffrey right in front of us and flipped him off of the ice. I glared at him when he smirked towards me and then I looked down towards Dustin to see if he was all right. He was groaning and holding his head, and I knew this boy was hurting bad. Lucic was sent to the penalty box for two minutes, and Coach tapped my shoulder telling me to go out of the ice.
‘…I get it! He’s trying to keep me away from Lucic!...’ I thought as I skated to the right corner on the Bruins’ side for a face off. Cooke was facing off against Bruins Center #46 David Krejci and lost. I groaned and then chased after it as Krejci skated down the ice and then passed it to Brandon, I
smirked and tried to skate in front of him to steal the puck, but he tucked it back in and smirked towards me.
“You’re gunna have to find a new trick, Alex!” he said and I smirked and then body checked him and stole the puck.
Usually only defensemen do body checks, and I was nowhere close to being a defenseman, but I had my trick in hand, and it was a legal hit because Brandon had the puck. I skated down the ice, passing it back and forth between Kennedy, Dupuis and I. Kennedy had the puck and I skated around the net and once I hit the corner of the next, the puck was passed to me and I managed to get the puck past goaltender, #30 Tim Thomas, scoring a goal for Pittsburgh and making the game tied.
“Just because you know that trick, doesn’t mean I don’t have more,” I told Brandon as I skated past him and went over towards my team to get praised for scoring my fifteenth goal in the season.
“All right, Alex!” Geno said and tapped my helmet.
“Nicely done,” Kris said and I laughed because he was a defenseman and he was impressed for me stealing one of his moves, and doing the move well.
Coach nodded his head towards me, showing that I did well and then I smirked. I stayed on the ice while Cooke and Kennedy were replaced with Letang and Orpik. Geno, Dupuis, Letang, Orpik and I were on the ice with Bruins, #33 Zedeno Chara, #63 Brad Marchand, Krejci, Brandon and #18 Nathan Horton. Lucic had about twenty-five seconds remaining in his penalty and I was wondering if Coach was going to pull me off if Lucic didn’t go back to the bench.
Orpik faced off and I stood next to Horton fighting over who’s stick was going to be in front and grab the puck first. Orpik won the face off against Marchand and took the puck and passed it to Geno, who darted down towards the Bruins net. Geno tried to pass it to Dupuis, but Horton intercepted it and headed back down towards our net that was being occupied by #92 Tomas Vokoun.
Vokoun must have thought that Horton was going to shoot the puck behind the net to pass it to someone else, so he went behind the net to stop it before Horton did pass it, leaving the net wide opened for a goal.
‘…Shit…’ I thought as I bent down and pressing my skates hard against the ice to build up speed. I passed Horton and slid on my stomach to block the puck from going into the net after Horton shot it.
I felt the puck hit me in the rib and saw it hit the ice; Letang grabbed it and went down the ice as I quickly got back up and followed. Lucic was out of the box and I cursed as I almost took an elbow to the face by him, but luckily I saw it and ducked, skating past him and over towards the bench so that my replacement could come out.
“You all right?” Coach asked and I nodded my head, “All right, good job.”
Sidney sat about four people down from me; he bent forward and looked at me, mouthing ‘are you all right’. I nodded my head and smiled towards him and then looked back at the game.
The second period ended with the score tied one to one and we all walked back into our locker rooms to catch our breaths and plan for the next period.
-Brandon-
“Damn, I didn’t know that she was going to do that!” Nathan Horton yelled as he threw his stick on the ground and I sighed.
‘…I didn’t think she would either, damn Alex, you really have gotten better…’ I thought and then listened to Lucic bitch about my cousin saying how she shouldn’t even be in this sport.
Coach was pissed because we were letting Alex get into our heads and it was turning our game off. Lucic said that he was going to fix the problem and I didn’t like where that was going to head. Alex might be our opponent in this game, but she was family, and I wasn’t going to let anyone critically hurt her.