Taking Strides

Sarah's perspective:

After her run in with security, and Sir McQuaid, the girls decided that they were better off finding their seats. While the security knew Cari rather well, they knew it was getting closer to when most of the fans would be headed in, and they wanted to be well and settled in before all that chaos began. They happened to be sitting right in between the two benches.
"I guess I should be glad that Creepy Pierre isn't covering this game." Sarah said.
"Haha, he really is pretty creepy." Cari said. "Good thing he has a thing for Crosby, and not for any of our boys."
"I don't know, he seems to be getting closer to Bergy." She replied.
"Poor Patrice!" Cari remarked as the two girls laughed together. More of the Garden began to light up as fans began to wander in, and the equipment crew began to set up for the game.

Adam's perspective:

"There he is!" Marchy piped up as Adam walked back into the locker room. "Did you find her?"
"Find who?" Bergy asked, picking up on Marchand's comments.
"His new ladyyyyy friend." Brad remarked, smirking.
"That's where you disappeared to? This close to the game?" Patrice raised his eyebrows, finding it slightly hard to believe that Adam would honestly wander off just for a girl.
"Hey, don't be so hard on him, it's that girl from this morning." Dougie said as he walked back from the trainer's room and towards his stall.
Adam grumbled. "Just give it a rest guys."
"What, you're not interested?" Brad replied. "Does that mean I can go for her?"
Adam glared him down before walking over to his stall to get ready.
"Is that a yes?" Brad asked Patrice and Dougie a bit quieter.
"Don't push it..." Patrice warned. Dougie tossed a towel at Brad's head, right before Claude walked in.

Claude gave a bit of a pep talk, along with talking some strategy to how their matinee game would go. The Lightning had a solid, fast core, but were lacking in veteran presence this year, and their game had been slightly off without it. They couldn't compare to the Bruins in physicality, but Stamkos was still coming up big for them this year. Tuukka was starting up against Ben Bishop, who he had faced before when he was with Ottawa, and it was bound to be a good match up all around, but everyone needed to remain focused. They would get tomorrow off, so it was really a game that they could give their all and have plenty of time to recover. Although they gave their all regardless, it was good to know that they had that recovery time. After Claude's speech, the guys started to head out for warm-ups. Dougie, who's stall was a few down from Adam's, came over as most of the guys started leaving.

"You okay?" Dougie asked. Adam looked up and saw the concern in his eyes.
"I'll be fine, just really frustrates me the way he talks about her." Adam said with his head down again.
Dougie put his hand on Adam's back. "I understand, but that's just him being him."
"YOU TWO COMING?" Chara looked back towards them as he walked out of the room.

The guys took the ice for warm-ups, and Adam tried to spot the girls. He knew they had glass seats, but didn't know where exactly. He tried to put her out of his head as he took some shots with the rest of them, but he kept thinking of the way her eyes seemed to sparkle when she laughed, and let him see how happy she was, further than her smile could let on.

He knew he wouldn't be doing any fighting tonight probably, the only real fighter on the team was Crombeen, and he wouldn't be man enough to want to fight, so he couldn't get the anger release he was used to. He'd just need to play his defensive game the usual way, fighting sometimes distracted him even more anyways. Instead, he paired up with Dougie to do some passing, like they usually did when paired they knew they'd be paired up for the game, him closer to the penalty box, Dougie over towards the boards. When he looked up to send out the first pass, he saw a glimpse of fiery red hair, and then saw the amber-colored wave to the right. Dougie returned the pass over to him, hitting him in the foot, grabbing his attention. He grabbed the puck and skated over to Dougie.

"What's wrong now?" Dougie groaned.
"Behind you. Behind the bench." Adam breathed out, trying to not be obvious, trying to not stare, but he was so tempted, she was really there. Dougie understood what he meant as soon as he said it, grabbing the puck off Adam's stick and shaking his head. As soon as his skates moved away, Brad's came up to replace them, with his smirk on his face, waving at the girls.
"Dude, if you like the girl, you can't just stand here with your back to her. Wave, skate off, get your focus." Brad said to him, actually showing a serious side for once. "Besides, she came to this game because you asked her, not me." With that, he skated off.

'He's right... I did ask her, and he's never really said the things he does around me when he's around her.' He took off his helmet and grabbed a water bottle, wetting his hair and flipping it up as he turned around. The look on her face was priceless, she was blushing and shy, while Cari was laughing and waving at Adam. He grinned and waved back before skating over towards Johnny, who was stretching a few feet away.

Sarah's perspective:

"COME ON YOU KNOW HE DID THAT FOR YOU." Cari screamed a little bit too loudly, grabbing Sarah's arm excitedly.
She just kept blushing. "I.. I d-don't know."
"And look at that ass!" Cari said, pointing towards the three guys.
"Which one, Brad or Adam's, because I'm pretty sure you're staring at Brad's." Sarah said, trying to turn the conversation away from her.
"Brad's way too much of a party boy for me." Cari scoffed. "Shame Johnny's married though!"
The two girls laughed as the guys started to leave the ice. Adam was one of the first off, and the two locked eyes for what seemed like hours before Milan came over and shoved Adam forward. She turned slightly red, and so did he as he moved down the tunnel.
"Come on, let's go get some food before the game starts." Cari said, grabbing her arm again and pulling her out of their seats.