Chances Taken

“What the hell is going on?!” I yelled as I walked into the locker room, the last to walk in after the horn blew for the first intermission, “Stop fucking thinking about the last game against these assholes and play this game! We’re down by four in the FIRST period! First period!”

“Don’t remind us, Maggie,” Cooke said and I glared at him.

“Apparently I have to,” I growled and he looked at me, between both of our glares, this room would freeze over, they were so cold.

“All right guys, come on, cut it out,” Pascal said as he came in-between us and tried to stop two teammates from fighting.

“No! If you’ve got something to say the say it, Maggie!” Cooke yelled and I glared.

“Stop thinking with your fists and play the fucking game!” I yelled back and he looked like he was going to come at me, but this got everyone’s attention and they were on their feet in-between us, “You’re such a fuckin’ hothead and so eager to fight than put the puck in the god damn net!”

“So what?! You expect me to let them push us around?!” he yelled, trying to push through the guys to get to me.

“No, but I expect you to use your fuckin’ brain and realize that they’re trying to get you like this so that they can win!” I yelled and then shoved Ben Lovejoy off of me and moved towards Cooke, in front of him in seconds, “And you’re letting them win,” I glared and then turned around and headed out of the locker room and towards the ice to let them process what I had told them.

I growled and paced back and forth in the hallway, it was the next day after the Kings game and we were in New York trying to play a game against the Islanders. The last game went horribly and it looked like this game was just going to be the same result. I leaned against the wall and rubbed my face, trying to figure out a plan to try and come back and not to embarrass ourselves.

“Maggie,” I heard and turned my head to see Kris and Jordan walking over.

“What was that about?” Jordan asked as he stood in front of me, “Are you trying to get the team angry?”

“The team was already angry before I even said a word,” I said, not even looking at him, “We’re embarrassing ourselves out there.”

“We’re trying Mags,” Kris said and I looked at him, “You’re letting that A get to your head.”

“These thoughts were in my head before I was even given the A,” I growled and glared at him, the door opened and the guys game out, an angry Cooke in front. It was almost time to head back onto the ice, I looked towards everyone, “Against the Caps, we weren’t even able to score a goal, against the Blue Jackets, we basically gave them the goals, and we were barely there for the Kings. I know that we’re all worried about Sid and Geno, but we need to pull it together! Those two don’t make this team, we’re all full of talent, we wouldn’t be here if we weren’t!”

“It wasn’t my fault!” Marc said and I shot a look at him.

“Why do you think I’m saying we! Everyone’s to blame for this,” I said and they all looked at me, “Even me.”

“So what now?” Max asked and I looked at him and then saw Coach coming up behind him, “What about Haley?” he asked, talking about Islanders, Michael Haley, the one that seemed to be stirring up trouble with us.

“Get you heads in the game and score some goals, forget about the little shit,” I said and then looked at everyone, “It’s as simple as that.”

There were two fights in the first period of this game, Crag Adams against Michael Haley, and then Mike against Haley. The Islanders were definitely trying to be physical; I was just hoping that for this period we would be able to pull ahead.

We skated onto the ice and skated in a few circles before everyone but the first line headed for the bench. I stood on the ice with Jordan, Tyler, Kris and Mike, I saw that Haley was on the ice and looked towards the four, “Don’t fight him.”

“If he comes at me again, I’m swinging back,” Mike said and I sighed.

“Then watch this team get killed again,” I growled and Mike sighed and shook his head.

Less than six minutes into the game, I had the puck and passed it to Max, who was ahead of me. I watched Matt Martin skate towards Max and shoulder him to the ground and went to fight him while Max was on the ground. Deryk Engelland quickly went forward and pulled Martin off of Max and the two started to find. I skidded to a stop and sighed, watching as everyone was getting into a fight. I shook my head as I skated to Max to make sure he was all right.

I headed for the bench and felt a tap on my shoulder, I turned my head and saw Jordan, I was being called over by the refs. I sighed and skated over towards them and saw Jordan following me, since Kunitz was sick with the flu, Jordan was the other Assisted Captain. The refs basically explained to Jordan and I, along with Islanders’ Zenon Konopka, who was being ejected and why. Konopka had a problem with three of his players being ejected, while I said nothing to Pittsburgh’s two guys.

Islanders Matt Martin, Josh Bailey, and Travis Hamonic were ejected from the game, while Pittsburgh’s Pascal Dupuis and Deryk Engelland were ejected. I sighed and skated towards the bench sitting down and shaking my head. I felt Coach’s hand on my shoulder and turned my head to see him bending down.

“You’re trying,” he said and then patted my shoulder and stood back up.

Finally we managed to put a point on the board with Kris scoring a goal and Alex Goligoski and Brett Sterling assisting, the score was now six to one, Islanders. A few minutes later, Tyler and I managed to assist Jordan in a goal, the score being six to two.

By the end of the second, the score was eight to two, and I was feeling angry at the fact that three more players were ejected from the game; we were down five people, all gone for fighting.

I didn’t even bother going into the locker room, I went to Coach’s office to try and make a plan for the third period. We had to find some miracle to come back from this and win it.

“We’re not going to win this if we don’t stop fighting them,” I said and Coach nodded his head, “Dupuis, Engelland, Godard, Rupp and Michalek have been ejected from the game. You know that they’re going to still fight and we’re going to lose more players.”

“I know,” Coach said and then rubbed his face.

The third period started just over a minute into the game, Max, Tyler, Brooks Orpik, Kris and I were on the ice chasing after the Islanders that were heading right for Johnson. Grabner had the puck and was about to shoot, but was going too fast and ended up plowing Johnson over, hit the net off its pegs and went right into the boards. Brooks, Max and Tyler all ganged up on Grabner, and another fight started. As Grabner was about to hit the net, I saw Kris slide across the ice and slam into the boards. I skated in-between Kris and Johnson because they weren’t moving.

“You all right, Johnny?” I asked as I leaned over and looked at him. He groaned and I turned my head to see Kris crawling over, “You ok?”

“I’ll let you know when the room stops spinning,” he said and I looked at Johnson again, “Come on man, get up.”

I looked towards the bench and called over the Doc and turned my head to see Kris helping Johnson up, but he was moving slowly, “Did you hit your head?”

“I don’t remember,” he said and I nodded my head and looked towards the others to see the refs trying to break up the fight.

I looked towards the jumbotron to see the replay and watched in slow motion as Grabner was shooting the puck and Brooks shoved Grabner, causing Grabner’s arm to hit Johnson in the face, he was pushed back and hit the back of his head against the post.

Everyone ended up being all right, Brooks went to the ice for charging Kyle Okposo, and Okposo went to the box for roughing. It was four on four for two minutes, nothing happened. As soon as those two went to the box, Eric Tangradi and Islanders Trevor Gillies were given a penalty for roughing, but never went to the box because an all-out war was happening on the ice.

I came onto the ice and watched as Michael Haley fought Max, the refs broke it up and Haley skated away towards the bench and apparently saw me, because he came right at me, it was a damn good thing I saw him too.

“What the fuck did I do to you?!” I yelled as I dodged a blow to the face from him and then shoved him back. He ignored me and went for another punch, managing to get me in the ribs. I growled, threw my gloves off and punched him square in the nose and saw blood gushing out. Haley was pulled away from me by a ref, and another one of his teammates stood in front of me, but I made no move to go after him. I flexed my hand, it hurt from the punch I had just given. Then I watched in shock as Haley went right to Johnson and started to pick a fight with him, “Oh for the love of God!”

“Move Mags!” I heard and turned to see Mike flying past me, jumping off of the bench, over the boards and heading towards Haley, ready to kill him for going after our goalie. Johnson might have gotten one or two punches in before Mike and Kris started a fight with Haley.

I looked towards the other end of the ice and saw Tangradi on the ground; I headed over towards him, a trainer already in front of him. The one door was open and Gillies, the one that attacked Tangradi was yelling shit.

“You all right?” I asked Eric as I looked at him, he had a bleeding cut on his cheek that the trainer was trying to stop.

“He’s still to dizzy to move,” Jack, the trainer said and I nodded my head.

“You fuckin pansy!” I heard Gillies yelled and shot up, turning towards him, he was standing in the doorway off the ice, I had it with these Islanders.

“Shut your fuckin’ mouth now! You had your punches, you had your words, you’ve been ejected from the game so get back to your god damn locker room!” I snapped and he glared at me.

“Why don’t you make me?!”

“You won’t like me making you,” I said coldly and I felt a hand on my shoulder.

“Come on Marshall, don’t start anything you can’t finish,” Gillies instigated and I clenched my fists.

“Mags, come on, don’t get into this,” I heard Jordan say from behind me. A reg appeared in-between us and I was being pulled back by Jordan, the ref making Gillies go to his locker room and then closed the door.

I looked towards the jumbotron and watched what happened. Tangradi was in the corner fighting for the puck with an Islander when Gillies came up from behind and elbowed Tangradi in the face and then went to attack him.

“These guys are dirty players,” I growled and looked towards Max to see him helping Tangradi off the ice. I looked towards the score, eight to two, and it was only less than five minutes into the game.

All the fights were over, either ejected or in the box, most ejected. Jordan and I were called over towards the refs to talk about who was going to be ejected from the game and the refs had the nerve to tell me that I was going to serve penalty time for punching Haley when he came at me.

By the end of the game, the final score was nine to three, Islanders. Penguins only had eight people left to play; Jordan, Craig Adams, Ben Lovejoy, Alex Goligoski, Tyler Kennedy, Paul Martin and myself, with Marc in the net because Johnson was ejected for fighting. First time I ever couldn’t wait for a game to be over.