Chances Taken

“Be careful,” Geno told the team as he pointed to Philadelphia Flyer’s new teammate, Russian defenseman, Vladimir Kokorin, “I play against him before, he dirty player; he hurt people and no care.”

We were eight days into December, having five games since Thanksgiving, losing two of the five. We were sitting in the locker room going over last minute plays as we prepared ourselves from our away game against our most hated team. I rubbed my face as I watched the clip of Kokorin attack a Finnish goalie and basically beat him to a pulp. Tell the guys that I wasn’t a little nervous of this guy when I watched him plow players over or beat people to unconsciousness, I would be lying, this guy terrified me.

I rubbed my hands together as the clip finally stopped and I felt bad for the Swedish player who got paralyzed for ramming head first into the boards after Kokorin shoved him hard while fighting for the puck.

“I surprise he in NHL, he ruthless,” Geno said and I really wished that he would stop talking.

“There’s one more thing,” Coach said and we all looked at him, thinking that the meeting was over, “This is for you, Mags.”

“Me?” I asked and the guys looked at me and I looked at them and then at Coach, “What?”

“A message in a way,” Coach said and hit something on the computer and it appeared on the screen in front of us, “An interview from a few days ago.”

“Kokorin, Kokorin, Pierre Mcguire from TSN, in a few days you’re going to be playing up against Pittsburgh, your rival, how do you feel about that?”

“I ready for them, it no probable,” he said in his broken English.

“Do you know the roster for the Penguins?”

“No, it no matter,” he said and I looked towards Coach, wondering what this has to deal with me.

“Well, you know Maggie Marshall, only woman in the NHL, her and Sidney Crosby have the highest scoring points,” Pierre informed and Kokorin looked at him.

“Maggie? A woman? No women in hockey, it man sport,” he said and I clenched my fists, I absolutely hate what he just said, if he wanted me mad, he got me mad, “If she play with big boys, she be treated like big boys.”

“And if you wanna be a fuckin’ dickhead, I’ll treat you like a fuckin’ dickhead,” I growled and clenched my stick, glaring at the screen.

“Great,” Mike said from next to me, “Don’t fight him, he’ll kill you.”

“I didn’t say I was going to fight him,” I said and looked at him, “I’m just gunna make sure that he doesn’t catch me when I score against his team.”

The guys chuckled and I felt Jordan pat my shoulder as he sat next to me in the locker room. There was about an hour until the game, we were all in our sweats getting ready to go into the hallway to kick the soccer ball around.

I was the last to leave the room when I heard my phone going off. I hurried back and saw that it was Kane calling me, “What’s up Pattie?”

“Don’t you dare fight that guy!” he yelled and I was a little surprised.

“What?”

“The Russian, Kokorie, or whatever his name is! We watched the interview, we know what he said,” Kane said and I sighed, “Mags.”

“I’ll be all right, Pattie,” I smiled and sat on the bench, “Thanks for worrying, but I got this.”

“Mags, he-“

“Pat?”

“Sparky, look, I know you’re trying to be brave and tough, but what-“

“Sharpie, relax, I’m not going to fight him,” I said and he sighed.

“You’re not?” he asked and I giggled.

“You’re with the others?”

“Yeah.”

“Put me on speaker,” I said and then waited until I heard the ok, “Can you guys hear me?”

“Loud and clear!” I heard and giggled.

“Thanks for worrying, but I don’t need to fight the Russian to prove that I’m better than him,” I smiled at the fact that they were worried.

“Just be careful, Mags,” I heard Toews say and I smiled, “Promise.”

“I promise, I’ll be careful, pretty sure the guys aren’t going to leave me alone when he’s on the ice,” I said and smiled, “Now you guys do me a favor.”

“What?”

“Kick some Islander ass for me,” I smiled and heard them chuckle, knowing that they had an away game against them, “Especially Haley, fuckin’ hate that dick.”

“Messaged received and challenge accepted,” I heard Brent say and I giggled.

“Seabiscuit, you’re too much,” I laughed, “Well I have to go, good luck tonight.”

“You too, Mags,” they said and we said our goodbyes and I hung up the phone and headed towards where the guys were kicking the soccer ball around.

“Took ya long enough,” Kris teased and I smirked and stole the ball off of him when Kunitz was passing it to him, “Show off.”

“Don’t pout because you suck at this,” I laughed as I bounced the ball on both of my knees.

“But I’m better than Nealer,” he said and I looked towards James.

“Really?” I said and then bounced the ball up and passed it to James after hitting it against my head. He missed it and I giggled, “Definitely.”

-Mike-
“He’s gunna come after you from behind,” I said as I come up behind Maggie, “Don’t give him a chance.”

“You got my six?” she asked and I smirked.

“I always have your six,” I said and tapped my helmet against hers.

We were in the middle of the second period and the score was three to zero, Flyers, but don’t panic, this was the plan. Maggie was barely on the ice, so far, we wanted them to think that we were afraid to put her on, but now that they were thinking that they were in the lead, it was time to prove them wrong.

“You got this,” James said as he came up to her side.

Maggie nodded her head and I looked at our line, Geno, Maggie, James, Matt and I, we all worked well together. Geno faced off and won, shooting the puck to Matt who headed for the Flyers’ net and waited for Maggie.

I looked towards Maggie and saw the Russian coming to her side, I knew that she saw him and I smirked when he was about to check her, she quickly stopped instead of trying to outskate him. She headed for the net, James had the puck and shot it towards the net, it bounced off the goalie and Maggie flew forward and shot it, hitting the back of the net.

“Yes!” she cheered as she came out from behind the net and we all skated towards her, Maggie got the first goal for the Penguins with Geno and James assisting, “Now we have to do it three more times to win.”

“We do this!” Geno said and I smiled.

We went to the bench and pounded fists with our teammates, Coach wanted us on for another shift and we headed for the faceoff. Sidney was hit by the Russian in the first period and he still didn’t come out, so we were hoping that he didn’t have another concussion, that’s the last thing we needed.

I looked towards Maggie and saw Kokorin place himself next to her; I cursed and hoped that he didn’t pull anything when she didn’t have the puck. The puck was dropped and Geno shot the puck towards James, he skated two strides before the whistle was blown and I looked to see that Maggie was standing up, she was pushed down right where she was standing for the face off. They were now face to face glaring at each other.

‘…Don’t do it, ya nut…’ I thought as I skated forward and tried to put myself in-between, just in time to feel a punch to my cheek, a punch meant for Maggie, but I took it for her. I cursed and turned quickly and roughly shoved him and went to take my gloves off to fight him, but all the refs came in-between us to stop it from starting.

“You crazy?” Maggie looked at me and I took my glove off to see if I was bleeding, “He still had his glove on.”

“Still didn’t hurt any less,” I said and looked towards her, “You all right?”

“I’m fine Mikey, you didn’t have to take the punch for me,” she said and I looked towards Kokorin to see that the refs were pulling him towards the penalty box.

“I didn’t plan on getting punched, just pulling you back,” I said and she sighed, “But if he punches that hard with gloves on- Fuck,” the others came over and asked if I was all right, I nodded my head and saw that we had a powerplay.

By the end of the game, we won with the final score of three to four. Maggie had gotten two goals and then assisted James and Geno with their goals, between the three of them, we won this game.