Chances Taken

“You bought Amber and Natalie tickets?” Mike asked me as we were relaxing as we were waiting for the game to start.

“No, they bought tickets, why?” I asked and he held up his phone.

“Mom texted me, they’re in the section next to them,” he said and I laughed a little.

“Cool,” I said and he nodded his head, “Where are Mom and Dad at?”

“Section, one seventeen,” he said and I nodded my head, “They’ll probably come down after.”

“Probably, did you put their names on the list?” I asked and he nodded his head, “Natalie and Amber are just gunna meet us later.”

“All right,” Mike said and smirked.

“Who are Natalie and Amber?” Pat asked from next to me.

“Our cousins, Amber lives in Toronto and Natalie lives in Vancouver, their sister,” I said and he nodded his head.

“Your parents are here?” he asked and I nodded my head, “Mine too.”

“Really?” I asked and he smiled and nodded his head.

“In one of the suites with my sisters,” he said and my eyes widened.

“All of them?” I asked because I knew that he had two or three.

“Yup,” he said and I smiled towards him.

“Glad they could be here for ya.”

“Your other brother here?” Pat asked and I shook my head.

“Nicky’s got school tomorrow,” I said and Pat nodded his head.

Coach came in and told us to head out onto the ice, announcing who was going to be starting before he left, “Malkin, Marshal- Maggie,” he said quickly and I giggled before Mike and I could ask which one, “Kane, Wideman and Chara.”

We headed out of the room and headed towards the ice, all jumping out and skating around the net once and then everyone except Geno, Pat, Dennis and Chara were on the bench, Tuukka being in the net. I skated over towards him and patted his helmet.

“Shake it, Rask!” I smirked and he chuckled and nodded his head.

The starting lines stood on each blue line and face the American and Canadian flag to sing the national anthems. They named some ladies name and I waited for her to start. I looked at the ice and rocked back and forth, she started to sing the American national anthem and I snorted and then bit back my laugh because her voice was so horrible. I looked towards Geno to see that he had his necklace in his mouth, his eyes clamped shut and head down, he was trying not to laugh. I looked towards Pat to see that he was snickering.

“Oh my god, my it stop,” I whispered and Pat laughed and then quickly bit his lip. The girl made some kind of sound as she moved onto Canada’s national anthem and it sounded like squealing sound of a dying pig or something. I was leaning against my stick, my glove off and I was biting my hand. It was disrespectful to be doing this through national anthem songs, but when I turned my head to look towards the bench, both teams were snickering, ‘…Come on, at least I’m trying to not laugh…’

“My ears,” Geno whine when the music was over and I breathed a sigh of relief, “Worse ever.”

“Tell me about it,” I said and rolled my eyes.

The lines came to the faceoff circle; Geno won and passed the puck to Pat. We were going back and forth on the ice for a little over two minutes. We changed our shifts and Gaborik-Datsyuk-Landeskog line went on the ice with Marshall-Suter as defense. I watched as Mike had the puck and shot it towards Datsyuk, who passed it to Gaborik, less than five minutes into the game, we had a goal. We cheered on the bench and then held out our hands when then came over so that we could congratulate them. A minute later, Malkin-Iginla-Perry were on the ice and grabbed us another goal.

Pat was on the ice with his line, I saw that Kris was on the ice too and I watched both of them, they were both looking at each other while waiting for Kessel or Couture to with the faceoff, ‘…Oh boy…’ I thought and looked towards Mike to see that he was watching them as well. I sighed and looked at Pat, ‘…Don’t do anything stupid…’

My pleases were listened to, Pat had the puck and was heading for the net, Kris came up next to him and checked him into the boards. I stood up and leaned over the boards to make sure he was all right and sighed out of relief as Pat got up, a little slowly, but he got up, and headed after the puck. Kessel got the puck back and passed it to Pat. Kris came up next to him and shoved him into the boards right in front of our bench. I stood up and glared at him and some of our teammates looked over towards boards at Pat.

“Stop making this personal,” I growled lowly towards him and Kris just looked at me and skated away, “Pat?”

“I’m all right,” he said on his hands and knees shaking his head. Kris was penalized for boarding and we were on a powerplay. Pat stood up and I looked at him worriedly, “I’m all right,” he said and I nodded my head.

Coach called for the powerplay line to go onto the ice, first making sure that Pat was able to keep going. Jordan Eberle, Kimmo Timonen, Ryan Suter, Pat and I were on the ice skating around, waiting for the refs to come over.

“He say anything?” I asked and Pat looked at me and nodded his head, “What?”

“Told me to stay away from you,” he said and I glared towards the box, “Mags-“

“Don’t listen to him,” I said and Pat smirked.

“I wasn’t planning on staying away from you,” he said and I giggled.

“What play are we doing?” Jordan asked as he came over and Pat looked at me.

“Remember the one we did last year?” he asked me and I smirked and nodded my head, “You wanna try it?”

“Is that the breakaway one?” Jordan asked and I shook my head, Timonen and Suter came over.

“We’re doin’ the ‘Behind the Net’ play, I take it back and try to stall while you guys make a path so that I can get through and try to make it to the net,” I said and they nodded their heads, “Let them shoot it down towards Rask.”

“All right,” they said and the refs called us over because they were ready.

Pat nudged his head for me to take the faceoff and I sighed because I usually sucked at these. I smirked and shook my head when I saw that I was going against James, “Of course,” I said and he chuckled.

“I got this, Mags,” he said, knowing that I sucked at faceoffs.

“Shut up,” I said and put my stick down and waited for the ref to drop the puck. I just looked towards James and saw that he was looking at the puck. The ref dropped the puck and we both fought for it, I ended up shoving James a little and kicking the puck out and towards someone.

“That’s cheatin’ Mags!” James whined from behind me and I laughed.

Just like last time, I let the puck shoot towards Tuukka and I skated ahead of them to get it, finding that their powerkill line wasn’t following me. I scooped the puck from Tuukka and went behind the net, looking at the clock and then scanning over the ice. Making multiple routes in my head, I quickly found the best route and kicked off of the ice and headed for route two in my head. I skated past Shea Weber and Keith Yandle, the enemy for this game. They went for the puck, I tapped it back when Yandle’s stick hit mine and turned my skate, then kicking it back towards my stick and passing it towards Eberle who was by the net. He shot it, but hit the post, Pat picked it up and shot it and scoring the goal.

-Kris-
Team Chara ended up winning the game with the final score of twelve to nine. I was disappointed in myself, only able to get one assist while I looked at Maggie, she had a goal and two assists. We shook each other’s hands at the end of the game, and it was the first time I touch Maggie, or came that close to her in a long time, even if it was just a hand skate.

When we left the ice, we all headed back to our locker rooms and then showered and changed. I tried to make it quick to try and get the chance to see Maggie. I walked out of the locker room while tying my tie and turning the corner to head down the hallway towards the other locker room. As I was heading down the hall, I saw Kane walking and stop and glared at him, forgetting about him.

Someone yelled his name and he turned around, but not before spotting me and glaring towards me. I heard another voice and saw Seguin appear from behind the corner.

“What is it?” Kane asked Seguin, still glaring at me.

“Uh,” he looked confused, “Mags needs you, she-“

Kane smirked towards me and I clenched my fists, “All right, probably needs help with her dress again,” he said and Seguin chuckled and Kane flipped me off before heading down the hallway back to the locker room.

‘…Was he being serious?...’ I thought and was about to follow him to do something, I didn’t know what, but just as I took a step, I heard my name and saw Sidney and some of the others coming towards me.

“You played well man,” Sidney said and I nodded my head and he patted my back.

“What are you doing over here, Tanger?” Jordan asked, probably knowing why I was heading towards Team Chara’s area, “You tryin’ to sneak a peek at Mags’ hot cousins?”

“What?” I asked and Jordan and Max laughed and Sidney just gave me a look, like he knew what I was doing over here.

“Mags’ two cousins are here and they’re smokin’!” Max said and Jordan smiled brightly and nodded his head.

“Aren’t you getting married this summer?” I asked and Jordan shrugged his shoulders.

“Heather knows I like to look, just like I know that she likes to look,” he said and I rolled my eyes, “Doesn’t hurt anyone.”

“You’re too much, Staalsy!” Sidney and Max laughed and I just looked towards the hallway in hopes of seeing Maggie.

‘…I won’t let her go, Kane…’