Chances Risked

It was Easter, and we were all at the rink for our afternoon game against the Flyers. I really didn’t want to play these guys anymore; they just made my blood pressure rise. But not only were we were going to be playing against the enemy, we were also playing against a friend.

Max announced yesterday that he was traded, that he wasn’t going to be a Penguin anymore; I guess the deal had been made a while ago, but he just didn’t really know how to tell us, didn’t know how to tell me because he was a good friend. When I was on the ice for warm ups and I saw him wearing the Flyers uniform, it still didn’t sink in.

He saw me and came over towards the line, not crossing onto our side, “Cheer up, Bella, I should be the one scare, I have to go up against you.”

“I still don’t understand why you left,” I said and he side.

“It’ll be all right,” he said and I shook my head.

“You play for them,” I said and he looked back towards his team and sighed, “Is that why you didn’t play the game and were at practice?”

“Yeah,” he said, “I was practicing with the team.”

“Max,” I whined and he gave me a sad smiled, “I don’t like this.”

“You better get back, don’t want them to think anything,” he said and I sighed and nodded my head and skated back towards the others, still not happy about his leaving.

After the warm ups, I headed back into the locker room with the guys, but just before I stepped off the ice, a puck hit my skate and I looked up to see Kokorin looking at me. I send him a glare and then stepped off of the ice.

The locker room was quiet, I think we were still trying to process that Max went to the enemy’s team. Time seemed to go slowly in the locker room, Coach walked in and saw that Sidney, Geno, Paul, Mike and I were going to start and then gave a few quick tips, but even he seemed to be off.

“All right, let’s go,” Coach said and we all nodded our heads and stood up, heading out of the locker room with Fleury leading us.

We were all on the ice and then suddenly it was just the starting line. I took a deep breath and looked towards Sidney and Geno on one side and Mike and Paul on the other, we looked at each other and just nodded our heads and then waited for the national anthem to start. The anthem was sung; we all turned and skated towards the faceoff. Sidney won the puck and the game had started.

-Kane-
Some of the guys and I were at Jon’s house watching the Penguin-Flyers game. Maggie told me that Talbot was traded to the Flyers, but some of the guys didn’t hear that and were surprised to see him in white and orange. I sat on the couch and looked at the time on the clock, they were halfway through the first period and the score was two to zero, Penguins. Maggie got the first got a little over a minute into the game, she assisted Neal’s goal four minutes later.

They were only ten minutes into the game and the whole ten minutes were spent on powerplays or penalty kills. Fifteen seconds into the game the Penguins were on a powerplay after Daniel Briere hooked Maggie’s arm and from there on it was just back and forth between each team.

When the camera showed Maggie when she was on the bench, you could see pure frustration on her face; in fact, you could see the same look on the whole team. They might have been up by two within the first ten minutes, but they still had a long while.

“Oh no,” I muttered when I saw Maggie jumping onto the ice for a change up and seeing Kokorin on the ice as well, ‘…Come on Mags, get the puck away…’

We watched as Maggie went into the corner to chase after the puck and Kokorin was right behind her. I lost Maggie in the crowd of players in the corner. When the refs blew the whistle and started to push players apparent I cursed when I saw Maggie and Kokorin facing each other. The camera zoomed in and you could read her lips, she was telling him to go fuck off. He pushed her and her back hit the boards, so she pushed off and shoved Kokorin hard.

“No, no, no, Maggie, don’t be stupid,” Jon muttered next to me and I was honestly thinking the same thing.

The refs got in there and were trying to separate the two, I saw Crosby and Mike skate over and start to pull Maggie back. She was still pointing and yelling towards Kokorin, who now had two refs in front of him. Maggie went back to the bench and I watched as she had an angry look on her face.

“Well, this game is gunna be interesting,” Saad said and I nodded my head.

Throughout the first period, there were fights between James Neal and Marc-Andre Bourdon, pushing and shoving match between Crosby and Giroux, an almost fight between Mike and Kokorin, and then Matt Niskanen was called for holding Max Talbot.

“Man, those Marshall’s are a bunch of hotheads,” Corey said and I smirked and nodded my head.

I felt my phone go off and looked down to see that Tyler Seguin was texting me and asking if I was watching the game. I replied saying I was and he said that he was at Nathan Horton’s place watching the game with some of his teammates and he was telling me how my girlfriend was a badass hothead.

I chuckled and shook my head, ‘…That’s for damn sure…’

-Seguin-
“That girl is gunna get herself killed if she keeps that up,” David Krejci said as we watched Maggie and Kokorin get into a push and shove match in the corner.

“I don’t know about that, but he seriously needs his ass kicked,” Lucic said and I looked at him and nodded my head.

“I hope she doesn’t’ fight him,” I said and Brad looked at me.

“She’ll be fine,” Chara said and we look at him, “If she does fight him, she’ll be smart about it.”

“How is there a smart way to fight that thing?!” I asked and he looked at me and sighed.

“You haven’t noticed it yet?” Chara asked and I looked at him confused, “Every player has their weaknesses and I’ve noticed that Marshall is able to pick up on those weaknesses and use it against the player.”

“So what, is she like psychic?” I asked and Lucic laughed.

“Naw man, she’s an observer,” he said and I looked at him, “Think back at when she fought you- Both times.”

“Am I ever gunna live that down?” I asked and the guys laughed and shook their heads.

“She was able to predict which direction you were going to move, or what hand you were going to use,” Lucic said and I nodded my head, “She’s just very observant.”

“Translation,” Tuukka said as he looked up towards me, “She’s a good player.”

-Maggie-
I was leaning against the boards on the ice, ready for this period to start. We had just come out of the locker room for the first intermission. Not much was said other than we needed to stay out of the penalty box. The score so far was two to one, we were winning, but we still had two more periods to go.

Geno, James, Mike, Matt and I were on the ice and I was skating around trying to figure out what I can do to get the puck down the ice. I noticed that every time I was on the ice, Kokorin was too. He hopped over the bench and I looked towards the Flyers Coach and saw him looking at me. I turned my head and looked towards my teammates, biting down on my mouth guard and trying to get the nerves to calm down.

“You all right?” I heard and looked towards Mike as he came up next to me.

“Yeah, I just- I’ve got this bad feeling,” I said and Mike looked at me and nodded his head, “He’s just giving me a bad vibe.”

“Who? Kokorin?” James asked as he came over and I nodded my head, “When does he ever give off good vibes?”

I smirked and then saw Matt and Geno come over, “What are we doing?”

“Get the puck to me,” James said and I looked at him, “Try to stay away from the puck, Mags. Kokorin seems to be targeting you.”

“I got it,” I said and then looked towards Mike and then back at James, “I just have to keep him occupied.”

“I don’t like this,” Mike said and I looked at him.

“I’ll be all right,” I said and he sighed and nodded his head. The refs blew the whistle and we headed over towards the faceoff circle.

I growled in frustration from the bench as Max scored against Marc and tied the game at two, nine minutes into the second period. About five minutes later, Coach put Geno, James and I back on the ice with Mike and Matt, we were going to try again in keeping the puck away from me, because I was going to be keeping Kokorin occupied.

Geno won the puck against Max and we headed towards the Flyers’ net. I looked around for Kokorin and saw him coming at me, ‘…That’s it, follow me…’ I thought and then headed towards the net, making sure that Kokorin stays with me. I watched James pass Geno the puck and then saw Kokorin leave me, figuring out that they weren’t going to get me the puck.

Everything seemed to happen so fast, I barely had time to witness it. But I saw Geno pass the puck to Mike, he was skating along the benches with the puck. Kokorin came up right behind him and slammed into him and I watched as Mike hit the beginning of the glass and hit the ground hard.

“MIKEY!!!”