Chances Risked

“Yo Mags!” I heard and stopped walking through the halls of the Consol and turned around and smiled when I saw one of my former All Star teammates.

“Steven!” I smiled and headed back towards him and he pulled me into a big hug, I laughed as he picked me up and hugged me tight, it was funny how these big tough hockey players could be a bunch of softies as they meet up with friends.

“Stamkos! How the hell are ya?!” I heard and turned to see James, Steven’s best friend.

“Nealer!” Steven smiled and hugged his friend and then pulled me into his side, “You guys ready to get your asses kicked?”

“Dude, didn’t you learn your lesson last time?” James teased’ he was talking about last week when we beat them when they were in Pittsburgh.

“Fuck you man, we were havin’ an off day,” he said and I giggled.

“Oh, is that what they’re calling it now,” I said and James laughed and high fived me.

“You hush,” Steven said and I giggled and wrapped my arms around his waist and hugged him again.

“Aww, you’re just a big softie, Stammers,” I said and James laughed and playfully punched his friend.

“That’s for damn sure.”

“What the hell! I come over here to say hi and you’re just bullying me!” Steven said and James and I laughed.

“So emotional,” I teased and Steven smirked and shook his head.

“So abusive,” he said and I giggled and shrugged my shoulders, “I better head back, see you on the ice.”

“Yeah,” James said and I stepped back from Steven, “Let’s go out after the game- Loser buys!”

“Guess you better get your credit card ready,” Steven said and James snorted.

“I was going to tell you the same thing,” James said and I giggled at the two.

“See ya, guys,” he said and then turned around and headed back towards his side of the arena, while James and I continued towards the locker room.

“You gunna come out with us?” James asked and I looked at him and shrugged my shoulders, “Come on, Mags.”

“All right,” I said and James laughed and nodded his head, “Piggie back ride!”

“What?” James asked and I jumped onto his back and he laughed and grabbed my legs as I wrapped my arms around his neck and I was so happy that I wore dress pants and I nice blouse today, instead of a dress.

James and I got into the locker room, some of the guys laughed when they saw how we were. He carried me all the way to my stall and set me down and walked over towards his, a whole three stalls down. We both started to get ready for the game.

It was the middle of the second period and the Lightning were up by one, Kunitz and Crosby had gotten the only goal in the first period, and then Stamkos got the first goal in the second and his teammate, Tom Pyatt, got the second. I had the puck and was skating towards Lightning net, I got pretty close and was trying to make the second goal for us, tried to tie the game, but it was a save and I growled and shook my head, mentally cursing.

Geno, James, Kris, Matt and I were on the ice against Stamkos and his line. Geno faced off against Steven and lost, Steven headed down the ice towards Fleury and I growled and pushed my skate into the ice to try and catch up to him, but I didn’t make it and Steven slap shot the puck. I think we all honestly thought that it went in, but I was so relieved to not see it go in. However, the puck did hit the glass from behind the net and cracked it pretty badly; the puck was stuck in the glass.

I sighed, this was a blessing and a curse, it was good because Coach now had time to come up with a game plan to try and pull through and beat them, but it also meant that we were going to have to wait a while because it was going to at least take ten minutes to replace the glass.

I think we were pretty surprised when we gather around the bench and all Coach had to say was keep doing the play that we were doing because he knew that it was going to work. So one minute down, nine more to go and they still didn’t take the old cracked glass down.

I was sitting on the boards, Beau was standing next to me on the ice leaning against the boards and James was on the other side. I looked up and smirked when I heard the song ‘My Girl’ from the Temptations playing and instantly remembered the 2012 All Star game when the guys started to sing me this song on the ice, they had me trap in the corner. I giggled, thinking back on the past and then found myself humming to the song.

“Oh my god!” I laughed when another old song started to play, “Why do you build me up, buttercup, baby, Just to let me down, and mess me around, And then worst of all, you never call baby when you say you will, but I love you still,” I looked towards Beau and he chuckled when I leaned against him and started to sing to him, hearing the guys laugh from behind me, “I need you more than anyone darlin’, you know that I have from the start, so build me up, buttercup, don’t break my heart…”

“You’re just a karaoke machine, eh?” James asked from next to me and I giggled and shrugged my shoulders, just waiting for the next song to play.

“Maybe,” I giggled and he laughed.

I hopped off of the boards and looked towards the guys, goofily waving towards Pascal and Kunitz, who were apparently sitting behind me. I laughed when they both waved back towards me in the same dorky manner.

Everything was quiet, I looked to see that the glass was finally down, but I didn’t understand what was taking them so long to put the other one up. I sighed and then heard another familiar song playing and let out a laugh; I heard Paul Martin start to laugh and looked at him.

“Paulie,” I said and he looked at me and nodded his head, a smirk on his face, “They’re playin’ classics tonight.”

“I noticed,” he said.

“What song?” Geno asked and I smirked towards the Russian.

“I saw him dancin’ there by the record machine, I knew he must have been about seventeen,” I felt Beau come up next to me and wrap his arm around my shoulder, “The beat was goin’ strong, playin’ my favorite song, an’ I could tell it wouldn’t be long till he was with me, yeah me, an’ I could tell it wouldn’ be long till he was with me, yeah me, singin’...”

“I love rock n’ roll, so put another dime in the jukebox baby, I love rock n’ roll, so come an’ take your time an’ dance with me!” Beau and I yelled and the guys laughed as we were entertaining ourselves.

Beau and I were having a good time goofing off on the ice as we waiting for the new glass to be up and we even managed to get some of the others to sing the rock n’ roll song. I laughed when even Sidney was singing it, smirking and shaking his head the whole time.

Finally the glass was fixed and we were back on the ice, but it didn’t last too long because five minutes later, maybe not even that, we were all groaning because yet again, Stamkos broke the glass, the same spot too. I sighed and headed over towards the bench, seeing Steven smirking and shaking his head as he skated over towards his bench.

“Wait ta go, Stammers!” I yelled and he looked at me and held out his arms, “Quit breakin’ our arena!!!”

“I’m sorry!” he yelled and I laughed and hopped onto the board again.

About a minute or so went by on the board and out of nowhere I heard my name and jumped when I saw a microphone appear in front of me. I started to fall back, losing my balance on the boards, but was grateful to whoever caught me.

“Tryin’ to give her a heart attack, Danny?” I heard and turned to see Joey Vitale smirking towards Dan Potash, the reporter for Pen TV, who was standing on the bench.

“Sorry, it’s my job to keep you Pens on your toes,” he teased and I smirked and looked towards him.

“Thanks Joey,” I said and heard Joey chuckle, “What can I do for you Danny boy?”

“An interview,” he said and I smirked and nodded my head, “Ready?”

“Yuppers,” I said and he chuckled.

“Maggie Marshall here with me now, Maggie, how are you feeling about this waiting?” he asked and I giggled.

“It happens, though SOMEONE needed to go and prove that he could break the glass more than once,” I teased loud enough so Steven could hear me. I turned my head and leaned forward to see Steven waving me off and I giggled. That’s when I noticed that I was on the jumbotron and my voice was over the speakers of the arena, I heard some fans laughing at my chirp and I honestly didn’t know that everyone was listening.

“We all saw you and Bennett rockin’ out on the ice before,” Dan said and I heard some guys around us laughed and I just smirked, shook my head and let out an embarrassed laugh.

“Yeah, we were entertaining ourselves,” I said and Dan chuckled.

“I think that you should do another,” he said and my eyes widened.

“Sorry, one per game,” I said and Dan pouted and I laughed.

“Aw, come on, Maggie, I’m sure the fans wanna here it too!” he said and I shook my head, “Come on, don’t you guys wanna hear?!”

I laughed and shook my head when cheers and banging on the glass was heard. I rolled my eyes and looked towards some of the guys to see them smirking and even Coach was laughing. I listened to the noise that the crowd was giving off and giggled, it sounded like the stomping and clap to ‘We Will Rock You’. I let out a laugh at that thought and then my own to actually thinking about singing that.

‘…What the hell…’ I thought and then looked around to see people standing, people pounding on the class. I looked towards me teammates to see them looking around too. I sighed and grabbed Potash’s mic, “I’m so gunna regret this,” I said to Beau, who was standing next to me and he snickered, “Buddy you’re a boy make a big noise, playin’ in the street gonna be a big man some day! You got mud on yo’ face, you big disgrace, kickin’ your can all over the place singin’, We-“

“WE WILL WE WILL ROCK YOU!!! WE WILL WE WILL ROCK YOU!!!” I laughed so hard when the fans started to actually sing along. Beau high fived at being able to get all of the fans involved and looked towards Sidney who was just laughing and shaking his head, I shrugged my shoulders and smirked towards Potash.

“Buddy you’re a young man, hard man, shoutin’ in the street gonna take the world some day, got blood on your face, you big disgrace, wavin’ your banner all over the place-“

“WE WILL WE WILL ROCK YOU!!! WE WILL WE WILL ROCK YOU!!!” I turned towards the Lightning and saw them looking around, Steven looked at me and smirked, shaking his head, I shrugged my shoulders and he rolled his eyes.

“Buddy you’re an old man poor man, pleadin’ with your eyes gonna make you some peace some day, you got mud on your face, you big disgrace, somebody better put you back into your place!”

“WE WILL WE WILL ROCK YOU!!! WE WILL WE WILL ROCK YOU!!!” I laughed and looked at my teammates; they were just looking around at the fans.

“We got our jukebox Penguin here!” James yelled into the mic as he came to my side and wrapped his arm around my shoulder and I laughed when we heard the fans going nuts.

“Oh, I’m never going to live this day down.”