Chances Risked

“Everything settled?” Sidney asked and I nodded my head, “What happened?”

“You’ll probably see tonight,” I said and sighed, grabbing my phone out of my bag and sending a text to Pat just to warn him that our relationship was going to be announced on PenTV.

I was back in the game after demanding Coach to let me play and I didn’t care what people said about Pat and my relationship, which I didn’t. I quickly got back into my gear and we headed on the ice, Coach put me on the first line and I was with Geno and James.

Nothing really happened during the second period, a lot of penalties, but no goals. There were .5 seconds left in the game and I was on the ice with Sidney, Kunitz, Cooke and Orpik. I was heading down towards Rask, I shot it at him and he covered it, Sidney did something that shocked the hell out of me, he shoved Rask and turned to get the puck. I watched the Bruins go after Sidney and I went in there and pulled him out.

“What the hell is the matter with you?!” I growled at me Captain.

“What?!” he snapped at me.

“You don’t go after goalies!”

“Don’t defend him because he’s your friend- He’s the enemy,” Sidney said and took a stride ahead of me, but I grabbed his jersey and pulled him back.

“I’m defending him because he’s a goalie! It’s a low blow to go after them because they can’t react fast enough to defend themselves,” I hissed and Sidney looked at him, “You don’t go after goalies- And I would tell you that if that was a Flyers goalie standing right there instead of a Bruins,” I glared at him.

There were .2 seconds left on the clock, we were going to face off. Sidney was going against Bergeron, but as soon as the puck hit the ice, the horn blew; it was the end of the second and the beginning of the fighting. I don’t even know what happened, Geno and Bergeron started to fight, Sidney was an idiot and picked a fight with Chara and I was an idiot for going in there to save his ass.

‘…The fuckin’ moron just came back from a broken jaw- Once punch from Chara and he’ll be back with a broken jaw!...’ I growled as I got in-between the two and pushed Sidney back, “Stop!”

“Get out of the way,” Sidney growled, I don’t think I’ve ever seen him this angry before, I didn’t even know why he was this angry, we were only down by one in the first game.

Chara and Sidney were pushing each other with me in-between them, Sidney threw a punch and I grabbed his arm and pushed him back. Chara threw a punch and the next thing I know, I’m on the ice calling myself an idiot over and over again.

Things got quiet and I pushed myself off of the ice, back to my feet, I blinked my eyes a few times and shook my head the whole room was spinning and I really wished it would stop. The refs were starting to push us all to our doors so that we could leave the ice. I knew someone was pulling me; I kept on bringing my hand up to my mouth and wiping away the blood that was coming down.

I felt myself being plopped down on the bench in the locker room, but I don’t remember even leaving the ice. I groaned and held my cheek where I was punched and leaned over honestly feeling like I was going to be sick and I didn’t know why.

“Mags-“ I heard Sidney start, but I wasn’t having it.

“Shut up,” I growled and then groaned. I got out of my gear, Kris walked over and handed me an ice pack and I placed it on the whole right side of my face. I grabbed my phone out of my bag and looked at it, already having two texts from Pat, the first was him saying he didn’t care about the picture going out and the second asking if I was all right from the punch, obviously he was watching the game.

I relied to him and then went into my contacts and scrolled for Seguin’s name, I didn’t have Chara’s number, ‘So that’s what a Chara punch feels like, thx, but I’ll pass on any further demos.’

I knew that Chara didn’t mean to hit me; I knew he was going to Sidney, but I got in the way and ended up hurting myself more than helping my Captain. It wasn’t long that my phone buzzed and Seguin’s name appeared.

‘Sorry, didn’t mean to hit u –Z’

I sighed and hit reply, I looked around to see my teammates doing their own thing, I looked at Sidney to see him just sitting in his stall looking down. I looked back at my phone, ‘Sorry about Sid, idk what his prob is 2nite. Tell Tuuks sorry too.’

“You all right I heard and saw James looking at me.

“I don’t ever recommend getting punched by that beast,” I said and he chuckled and nodded his head, “My whole face hurts.”

“Let me see,” he said and I moved the ice pack and he sucked in a breath, “You’re already brusin- Shit.”

“How bad?” I asked and then turned into my locker and to the mirror, “Shit,” I whined because my cheek was a little bruised, but I knew it was going to be worse by tomorrow.

My phone buzzed and I looked down and saw Seguin’s text, ‘Don’t apologize for him, Mags. He’s a big boy –Z’. I sighed and looked up from my phone, only to feel it buzz again, and then again, ‘Try to stay outta the way of my fist nxt time –Z’ I giggled and then looked at the text underneath, ‘Stop by after the game –Tuuk’

‘…I really have to get their numbers so they can stop usin’ Segs’ phone…’ I thought and smirked and hit reply on the phone, ‘Like I did it on purpose and sure I’ll stop by after’

-Kane-
The Penguins had lost this first game in the third round against the Bruins with the final score of three to zero. Maggie didn’t play any of the first period and none of us understood why, until I get a text during the first intermission that someone had sent a picture to Coach Bylsma and told him not to play Maggie or the picture of Maggie and I together was going to be posted everywhere. She didn’t care and neither did I so she told her Coach to have them post it and let her play, which she did.

At the end of the second my team and I, who were watching the game at my condo, all froze when we watched Maggie go down after getting punched by Chara and were surprised to see her getting back, but it was slow and shaky, and her teammates had to help her off of the ice.

When the third period came, Maggie didn’t come out to the bench until half way through the period. I could only guess it was about her injury and the announcer zoomed in on her and we could already see the forming buries on her face, that was the extent of a Zdeno Chara punch.

We had our first game against the Kings earlier this afternoon and we won it with the final score of one to two. We had another game tomorrow and then the day after we were off to California for a game two days later.

-Maggie-
My teammates and I stared off at the ice in disbelief, we had just lost four games in a row, we had let the Bruins sweep us and they were going to move onto the finals, the Stanley Cup Finals, and we weren’t, I wanted to cry. Out of the whole round, we were only able to score twice against Rask, one goal was Sutter’s and the other was mine, two games Rask got a shutout, we weren’t proud of those.

The Bruins and Penguins stood in the middle of the ice, we were going to shake hands and wish them luck in the Finals. I shook hands and even got some hugs from my friends, it was nothing personal; this is what happened in the sport, I was never going to hold them responsible for winning; they played better than us, simple.

We were in Boston at the time and as soon as the game ended and we went back to the locker room, Coach told us we were heading back to Pittsburgh tonight, not wanting to stay and listen to the celebration of the underdog team beating the team picked to win from the very beginning, none of us wanted to listen to it. So as soon as everyone showered and changed, all the gear was packed up and thrown onto the bus, we headed for the airport.

The hours long flight was spent in silence, mostly because people fell asleep, physically and mentally exhausted. I sat next to Beau on the plane; I had the window seat so that he could have the aisle seat. My legs were on his lap and I leaned my back against the plane wall and my head was on the pillow tucked between the area between the wall and headrest.

By the time we landed in Pittsburgh, it was early in the morning and all we wanted to do was go to our homes and be depressed by ourselves. Beau and I hopped into my Escalade, he was going to be staying with me, the poor kid has been hopping from couch to couch and when I heard that he wasn’t staying at a hotel like I thought, I gave him a room, just like if Bortuzzo was brought up, I gave him the other guest bedroom.

I pulled into my driveway, into my garage, parked the car, turned it off, pressed the button to close the garage door, and Beau and I just sat there, “I can’t believe it’s over,” he said and I just nodded my head, “It’s really over.”

“I know,” I breathed.

“How?”

“They played better than us,” I said and then sighed and leaned my head against the steering wheel and closed my eyes, knowing that they were watering and I didn’t want to cry in front of Beau.

We were heartbroken, the whole team was, I think it hurt worse this year than the last three because we were so close, we were so close to the Finals. We got too cocky and let the Bruins sweep us and steal our spot in the finals.

“Next year,” I said and Beau sighed.

“That’s what everyone says.”

“And we’ll continue to say it, until it happens- And even when it does happen- When we win the Cup,” I looked at him, we both had teary eyes, “We’ll still say next year.”