The Three C's

-Maggie-
“What the hell is with all the violence on the ice tonight?” I asked as I climbed over the boards and plopped on the bench next to Olli and Geno.

“We against Bruins- It happen,” Geno said and I sighed.

“Yeah, but it’s like everyone took their extra Rambo pills this morning,” I said and heard some of the guys around me chuckle.

“Mags,” I turned my head and felt Coach leaning against me, showing me a play on his mini white board, “Marchand has been real good at stick close to the puck and creating turnovers, what you gotta do is keep an eye on him and make sure- When he’s on your left, you keep that puck tucked in close and-“

“I gotchya, Coach,” I said and he nodded his head and patted my back, I was going back onto the ice to do another shift.

This was my second game back since my concussion, we had our home game against the Stars two nights ago and everything was fine, I got myself a goal and two assists. So far we were in the second period against the Bruins, with the score being two to one, Pittsburgh. There were fights against Engelland and Lucic, Kuntiz and Marchand and then a pushing match with Thronton and I when I stopped next to Rask when he covered the puck, but someone pushed me and I tripped over Rask, my legs hanging from his back and I was on the ice. I quickly stood up and Thornton started to push me, and I was pushing right back and before any fists were thrown, or more, before I got my ass kicked, I thanked god when Geno and James popped in-between us.

James, Sidney, Niskanen, Brooks and I were on the ice, we had the puck and were going for Rask. I hear a whistle and turn around to see Brooks on the ice and slowly getting up and Marchand skating away. Brooks shook off the hit and we started again.

Brooks passed me the puck and I was heading down the ice, I was about to slapshot the puck at Rask, but the whistle blew and I turned around to see Marchand on the ground and hearing a lot of Bruin fans booing, “What happened?” I asked and then looked up at the jumbotron to see that Sidney had tripped Marchand and my eyes widened when James kneed him in the head, ‘…What the fuck?! Really guys!...’

I skated towards the crowd around the refs, angry Bruins wanting to know what was going to be done about this as trainer assisted Marchand. I was standing in-between Brooks and James, Lucic was anger and trying to go after James, but the refs were allowing it. Then out of nowhere, Brooks gets pulled back and grabs onto me, I shoot around and see that Thornton had Brooks on the ground and was punching him over and over again.

“Hey! Hey! Hey! What the fuck?!” I yelled and pushed Thornton back hard and gave him a good punch across the cheek, ‘…Holy shit! Mother fucker- FUCK!!! That hurt!!!...’ I thought and tried my hardest not to shake my throbbing hand from his rock hard face. The refs got in-between us and I turned and looked towards Brooks, he looked like he was barely holding onto consciousness and his face was pretty bloody.

“Maggie,” I turned my head and saw Sidney, “You all right?”

“Fine,” I mumbled and looked down at Brooks.

“You should have Doc look at your hand-“

“It’s fine,” I growled and looked up at him and then skated passed him, James looked at me and was about to say something, but I glared at him and headed over towards the bench, ‘…Should not have done that James- You should not have done that!...’

“You all right?” Beau asked as I climbed over the boards and sat next to him.

“Fine,” I growled and looked down, I couldn’t get out of my head the sight of Thornton just grabbing Brooks and just unleashing the Kraken on him. I growled and clenched my fists, it made me angry with every punch he took, ‘…Attack a man when his back was turned- Pathetic…’ the game resumed a while later, after both Marchand and Brooks were carted off of the ice for their injuries. I bit my lip and watched the cart leave the ice, I was seeing fire in my eyes at this moment, ‘…This isn’t high school hockey- Stop fuckin’ doin’ cheap ass blows!...’

When we went into the locker room for the second intermission, I took my gear off and looked down at my hand, the same hand I punched Thornton with, it was hurting and I was hoping that nothing was wrong with it, I couldn’t afford to be on injury reserve again. I sighed and shook it a little and then flexed it, it definitely hurt.

“How does it feel?” I heard and looked to my side to see James looking at me.

“Fine,” I muttered and looked back at my hand.

“That’s a lie,” he said and I just grabbed my stick and decided to retape it, “Got something to say?”

“Nope,” I growled, not looking at him and taking the old worn down tape off.

“Maggie-“

“What?”

“What’s your problem?!” he growled loudly and the whole room went quiet all of a sudden.

“My problem?” I barked and James looked at me, “You want to know what my problem is-“

“Guys-“

“Shut up, Sidney,” I growled and looked at James, “Was it really necessary to knee him in the head? Yeah, I understand that Marchand was coming after us all night- But none of us were hurt and that’s kind of his job.”

“None of us were hurt? Fuckin’ look at Orpik-“

“That happened after Marchand- And I was fuckin’ there! I saw what Thornton did!” I growled, I was now standing up, “You do realize for what you did- You’re going to be suspended, right? You’re a fuckin’ moron! We can’t afford for you to make stupid ass decisions that will cost us from losing you to a suspension.”

“I’m not gunna get suspended,” James said, he was now standing looking down at me.

“Oh really? Ok hotshot, when they call you to let you know you’ve been suspended for a head shot I won’t tell you ‘I-told-you-so’, I’ll spare you that since you’ll be pissed enough.”

“Oh, how fuckin’ kind of you,” James growled and then Sidney got in-between us and I felt Marc grab me.

“Both of you knock it off,” Sidney barked and was looking at James, but his hand was out in front of me for me not to go at James, “We don’t know anything yet, so just stop talking about it,” Marc had his hands on my shoulders, Sidney looked at me and then looked down, “Maggie, go to Doc for him to look at your hand.”

“I’m fine,” I said and then hissed when Sidney quickly grabbed my hand and put a little pressure on it, it hurt.

“Go to Doc,” he demanded and I sighed and just turned and headed for Doc’s office.

“And you called me a hotshot?” James muttered and I growled and turned around, but Geno grabbed me.

“I’ve two hands, Neal, I’ll fuckin’ punch you with the other!”

“Oh, ok, come on Marshall- Let’s see what you’ve fuckin’ got-“

“Enough! Both of you!” Sidney yelled and Geno turned me around and pushed me into Doc’s office and quickly closed the door as if a dog being forced into a cage.

-Kane-
“You fuckin’ dick!” I laughed as I threw my cards on the table and watched as Sharp collected all of the money in the pile and won that round of poker.

The boys and I had a day off, having a game the day before against the Blues and winning and then tomorrow we have a game against the Hurricanes and planned on winning. Sometimes if we had a day off, some of the guys and I get together and do something, someone, I’m not sure who, decided that it would be a great idea to play poker. I’m seriously regretting it because either Jon or Sharp win each round.

“Hey, whoa, whoa, whoa, what time is it?” Jon asked and I looked at my watch.

“Just after nine,” I said and Jon jumped up and ran towards the TV, turning it on and pulling up the NBCSN channel to show the Pittsburgh/ Boston game. It was the beginning of the third period and the score was two to one, Pittsburgh. I searched the ice and then the bench, “Where’s Maggie?”

“I don’t know, I forgot to turn it on before,” Jon said and I nodded my head, we were so preoccupied with our game, I did too.

“Let me pull it up on my phone-“

“Wait!” Jon yelled and Sharp stopped and we all looked at the TV.

“And if you’re tuning in now, you’re probably wondering why a few players are missing- Pittsburgh Penguins, Brooks Orpik and Maggie Marshall and then Boston Bruins, Brad Marchand and Shawn Thornton. Thought second period remained scoreless, it was definitely one of more active periods.”

“That’s right, while we’re on a TV break, we’ll play the highlight of what happened during the second period- You’ll see here how Marchand checked Orpik- It was a clean check and you can see him a little shaken up about it, but still continues to play,” the announcer said and he had now acquired all of our attentions, “And then we move to this play when Crosby trips Marchand, where Neal quickly moves in and knees Marchand.”

I winced at the sight, that was a definite concussion right there, “He’s gunna be suspended for that.”

“No doubt there, that was a messed up hit,” Corey said and I rubbed my face.

“Why’s Mags not on the ice though?” Shaw asked and we watched.

“Marshall and Thornton had colliding so far all night, in this incident where I’m pretty sure if Malkin and Neal didn’t interfere- Now, Marshall is a tough girl- You’ve seen it, we’ve seen it-“

“But Thornton is a big boy- It’s wonderful that she’s not afraid to get right in there- Like I said the other day, she’s not afraid to go from forward to defense in a second- But I’m sure that if they went at it, he would most likely win that.”

“Oh, without a doubt, but that didn’t seem to stop Marshall when Thornton came right up to the crowd of players around the refs, waiting to find out what the call on Neal would be- You see Thornton sneaking right in there, coming from the bench, grabbing Orpik and- Well, self explanatory.”

“But then look at Marshall, once she sees what going on…”

“Oh! Fuck, Maggie, what are you thinking?!” Corey groaned his hands on top of his head and he shook his head, “Can’t believe she fuckin’ punched him.”

“I think I figured out why she’s not on the ice,” Jon said and I looked at her, “That punch probably broke her hand.”

“Shit, and she just came back from an injury.”

“We don’t know anything yet, Kaner, just wait for her call,” Sharp said and I nodded my head.

I grabbed my phone and opened a text to send to her, ‘R u ok? Love u!’