The Three C's

Training and conditioning was over, preseason had begun, our first game was home against the Capitals and we lost in overtime, our second game was away against the Wilds, they received a shutout, making three goals passed Crawford, he wasn’t happy about that, our third game was away against the Capitals, losing with the final score of six to two. Everyone was on edge, our fourth game, home against the Wilds, we lost, our fourth game in a row. Granted it was only preseason, but still, we weren’t happy about it.

Right now the boys and I were on a flight to Sweden for five days, two of them would be for traveling, one to practice and two for the back to back games against two of Sweden’s professional teams. We had to be at the airport to meet our teammates at noon, our flight left at three. Jon, Pat and I sat with each other, I took over the window seat, Pat in the middle and Jon on the end. I was so excited to play overseas, only every playing during the winter Olympics.

From Chicago, we flew to Spain and from Spain to Sweden, most of the time we all slept; some guys played video games, cards, read books, or be a Patrick Sharp and go around the whole play with his video camera asking how their day was going. Halfway through the twelve and half hour flight, Pat and I decided, since the place had wifi, that we’re going to pull out my laptop, go onto youtube and look up some funny videos. He decides that he’s going to type in ‘NHL funny moments’ and I smirked; there was a lot to watch.

I was a little embarrassed to find some things that I’ve done, or pranks that were pulled on me in these videos. Some of the others around us decided that they wanted to be in on the laugh fest and watch me, and other players be funny or fools.

“Wait, wait, wait, I got something to look up,” Brandon Saad said, leaning over our seats, moving in-between Pat and I to type in ‘Best of Maggie Marshall’ into the search menu.

“I’m scared,” I said and the guys laughed.

Jon pressed play and I gasped and covered my face, listening to the guys laugh at the sight of a video or me in my gym clothes with Max Talbot, we were harassing Sidney and dancing on him. Another clip came on; it was something pulled from Pens TV, just before the guys and I headed onto the ice, after warm-ups, we liked to get ourselves pumped up and playfully hit each other with our sticks, or jump on each other. Dan Potash, the reporter for the Penguins, was just going over that, when you just see me running from behind the double doors and do a dive bomb on Dupuis, Cooke, Talbot and Fleury.

“Little ole Mags, took four guys down,” Sharp said and I tilted my head all the way back and looked up at him, smirking.

“Damn right.”

The next clip was the game against Tampa Bay last season, Stamkos had just broken the glass for the second time and I was sitting on the boards singing we will rock you with the fans. The next few were a few plays on the ice, ones that I screwed up on and we all just laughed it off, or something went wrong and we couldn’t believe it happened. One for two seasons ago, we were playing the Devils and I was skating after the puck, one of the players were behind me and tried to trip me, he did, but his stick got caught in my skate and I was rolling on the ice for the ref to get it out. I don’t know how many videos we watched, everyone getting their laughs in and then went back to doing their own thing.

When we finally reached Sweden, we got on our bus and then went to our hotel. There were two rookies on our team, their fresh to the NHL, Cooper Walsh and Matthew Cruthers, both Americans, playing with the Wolves for a year or two. We walked into the hotel, Coach handed out our room keys, I looked for my roommate and train, Amanda. Coach had made it clear the first away game that Pat and I are not allowed to share a room, we whined but went with it.

Our room was next to the two rookies, we weren’t in our rooms for ten minutes when the boys were knocking on our attached room door. I opened it and Matthew was looking at me, “Can I help you?”

“Do you have a water fountain in your bathroom too?” he asked and I looked at him confused.

“A water fountain?”

“Yeah, this place has a freakin’ water fountain in the bathroom- How fancy is that?!” Cooper said and I turned away, walking towards my bathroom, looking inside, “See! You have a water fountain too!”

I bit my lip, I didn’t want to laugh, it wasn’t a water fountain. I pulled out my phone and put it to video, if this was going to happen, I needed it on tape. I pointed my phone towards the boys, “So we’re making a video of the rookies first time in Sweden, and they’ve discovered that each bathroom has water fountains- How cool is that?!” I giggled and then we walked towards the boys room.

“I mean look, you press the button and poof, water- I mean it’s a little short-“

“Maybe for midgets,” Matthew said and I laughed.

“That’s so mean!” I said and the two laughed, “Is the water good?”

“Don’t know, didn’t try it,” Cooper said and I grabbed one of the room paper cups and threw it at him.

“Taste it, is it better than back home?” I asked, biting my lip.

Cooper took the plastic off of the cup, Matthew held the button and we watched as Cooper filled up his cup. I had to control myself; I couldn’t laugh as I watched as Cooper took a drink of the water, “How is it?”

“Tastes weird,” he said and I just looked at him.

“Like what?” Matthew said and then took the cup and took a drink, “You’re right, I like our water better.”

I couldn’t help it; I burst out laughing because the boys didn’t know that what they thought was a water fountain was really a bidet toilet. The two boys look at me confused and looked at the water and then back at me, asking me why I was laughing so hard, “Because that’s not a water fountain,” I had to take a breath and hold my stomach because I was laughing so hard.

“What the fuck is it?!” Cooper asked.

“It’s a bidet.”

“What’s a bidet?” Matthew asked the two nineteen year olds clueless as to the fact that they drank toilet water.

“It’s a type of toilet,” I said and their eyes widened and Matthew dropped the cup, water going everywhere and they freaked out trying to get the water off of their tongue. I continue to video the boys as they cursed up a storm, ran to their bags, grabbed their toothbrushes and proceeded to brush their teeth to get the taste out, me, I was still laughing.

“Why didn’t you tell us?!”

“Where’s the fun in that?!” I asked and the two boys glared at me, “So tell me, are ya’ll gunna taste every toilet’s water and compare them all?”

“Fuck you, Maggie!” they yelled and Cooper threw his toothpaste at me.

I laughed, ended the video and then ran out of the room, I just had to continue my evil and show the boys. I made my way to Pat and Jon’s room, a shirtless Jon answered the door and I smirked and held up my phone, “I’ve got a treat for you!”

“For me?” he asked confused.

“For everyone,” I laughed and walked into the room, banging on Sharp and Duncan’s attached door, knowing they were in the next room.

“What’s going on, Mags?” Pat asked, sitting on his bed and looking at his phone.

“Ya’ll gotta see this,” I laughed and plopped onto the bed next to him, Jon let Keith and Sharp in, the four boys crowded around me and I showed them the video.

“Oh, they’re never gunna hear the end of this one,” Sharp said and I laughed.

“Rookie year and they already have something against them to torture them for the rest of their life,” Sharp said and I smirked, “Good work, Mags.”

“Happy my evilness could help.”

“You should team up with Sharpie and I to prank the other-“

“Do NOT prank me!” I growled and the guys laughed.

“You’re a Hawk, it’s gunna happen,” Sharp said and I rolled my eyes, “Unless we conjoin forces.”

“Don’t go to the dark side, Mags,” Pat teased.

“But we’ve got cookies,” Sharp said and I looked at Pat, giving him a sad face.

“I love cookies.”

Sharp came in close and whispered loudly in my ear, “We’ve got… Oreos!”

I snapped my head at him and he smirked, “Hmm, you wager a hard bargain, Patrick Sharp. I shall think over you offer.”

“All right, fair enough,” Keith said and I giggled and nodded my head.

They left and Jon, Pat and I were the only ones left, I laid back on Pat’s bed, cuddling with his pillow and watching him mess around on his phone and Jon unpack. I hadn’t realized I fell asleep on the bed until Pat was waking me up to head to dinner.

-Kane-
“She asleep?” Jon asked and I looked down at Mags, she was, I looked at him and nodded my head, “If she teams up with Sharpie and Keith-“

“I know,” I chuckled, “We’ll be getting messed with everyday.”

“She’s pretty good at coming up with evil pranks,” Jon chuckled and I smirked.

“I know, tricking the rookies that they were water fountains,” I laughed and then shook my head.

“We can have her on our side and maybe we can prank Sharpie and Keith.”

“Double Agent?” I asked and Jon smirked.

“Double Agent.”