The Three C's

“Yes!” I yelled as my teammates and I jumped over the boards and onto the ice with my other teammates. We were happy that we had just ended the regular season and had a definitely spot in the playoffs.

It was the last home game in the season, so that meant that it was also, Fan Appreciation Day. We had just won against the Red Wings in overtime and now we were going to be giving our jerseys to some lucky fans. After we finished celebrating on the ice, we headed to the locker room to quickly shower and change and then head back out onto the ice.

When the guys and I finally made it back out, the fans were busy watching a small clip that basically broke down what happened over the season. Turn Down For What was blasting in the background and we looked up and watched all of the fights, goals, plays, celebrating circles. I smiled and felt Pat lace his fingers with mine. My fight with Amanda Kessel came on the screen and the fans cheered and I smirked, knowing that I kicked her ass that night.

We all started laughing when the video that I took in the beginning of the season, when the team and I were in Sweden. The video of the two rookies drinking toilet water was shown and I felt bad that the rookies weren’t here to see it, they were back in the AHL.

After the video some of the guys and I went onto the ice and threw some shirts at the fans and then went back to the boards. I was in skinny jeans, black pumps, a thin black long sleeve shirt with my brown leather jacket over, my hair was down and curled and I was ready to meet my friend and then to go out with the guys and celebrate.

I was sitting on the boards, Pat was next to me leaning against them and I was leaning against him. Crawford was on the other side of me and Jon was on the other side of Pat. We were scattered all over the boards, waiting for the lucky fans to come out so we could meet the one that won our jersey.

With the number forty six, I wasn’t at the beginning, but I also wasn’t at the end. Goaltender, Scott Darlin was before me and then defenseman, Trevor Van Riemsdyk was after me. I ended up getting this teenage boy who looked at me like he met a girl from Hooters. We took our picture, I handed him my jersey, pulled him over towards the table so that I could sign it and then kissed his cheek and headed off the ice, leaving a teenage boy very happy.

When I walked back to the locker room, some of the guys were laughing and saying that that was probably the most action the poor teen had ever gotten. Once we were all finished and everyone gave their jerseys out, we left and headed for our usual club.

-Kane-
After what happened to us the last time we went to a club, we’ve been really careful. Not staying too long, not getting really drunk, just making sure what happened last time, didn’t ever happen again. I’ve been very protective over Maggie when we walk into a club since then. I always needed to know where she was and who she was with and I was happy that she was understanding and didn’t argue.

I was drinking a beer and talking with Jon when Abby came over and told me that Maggie had ran to the bathroom with Laura, Shaw’s girlfriend. She asked if I could help find Shaw because his girlfriend wasn’t feeling well and was getting sick in the bathroom.

“She drink too much?” Jon asked and Abby shrugged her shoulders.

“She was dancing with us one minute and then running to the bathroom the next,” Abby said and I nodded my head and then looked around the room and found Shaw at the bar with Corey.

I walked over towards him and told him that his girlfriend was getting sick and he looked at me confused, “She told me she wasn’t drinking tonight,” he said and I shrugged my shoulders.

“Abby told me that Maggie’s in there with her,” I said and Shaw nodded his head and then headed for the girls bathroom, I decided to follow him and text Maggie when we were outside.

Maggie came out and looked at us, “She said she didn’t drink anything and I haven’t seen her with anything other than water.”

“Maybe I should take her home,” Shaw said and we nodded our heads and then Maggie went back in to get Laura.

When the girl came out, she looked awful, Shaw basically carried her out of the club and then Maggie looked at me and asked if we could go home. We said goodbye to everyone and then I drove us home. Maggie and I weren’t really tired, so we spent the night on the couch with the dogs, catching up on our favorite shows with some ice cream and beer.

We had the next two days off and then we were back to work to prepare for the playoffs. The first round was going to be against Nashville, everyone believed that with Neal on the team, they had gotten a little bit better. Game one and two were going to be held in Chicago and then we were going to go from there.

The next two days were spent training and pushing ourselves to be ready for this series. The last month and a half was spent basically killing us, game after game to catch up to all of the postponed games we missed while we were unable to play. We had our time to rest, now it was time to get back in action.

-Maggie-
Practice was rough and Coach was constantly making us try new plays, it was the night before the game and the Predators were in town. James had called me asking to take me out to dinner and I just told him to come over to my house to have dinner, even bring Del Zotto, so that he could play video games with Pat.

Within the hour, the two Predators were here, and I was just finishing up on making grilled chicken vodka penna pasta. Pat and Del Zotto went into the living room to eat and play video games and James and I stayed in the kitchen.

“So have you been keeping track of what the draft might be like this year?” James asked and I nodded my head.

“It’s in two months, of course I have,” I smirked and James chuckled, “A few girls too, two I know from when I played on the women’s Olympic team in 2010.”

“Who’s that?”

“Allison Mizenko and Nicole Bridgehouse,” I said and James nodded his head.

“That Allison girl’s pretty hot,” James said and I scoffed.

“She’s talented!”

“Right, talented, that’s what I said,” he said and we laughed, “Do you see her making it?”

“Yeah, I think’s she got a shot- They both do,” I said and James nodded his head, “Now the other three that are trying, I don’t know. They’re fresh out of college, well, the one’s from Russia, I don’t know- I guess we’ll see how it all turns out.”

“The Panther’s are hosting it this year,” James said and I nodded my head, “Are you going?”

“Have no reason to go,” I said and James chuckled and nodded his head, “How’s Nashville turning out to be?”

“It’s all right, not Pittsburgh, but ok,” he said and I nodded my head, “How’s the wedding planning going?”

“All finished- Well, sort of,” I said and James chuckled, “Mine and Pat’s mom went down to Hawaii this week to get the date and area- Everything ready for us.”

“Least you have someone to help,” he said and I nodded my head.

“Yeah, Pat or I don’t have time to go down and get everything ready,” I said and James chuckled.

“Why Hawaii?”

“I don’t know, we just really wanted it, and I love the beach- So why not?” I asked and James shrugged his shoulder.

“How many are coming?”

“A lot,” I laughed and he chuckled, “Between both of our families- Well, my family is huge- But family and friends, it’s like- Oh god, three hundred. I know we invited almost five and not everyone can make it.”

“Damn girl, that’s a lot,” he said and I smirked and nodded my head, “Well, I already said that I’ll be there!”

“You know Allison will be there,” I said and he looked at me confused, “The girl trying out for the drafts this year, I sent her an invite too. I was pretty close with her on the team and we’ve kept in contact since then.”

“Well then,” he smiled brightly and straightened up, “I can’t wait to meet her.”

“That’s if she doesn’t have a boyfriend already,” I laughed and he scoffed and waved it off.

“It won’t matter when she meets me!” he said and I laughed.

“Well what happens if she gets drafted to any team but Nashville?” I asked and he looked at me and shrugged his shoulders.

“Then I’ll pull a you and Kane,” he said and I looked at him and smirked, “If you guys can do it, then so can I- And look at you guys now- Getting married and everything,” James said and I smiled.

“I love how you’re already planning on dating her and going to see her on your days off, when you haven’t even met her and she doesn’t even know anything about you,” I laughed and James smirked and shrugged his shoulders, “Oh James, you’re a hopeless romantic,” I giggled and he rolled his eyes.

“Guess we’ll just have to see when the wedding comes.”

“I guess so then.”