Goose's Big Adventure

It was only a few minutes later that Gustav followed his captain out onto the ice. He was in shock of the big arena and couldn’t help but stare at the banners hanging above him. Behind him, Niklas laughed.

“It’s amazing isn’t it? All those banners up there huh? Someday you’ll be raising a banner just like that,” he said. Gustav flushed with excitement. He pictured himself standing alongside his idols holding the banner before it’s raised to the rafters. Could he really be doing that someday? He sure hoped so. Sighing, he stepped out onto the ice and began to skate around, warming up. This was something he always remembered doing back in Sweden. His coach had taught him to have good legs; you have to work them out. That was exactly what Gustav did day in and day out. Sometimes he would work his legs and little too hard and then they would be sore for a week or so, but then he’d just go right back at it. Grinning, he stopped skating and slid up next to Niklas, who was waiting for instructions from coach. Coach Mike Babcock was a loud brash coach whose players respected him as much as he respected them. Gustav felt he could excel under Coach Babcock and he felt a quiver of excitement run down his spine. Was this really the year for him? He sure hoped so. Sighing, he shook his head to clear it and looked up at Coach Babcock, determined to listen to what he had to say.

“I want you all to push your new teammate, Gustav Nyquist, as hard as you can. He’s a promising young player, but we gotta see how far his talent will take him,” Coach was saying. Gustav felt embarrassed about being called out by name, but he also felt delighted. Here was his chance to show off what he was made out of. Niklas gave him a gentle nudge in the side.

“I hope you won’t hate us for doing it,” he said into his new teammate’s ear. Gustav frowned at his idol, confusion written across his face.

“Why would I hate you Kronner? If this is what coach wants then do it. Don’t go easy on me just because I’m new. I’m a hockey player, not a wimp,” he whispered back. Niklas grinned and tapped Gustav’s helmet with his hand.

“You’ll do great,” he promised. Gustav flushed and was about to reply when he heard Hank calling his name. A feeling of dread settled over him as he skated towards his captain. Was he going to get kicked off the team for talking when someone else was talking? He hoped not. Much to his relief, however, he found Hank smiling, not scowling as he had originally thought.

“Coach wants you to work with me today Gus. It’s one of my jobs as captain to help my young players,” he said, settling the puck down Niklas had passed to him as he did so. Gustav grinned and without warning, stole the puck from Hank and skated towards the goal. Jimmy, the Red Wings number one goal tender, tried to stop him, but with a neat trick the Swedish forward shot the puck into the goal right over the goalie’s shoulder. Jimmy stared at Gustav in shock while the rest of the team looked amused.

“When was the last time someone scored on Jimmy like that,” Darren asked Justin in a low whisper. Justin shook his head.

“I don’t know Helmer. But that was a great move,” he said. Actually, Justin was a little bit jealous of his new teammate. He hadn’t remembered coach telling the guys to “push him as hard as they could” when he had arrived. He sighed and shrugged it off. Why was he even complaining about a simple little thing like that? Shaking his head, he skated up to Gustav as the forward rounded the corner of the goal. “Kid, that was one of the best moves I’ve ever seen. You got a little something in there,” he said, fist bumping his teammate. Gustav blushed again as yet another one of his teammates used the term “kid”. But he wasn’t even mad at them for using it. After all, he was the youngest one on the team right now. It was used as a term of affection with his sister, Caroline, and Gustav could only assume his new teammates were doing the same.

“T-Thank you Abby. I’m not really sure what came over me,” he confessed. Justin laughed.

“Showing off what you’re made out of is not always a bad thing Gus. Trust me, if you want to stay with this team, sometimes you have to do that,” he said, wrapping an arm around his shoulders. Gustav grinned and gently shook Justin’s arm off and continued to skate in Niklas’s direction, wondering what his idol would think about what happened.

“Gus that was awesome. Hank is still in shock from that,” was Niklas’s greeting as he pointed in the direction of the captain. Hank skated up to them, shock still written across his face, but he was smiling too.

“You caught me by surprise there Gus. I wasn’t expecting that. But you’ve got some speed to you.” The younger man grinned.

“Thank my coach back in Sweden for that. He made us work out our legs every day to get them strong.” Hank laughed.

“I will have to send him a thank you note. Come on, you’re working with me and Kronner.” Just as he had said this, coach made it a point to call him, Gustav, and Niklas to the front.

“Kronner needs to work on his defensive skills anyway, so I wanted them to do a drill together.” The drill was simple: one of the forwards (Hank or Gustav) would pass the puck to the other forward and then that forward would try to get around Niklas and score a goal. Neither of the older men were embarrassed to be called out by their coach, but Gustav was. He wasn’t sure how he could do this in front of all his new teammates. But he had to at least try.

Hank decided the pass the puck to Gustav first and so he skated backwards towards the goal a bit. The puck on his stick, Hank looked around the ice, took a couple steps forward, and passed the puck to Gustav. The forward received the pass and instantly “turned his wheels on”. He skated as fast as he could towards the goal. Niklas quickly got in front of him and held out his stick to stop him, but Gustav, with an incredible effort, got passed Niklas and scored. A loud gasp shot up from the other players watching and some of them began to playfully chant Gustav’s name. Blushing, Gustav made his way to the bench and took a large drink of water from the bottle he had brought. He felt like his first day as a Red Wing was going exactly the way he had planned.