AJ stares at the Sports Illustrated cover and makes a face.
“What does thiscan a rookie lead the Flyers to the Cup nonsense? I think they should take out the can and the question mark.”
“You have such a big ego it’s amazes me,” Nick says looking at him.
“What do you mean?”
“If I was on the cover of Sports Illustrated and had a whole article written on me I wouldn’t care what they said.”
“Righttttt,” AJ says.
“So what exactly was the word you were talking about?”
“Uh…”
“You still don’t know do you?”
“Um.”
“Yeah that’s what I though.”
“Shutup Carter,” AJ says as Brian walks up to them from across the locker room.
“Why the hell am I playing and not Boosh? Can I just ask you guys this?” Brian says looking down at AJ and Nick who are sitting in front of their designated lockers for this game.
AJ shrugs as Nick elbows him.
“They know you can pull it off Bri,” Nick says, “Just trust yourself.”
“Yeah they just so happen to instill me with the job of starting off against the New York Rangers in what is going to be our biggest game so far. If I loose this who the hell knows what kind of hell I will get from the fans.”
“Calm down man its just Eric Lindros and the Rangers,” Nick says as AJ’s jaw drops.
“Just Lindros. Just Lindros,” AJ says, “Where the hell have you been? Do you know not know how much Flyers fans are depending on us to cream Lindros let alone Clarke. Yeah he just so happens to call up Lassard, the guy who hurt Lindros while he was on his own team during practice, for Richardson. What happened to Bruno St. Jacques or Tiley? I don’t even want to picture Barber if we don’t win this,” AJ says finishing and then looking up at Brian whose face had gone white, “Um sorry Bri.”
“I’m gonna die,” Brian says, “I’m gonna die.”
“No you’ll be fine Brian,” Nick says, “Go find Kevin maybe he has some advice.”
“Yeah Kevin,” Brian says turning around, “Kevin will know what to do,” he says before walking away from them.
“Oops,” AJ says as Nick grabs the magazine from him and hits him over the head with it, “Owww, what the hell?”
“You really do talk wayyy too much,” he says standing up and dropping the magazine in AJ’s lap, “I’m gonna go fine Fedetenko,” Nick says walking away towards the trainer’s room to find Fedetenko.
“What I do?” AJ looks over at Fedoruk who can only shake his head in response.
“Let’s go AJ its game time,” Roenick says walking over.
“Are we all ready to get booed?” AJ asks standing up.
“This is not good,” Boucher says from the bench sitting next to AJ.
The score was three to two in favor of the Rangers with Lindros scoring the first goal of the game on Brian early in the first. So it had come down to this with only a few more minutes to go playing in the Rangers house with hundreds of fans booing them.
Nick watches as a Ranger’s heads down the ice and skates behind Brian. Brian was not having a good night to say the least. He wasn’t playing bad, but he wasn’t playing the best he could. When the third goal had gone in Brian had bent over on the ice and shoved his head into his gloves in frustration. Nick could already see the onslaught of self-ridicule that was going to come from Brian when the game was over.
“Messia shots…He scoresss,” the voice over the loud speaker says as the Ranger fans stand up and start cheering.
Nevermind, he had spoken too soon, four to two in favor of the Rangers now. The Flyers had made a come back tying the game up at two to two with a goal from Dopita and Roenick. Roenick’s was sure to be one of the goals that would play on the highlight wheel for a while. Of course it call came crashing down now and as a Ranger goes to the penalty box Brian skates from the net to the bench as Barber pulls him in favor of an extra attacker.
None of them were playing as good as they wanted to play tonight. AJ hadn’t scored at all in the first and second which he said was an embarrassment in the locker during half time. It was only going to get worse now because time was ticking down on the clock and AJ was on as the extra attacker, but nothing was coming to him.
Four days between games and this is what it does to teams, Nick thinks. Of course Nick had been sitting a lot longer because of his concussion and had just recently returned to the team. Also returning to the ice was Dopita who was dubbed the best player outside the NHL last year and he was proving why he was named that by the way he was playing tonight.
Nick looks up at the clock and sighs as time expires and the Ranger fans go wild. The first of five meetings for the Rangers and Flyers in the season. The first had gone to the Rangers and Lindros much to the distaste of the Flyers and the rest of the organization not to mention the Flyer fans. Nick stands up from the bench and starts walking down the tunnel with the rest of the players into the locker room. He turns around to see Kevin walking beside Brian talking to him probably reassuring him that he played as well as he could and that was all that counted.
Nick walks into the locker room as AJ is tearing off his gear and shoving it into his bag angrily. Nick stares at him and sighs.
“You know it’s not that big of a deal AJ.”
AJ looks up at him and snorts before pulling on a shirt and a pair of jeans then storming out of the locker room probably to go smoke which he had a habit of doing when he was angry or upset.
Brian on the other hand was sitting still fully dressed in his gear staring down at his hockey mask with a somber expression on his face. Boucher walks up to him and sits next to him talking quietly to him as Brian nods along to whatever he is saying. Nick stares at the tow of them before walking over and smiling down at Brian.
“You should have played and everyone knows it,” Brian says to Boosh, “The best goalie in the league and they play me. How the hell am I supposed to win the fans back after this? I’ll never get to start now.”
Boucher frowns and looks over at Nick, “Brian you’re putting way too much pressure on yourself. Don’t turn into the way I was last season. You’ll really regret it.”
Brian shakes his head and looks back down at his mask, “Are the guys mad at me?”
“No,” Nick says, “They know you tried, but it didn’t happen its ok.”
“You mean they know I played as well as I could even though I didn’t deserve to be playing tonight?”
“Brian stop putting words into my mouth,” Nick says, “Get over we lost big fucking deal. There will be other games the next one against them is at home. We’ll see who prevails there. We have a long time left in the season just let it go,” he says before walking back to his locker to get changed, “When its time for you to prove yourself you’ll be able to do it,” he yells back over to Brian, “Trust me you’ll be able to,” he says mumbling to himself now.
Kevin looks around at the First Union from the ice and smiles as the building seems to tremble from the screams of the fans. It was time to redeem themselves now. The Washington Capitals were playing in their house tonight and after the night before against the Rangers. Kevin had a good feeling about this game though. It had started out perfectly too. Three goals in the first three minutes of play Primeau, Dopita and LeClaire had scored one right after the other and AJ was currently looking for his for tonight.
AJ had a butterfly over his right eye from a fight in the first, which resulted in him bleeding all over himself, but he had actually won the fight pinning the Capital on the ice. McAllister had also been in a fight, which resulted in yet another Capital being pushed onto the ice, but not before a good number of punches had been thrown in that resulted in a bloody eye for the Cap. Kevin didn’t exactly like to pick fights with people, but he would fight if he had to. Fighting did something for the team too. It seemed to energize them and the crowd even more and players knew it. Sometimes it just felt good to let it all out.
Kevin turns his head around quickly and looks at Boucher then focuses his attention back on the game. It was about midway through the second and Boucher was once again playing fantastically showing that he was about to get another shutout. On the other hand Kevin had seen a defiant blow to their defense when Therein fell to the ice in the first with a concussion which resulted in his head being hit three times. Once from a shoulder to the head, second by him spinning out of control from that hit and hitting his head into the boards and then third when he fell crashing to the ice face first hitting his head onto the ice. Injuries were plaguing the Flyers team mostly the defense.
Kevin watches as the Capitals come at him and Johnnson with the puck as AJ, Williams and Primeau chase them down the ice as well. Kevin slams one of them into the boards as the other picks up the puck and heads towards Boosh with Johnnson hot on his heels. Boosh dives onto the ice and stretches out making an amazing save and then stopping the rebound as well. Kevin picks up the puck and shovels it to Primeau who is denied as a Capital intercepts it and hits it back towards Boosh again. As Boosh makes the save as he slowly gets up from the ice form the previous save. Kevin picks the puck up again and passes it to Williams as he turns around to see AJ screaming something at the referee while pointing behind Kevin. AJ turns his attention at Williams and starts screaming something that Kevin can’t quite make out, but Williams looks over at AJ and shovels the puck down toward the other end of the ice as icing is called and play is stopped. AJ goes flying back past Kevin towards the net as Kevin turns around and looks where AJ is going.
“Oh fuck,” Kevin mutters as he stares at AJ who is standing beside the net yelling at the ref.
There was Boosh sitting curled up on the ice in front of the net yelling I’m hurt. Kevin looks over at the bench at Brian who had once again gone completely pale.
This was not going to be a good diagnosis.
Brian’s eyes get wide as Boucher is helped off the ice hardly walking down the tunnel into the locker room. Barber motions for him to go out on the ice and Brian swallows a lump in his throat as his he steps onto the ice and goes over to the net and begins to stretch. It was bad enough that he had lost last night and now this. This was all he needed. Now he had to fill in for Boosh. A cold goaltender going into a game that so far had been a shutout. Brian was ready for anything but not this. Not Boucher getting hurt. Not being put in because of that fact.
“You ready?” Kevin asks him skating up.
“No,” Brian says.
Kevin nods and motions for the ref to get ready to start the game.
“I can’t do this Kev.”
“Just give it your all Bri,” Kevin says, “I’ll take care of the rest. You just try your best.”
“Ok,” Brian nods taking his position in between the pipes.
Kevin skates back over to the circle to the left of Brian getting ready for the face off.
Brian breathes in deeply as the puck drops to the ice and the game starts again. And so it began.
The Flyers went on to win the game 5-0 with AJ scoring in the third and Primeau scoring again in the second with a combined shutout between both Boucher and Brian. Brian’s first shutout of the season.
Brian walks into the locker room when the game is done and over to Boucher who is sitting in front of his locker dressed in his suit he arrived in.
“You ok Boosh?” he asks sitting down next to him.
Boosh sighs and shakes his head no, “I pulled a hamstring. I’ll be out of a week or so.”
“You’re kidding me right?”
Boosh shakes his head no, “I wish I was. I just get going and this happens I can never win I tell you.”
Brian stares at him and shakes him, “So you can’t play?”
“I can’t even walk Brian let alone play.”
“Oh shit,” Brian mumbles.
“Don’t worry you’ll do fine Brian.”
“No you don’t understand I can’t take over for you until you come back.”
“Why not?”
“I can’t. I just can’t.”
“You’ll do fine Brian,” Boosh says standing up, “But you’ll have to excuse me I promised Comcast and interview for the post game show and I think they want it now but the looks of the camera man waving at me franticly,” he smiles before limping over to the camera man.
“Oh shit,” Brian says to himself as Nick walks up and sits next to him with Kevin standing in front of them both.
“I can’t believe I didn’t see it earlier,” Kevin says, “I should have noticed he was down when he was slow getting up.”
“Maybe you’re going deaf,” AJ mumbles walking by, “Hopefully if I ever get hurt someone will notice me laying down on the ice curled up screaming I’m help and I need help.”
“What the hell is his problem?” Kevin asks.
“Just let him go,” Brian says, “He’s pissed off what do you expect he’s one of Boosh’s best friends. Plus AJ cares about winning a lot and I’m not exactly in top form.”
“Would you stop that,” Nick says.
“No hear me out I don’t want to get the top spot like this,” Brian says, “I want to be starter, but not because Boosh gets hurt and can’t play. I want to earn it. If he looses the starter spot because he hits a slump when he comes back its gonna be my fault and then Boosh will get pissed off again and want to be traded and then AJ will get pissed off and then Fedoruk will and then Fedetenko and it will have this huge ripple effect and it’s all gonna be my fault.”
“Breath Bri,” Kevin says calmly, “That won’t happen. Boosh will be back sooner then you think he’s a fighter. Until then you do your job and play your best.”
“But we’re playing the Devils Saturday and I’m not up to that let alone the games a head in the next week or however Boosh is out.”
“You are so pessimistic it amazes me,” Nick says, “You think Boosh wants you to lose? He doesn’t want to come back to a losing record. He’ll want you to play well. We all want you to play well. Let AJ cool down he’ll be fine he always is.”
Brian looks up as Boucher limps back over and picks up his bag, “hey it could have been a lot worse. This will heal up quick. You just keep our record up there ok Bri,” he says to Brian before turning around and limping out of the locker room.
Brian sighs and looks down at his mask in his hands.
AJ walks up behind Nick and sighs, “He’s out two to three weeks not one week. You think he can do it?”
“Yeah,” Nick says, “He can.”
The real test was only to come.
