Courageous
Drop the Puck
The sound of hundreds of cheering fans could be heard as we waited to take the ice for the firs game of the 2011-12 regular season. It would be the first toward gaining some momentum for when we were scheduled to fly back to the states for a 5 game road trip.
On the outside, i appeared cool, calm, and collected, but on the inside I was having a conniption! My nerves calmed down when I took the ice for the first time, but as I did this I realized that I was making history as soon as the puck dropped. I would be the first woman to ever play a regular season NHL game. Sure, I had played a full preseason, but this made it official. The pen was in my hand and I was writing down my own page in sports history. Before it had all been a dream, but now it was reality! I was a defenseman on the New York Rangers roster!
I, seriously, might die right now!
Seriously, though, I'M SO FUCKING HAPPY!!!!
I feel so powerful. I could conquer the world!
Yet, here I stood waiting at the mercy of how everyone else around me would react.
Next goal, was to be the first woman to lift the Stanley Cup! But that was too far down the road to focus on. The upcoming Winter Classic was on everyone's mind. We would be taking on the Philadelphia Flyers in Citzen's Bank Park. The only part that only seems marginally annoying to me was the face that there would HBO camera crew's stalking us at every turn. I hate being filmed! I hate being interviewed! I sure as hell hoped that they left me alone.
Once all of the PreGame ceremonies had taken place, I braced myself for the on coming rush of the opponents' offense. My heart felt like a trained was running through my chest as it pounded against my rib cage as a linesman moved into drop the puck between Kopitar and Richards.
This was it...
Mentally, she willed Brad to win the face-off as the puck fell almost in slow motion from the officials hand.
No luck...
Kopitar had gain possession of the puck and sent it to back to Drew Doughty. Groaning as I glided back to take my position in front of the net. The next few minutes turned to be a back and forth battle to draw first blood. I had manged to root Kopitar out of Lundqvist's view to prevent a screen, dominated on the forecheck, and scrambled to set up a scoring chance for the guys. I had absorbed many brutal hits within the first period and the Kings made sure that I knew that I was no welcomed in their league.
Unfortunately, a well played slap shot from Kopitar managed to sneak it's way past Hank's pads to put the Kings on the scoreboard first. Groaning I shifted out, taking my place on the bench. Rolling my eyes when Brian Boyle sent me a goofy look when I sipped on my water.
"If I could've just gotten the puck away from that bastard!" I grumbled in frustration, slamming my stick onto the floor of the bench. Del Zotto, a veteran compared to me, waved me off,
"Chillax, Micky, there's 45 minutes of play to go! There's plenty of opportunities to show'em who's boss."
His words began to fade out as I turned my attention back to the ice, my eyes glued to the puck as it was pushed up and down the ice. A sigh of relief came when Callahan evened up the score minutes later. After that the rest of the period dragged on and everything seemed to fall apart for us. The second period was just as bad luckily, the Kings had failed to put the puck in the back of the net as Hank remained unfailing between the pipes. Coach voiced his frustration toward the collectively bad decisions we had made during the 2nd intermission.
In the 3rd, Marion Gaborik had given us the lead, but the evil Mike Richards of the Kings had tied it back up after stripping me of the puck before I even knew what had happened. The rest of the period dissolved back into tug of war that the game had been for the two pervious periods until the 3rd horn sounded signally that we would be taking this game into overtime. One more brief pep talk from coach and I found myself back out on the ice.
"12 & 5, you're up!"
Coach summoned Girardi and I onto the ice as he brought Del Zotto and Sauer back in. Bad timing sent me to the sin bin after poke checking Richards in the defensive zone. Grumbling, I threw off my helmet and watched as the Kings called a time out with 2:51 to go in OT.
Mike Richards and Jack Johnson played with the puck in front of Hank teasing him and poor Girardi was alone on the power play as I prepared to return to the ice. Pad save was made on Richards pass and only to have the rebound redirected back into the net by Jack Johnson, ending the game 3-2 with a victory for the Kings.
Groaning, I pulled at my hair in frustration, knowing that if I hadn't have made that fucking poor decision that I would've been able to get the puck out of our zone before Jack had the chance to get the blade of his stuck on the puck.
"Fuck. Fuckity. Mcfuckin' Richards! Once a Flyer, always a Flyer!" I shouted as I slammed
stick on the floor of the box.
With an exasperated sigh I skated over to Hank. The look on his face made me feel twice as bad as I realized that he had been playing in front of a home crowd,
"Fuck, Hank, I'm sorry I fucked up trying to turn over that puck."
Hank shook his head at me with an amused smile,
"Don't worry about it. You did what you felt like you had to do."
"Yeah, but-" Hank cut my rebuttal off, shaking his head at me in a silent rebuke,
"No, 'buts', we play the Ducks tomorrow. Focus on kicking their asses."
Yeah, tomorrow was bound to be the better day. There was always a silver lining I needed to focus on that and forget about my past mistakes. That was the only way I was going to improve and earn the respect that I deserved.
On the outside, i appeared cool, calm, and collected, but on the inside I was having a conniption! My nerves calmed down when I took the ice for the first time, but as I did this I realized that I was making history as soon as the puck dropped. I would be the first woman to ever play a regular season NHL game. Sure, I had played a full preseason, but this made it official. The pen was in my hand and I was writing down my own page in sports history. Before it had all been a dream, but now it was reality! I was a defenseman on the New York Rangers roster!
I, seriously, might die right now!
Seriously, though, I'M SO FUCKING HAPPY!!!!
I feel so powerful. I could conquer the world!
Yet, here I stood waiting at the mercy of how everyone else around me would react.
Next goal, was to be the first woman to lift the Stanley Cup! But that was too far down the road to focus on. The upcoming Winter Classic was on everyone's mind. We would be taking on the Philadelphia Flyers in Citzen's Bank Park. The only part that only seems marginally annoying to me was the face that there would HBO camera crew's stalking us at every turn. I hate being filmed! I hate being interviewed! I sure as hell hoped that they left me alone.
Once all of the PreGame ceremonies had taken place, I braced myself for the on coming rush of the opponents' offense. My heart felt like a trained was running through my chest as it pounded against my rib cage as a linesman moved into drop the puck between Kopitar and Richards.
This was it...
Mentally, she willed Brad to win the face-off as the puck fell almost in slow motion from the officials hand.
No luck...
Kopitar had gain possession of the puck and sent it to back to Drew Doughty. Groaning as I glided back to take my position in front of the net. The next few minutes turned to be a back and forth battle to draw first blood. I had manged to root Kopitar out of Lundqvist's view to prevent a screen, dominated on the forecheck, and scrambled to set up a scoring chance for the guys. I had absorbed many brutal hits within the first period and the Kings made sure that I knew that I was no welcomed in their league.
Unfortunately, a well played slap shot from Kopitar managed to sneak it's way past Hank's pads to put the Kings on the scoreboard first. Groaning I shifted out, taking my place on the bench. Rolling my eyes when Brian Boyle sent me a goofy look when I sipped on my water.
"If I could've just gotten the puck away from that bastard!" I grumbled in frustration, slamming my stick onto the floor of the bench. Del Zotto, a veteran compared to me, waved me off,
"Chillax, Micky, there's 45 minutes of play to go! There's plenty of opportunities to show'em who's boss."
His words began to fade out as I turned my attention back to the ice, my eyes glued to the puck as it was pushed up and down the ice. A sigh of relief came when Callahan evened up the score minutes later. After that the rest of the period dragged on and everything seemed to fall apart for us. The second period was just as bad luckily, the Kings had failed to put the puck in the back of the net as Hank remained unfailing between the pipes. Coach voiced his frustration toward the collectively bad decisions we had made during the 2nd intermission.
In the 3rd, Marion Gaborik had given us the lead, but the evil Mike Richards of the Kings had tied it back up after stripping me of the puck before I even knew what had happened. The rest of the period dissolved back into tug of war that the game had been for the two pervious periods until the 3rd horn sounded signally that we would be taking this game into overtime. One more brief pep talk from coach and I found myself back out on the ice.
"12 & 5, you're up!"
Coach summoned Girardi and I onto the ice as he brought Del Zotto and Sauer back in. Bad timing sent me to the sin bin after poke checking Richards in the defensive zone. Grumbling, I threw off my helmet and watched as the Kings called a time out with 2:51 to go in OT.
Mike Richards and Jack Johnson played with the puck in front of Hank teasing him and poor Girardi was alone on the power play as I prepared to return to the ice. Pad save was made on Richards pass and only to have the rebound redirected back into the net by Jack Johnson, ending the game 3-2 with a victory for the Kings.
Groaning, I pulled at my hair in frustration, knowing that if I hadn't have made that fucking poor decision that I would've been able to get the puck out of our zone before Jack had the chance to get the blade of his stuck on the puck.
"Fuck. Fuckity. Mcfuckin' Richards! Once a Flyer, always a Flyer!" I shouted as I slammed
stick on the floor of the box.
With an exasperated sigh I skated over to Hank. The look on his face made me feel twice as bad as I realized that he had been playing in front of a home crowd,
"Fuck, Hank, I'm sorry I fucked up trying to turn over that puck."
Hank shook his head at me with an amused smile,
"Don't worry about it. You did what you felt like you had to do."
"Yeah, but-" Hank cut my rebuttal off, shaking his head at me in a silent rebuke,
"No, 'buts', we play the Ducks tomorrow. Focus on kicking their asses."
Yeah, tomorrow was bound to be the better day. There was always a silver lining I needed to focus on that and forget about my past mistakes. That was the only way I was going to improve and earn the respect that I deserved.
thank you for the comment! I will!
10/30/12