AAOOOSC! Playoffs

Footsteps wake up Brad the next morning. He cracks his eyes open, looking around his surroundings slowly. He sees the bright Bruins locker room in front of him; he gets up on his four paws and stretches his back like a cat, being careful not to hit himself on the polished walls that surround him.
Brad hears the footsteps coming closer to the locker room, so he scoots to the back of the cabinet he is in as far as possible, hiding in the shadows.
The door opens and a familiar guy with sunglasses strolls into the room with his hands in his pockets. He then sits on a bench and stares at the Stanley Cup poster that is still hanging on the wall.
"Who are you?" Brad asks, staring down at the person.
The person turns around, looking for who just talked. "Wait, I'm not the only person here?"
Brad lets out a squeak and covers his mouth. He forgot he was a honey badger.
"Braaad... Is that you? I recognize that little squeak of yours..."
Brad just stares at the person with wide eyes. 'Don't talk, don't talk, don't talk...'
"Brad? Are you here?" the person asks again.
"I have to talk," Brad whispers to himself.
"Brad, where are you?" The person stands up walking around in circles.
"You gotta show yourself..." Brad looks at the confused person and jumps out of the cabinet, landing on the bench in front of him. "Hello."
"GAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!" The person got so startled that his sunglasses flew off of him. "What is that thing‽"
"Oh, it's you, Patrice! I couldn't recognize you through those stylish sunglasses." Brad jumps down onto the floor and grabs the sunglasses from the floor, then leaps back up. "Fere."
"Uhhh..." Patrice takes his sunglasses back with shaky hands. "You talk like Brad... Exactly like Brad..."
"Because I am Brad!" Brad extends his black, furry arms, revealing the huge, white spot on his tummy. "I just turned into a honey badger..."
"You turned into a honey badger?" Patrice makes a puzzled look. "How is that even possible‽"
Brad shrugs. "Beats me. What are you doing here?"
"Eh, well, I'm just tryin' to get over the fact that we lost the playoffs..." Patrice turns around slowly, seeing the Stanley Cup poster.
"That's all Tuukka's fault." Brad crosses his arms and gives a cold stare at the poster.
"Tuukka's fault?" Patrice looks behind at Brad with a shocked look. "How?"
"Well, believe or not, but Tuukka has this pony and it's gonna have ponies, so he decided to slack off in the playoffs so that he can have time to take care of her. Stupid reason, right? I mean, we were so close to the Finals and he just had to blow it all away from some pony! So close!!!" Brad shows how close they were to going into the Finals with his paws.
Patrice stands there for a moment, processing what he just heard. "Brad, I think what Tuukka did was right."
"What?" Brad gawks at Patrice confusingly. "What are you talking about?"
"Well, what I'm trying to say is that Tuukka sacrificing his time and dreams to his pony was the right thing to do. The Cup can wait till next year, the pony can't. He cares for her, but that doesn't mean he doesn't care about us. I knew that he wanted the Cup, but sometimes, things have to wait. Maybe this year wasn't our year to get the Cup. I know that you're upset at what Tuukka did, but it was for a good reason. Without Tuukka's care, the pony might not make it through. It might seem wrong, but it's not. You just gotta put yourself in Tuukka's shoes and not think about yourself. I know that you're upset because you wanted the Cup and Tuukka took that away from you, but you just gotta accept it and stop thinking about yourself because there's nothing you can do about it now. Think about it."
Brad's anger look softens into a realizing look. "Huh...I guess you're right. I have been only thinking about myself for the past few days and not thinking about Tuukka and the pony. Patrice..." He looks up at his teammate. "...thank you for making me realize this."
"That's okay. You always have that problem of anger controlling you."
"Hey, I'm not called 'The Little Ball of Hate' for nothing!" Brad smiles and extends his short arms.
"That's right. But don't let your anger and other feelings make you do stupid things you'll regret."
"Yea... I gotta work on that..." Brad sighs. "So I guess I have to go apologize to Tuukka now, right?"
Patrice nods his head. "That's right. Now go on! Tell me later on how it went!" He begins opening his sunglasses.
"Okay, I will!" Brad jumps off of the bench. "Merci beaucoup, mon ami!" (Thank you very much, my friend!)
"Pas de problème!" Patrice puts back on his sunglasses. (No problem!)
Brad rushes out of the TD Garden and zooms back to Tuukka's house.

Notes