“YEAHH!” Kaner shouted as he skated past the bench. His gloves, helmet, and stick littered the ice surface as he celebrated what he believed to be a goal in this overtime game. Everyone including myself stared in shock. In one moment the puck was lost then it reappeared in the net! I jumped over the bench and skated over to my team as we all celebrated throwing our gloves high in the air and discarding our helmets on the littered ice.

We stopped our celebration as we watched the ref skated towards the center of the ice. Previous to that he was talking to Toronto most likely about if the goal was to be counted or not. I really hope it counted because if it didn’t our celebration would have been worthless and would make us feel down on ourselves.

I held my breath as he slowly kept skating until he stopped in the middle and faced the box. My body started to shake, my palms became sweaty, hell I was just nervous. We all waited for him to make the movement with his arm to announce it was a goal. He waited and waited and I for sure thought he was going to call it off. As my hopes began to dwindle the ref spun around and pointed his hand at the ice announcing it was a goal.

“HELL YEAH!” Dustin Byfuglien shouted as we all began to hug each other in one big mass of celebration. I couldn’t believe it. After three consecutive Stanley Cup Finals I had finally won the Cup!

We all skated over to the Philadelphia players stood and began the ceremonial hand shake. It was like we were polar opposites. Our heads were held high which wide smiles across our faces while their heads hung down low and just shook our hands. Once in a while one would muster out a good game but most said nothing. I knew how they felt. I had it happen to me two times before in the past three years. It wasn’t fun to be on that side of the fence.

As we finished our line we all skated back to our mass group of celebrators as Philly walked off the ice. We all waited and waited high fiving and yelling as the men in the white gloves brought out the best trophy in the world. The trophy kids dream about hoisting over their heads. The trophy that weights thirty five pounds, except when you’re holding it about your head feels like a feather. It was Lord Stanley itself.

When the cup holders put the cup down Johnny skated over and picked it up; throwing it over his head. He shouted as he skated by us all and we watched him skate all of us shouting and having a good time. His entire smile grew three times its normal size and you could tell he was excited, hell we all were.

“Hoss you’re up!” Johnny shouted as he skated towards me. I couldn’t believe it. After years and years I was finally able to hoist the cup over my head. I extended my hands and he put the cup right in them. Everything felt right.

“WHOO!” I shouted as I threw the cup over my head like it weighed nothing at all. My entire life I wanted this and I never wanted it to end. After my lap I skated back to the mass of players and passed the cup along to the next guy. I stayed and watched everyone on the Hawks skate with the cup. Sharp passed around a bottle of champagne and we all chugged from it. This was a day I would always remember.

“Hey Marian Hossa do you have a minute?” a reporter asked as he chased after me. I stopped and let him catch up after I nodded my head singling I would do an interview. The man slowly slid over to me and stopped holding his microphone up to my face.

“So you’ve been in the Stanley Cup Finals three years in a row. Looks like third times the charm?” the reported said.

“Yeah being in three years in a row was tough. Doesn’t give a lot of downtime cause it ends so late but it’s always worth it. And yeah I guess the third time was the trick for me!” I laughed.

“So how does it feel to win the cup?” he asked, getting ever closer to me. The arena was so loud it was difficult to hear.

“It’s amazing. Like I cannot fully even explain. It’s just an amazing feeling. And I am happy to be apart of it.” I smiled at the thought of the journey it took our team to get here. Honestly this was the best feeling I ever had.

“To get to this point you had to leave two teams. They were pretty good teams. Any regrets?” he asked. His eyes just stared at me like he was trying to get the truth. The worst part is there is no truth. I wasn’t ready for that question.

“Yes my choices were good. I don’t regret anything.” I spoke through gritted teeth. Liar! Liar! My brain shouted. The man thanked me for my time and I thanked him for the congratulations on winning the cup before I skated off towards the empty locker room.

I threw open the door before sitting down on my bench. The question threw me off. Yes I am happy I won the cup but at what cost? The choice to leave made me lose some respect others had for me, friends, and the only girl I ever loved.