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Reed
Gearing up for a game always gets my heart pumping. Knowing that we are minutes away from the puck dropping on the ice has goose bumps rising up on my arms. We’re playing the Washington Wild tonight, the top scoring team in the league. That doesn’t mean they are automatically going to win; it just means that they’re really good at offense, and our defense is going to have to be fucking on it tonight.
It would be a bit easier if they had just one sniper that we had to watch out for, but their team is stacked across all lines, this season especially. They seem to be melding together and flowing like never before. On top of it, they’re undefeated so far this season. It’s intimidating sometimes to go up against a good team like this. But nothing is more satisfying than beating an undefeated team and ending their win streak. Which is exactly what we’re going to do tonight.
“Let’s go, boys!” Jensy—Jensen Donnelley—shouts over the blasting music in our “wet” locker room as we get ready.
Every NHL facility has a wet and a dry locker room for each team. A dry locker room is where we leave our arrival clothes and belongings. We use the wet locker room to get ready, between intermissions, et cetera. We’re sweaty, and we don’t want our hockey stench to leak into our normal clothes, so we use a wet room while we’re in our “wet” gear.
All the guys shout along with him, the energy in the room rising until it’s almost palpable.
“All right, guys. You know what we’re up against tonight. Play your game, do your jobs, and let’s head back home with a win.” He takes out the starting lineup sheet. “Kos.”
Kos—Alec Kostelecky—springs out of his seat and snatches the paper from our coach, Nathaniel Carrington.
Coach Carrington is our head coach and relatively new to the team, taking over after the idiotic one we had previously got involved in Kos’s personal life by trying to run his girlfriend and son, Laura and Jack, away.
Coach Carrington has quickly become one of the best coaches I’ve ever had. He can be a hard-ass, but the best ones usually are. But what’s most impressive is the way he sees the game before it happens; it’s crazy, like fucking psychic-level crazy. He can read players and what they are going to do far before they even make the move.
Coach Carrington stands in the middle of the room and says, “We’ve studied the Wild. We know their game, we know their lines, and we are a better team than them. They play offense heavy, but don’t underestimate their defenders. They know when to strike and are good at staying out of the penalty box. We need to do the same tonight. Play every second as if it were the last in the game and we were down by one. Let’s kill their streak, huh?” He smirks and nods at Kos, who takes his place in the middle.
Kos starts the beat with his hands, clapping to the same rhythm we use every game to announce our starters in the locker room.
“We got ME,” he yells over the clapping.
The team and I all respond on beat with various cheers.
“Yeah!”
“COSTY!” Cam Costello.
“Yeah!”
“BURNSY!”Brett Burns.
“Yeah!”
“D man number one, Goldy!” He announces one of my hockey nicknames, although starting isn’t a surprise, as I’m always on the same line as Costy, Burnsy, Kos, and Jensy.
Not all lines usually stay the same. Of course, if a player is out, underperforming, or injured, lines shift and shuffle to see what else will work. Thankfully though, that’s almost never happened to our line.
“Yeah!”
“JD!”
“Yeah!”
Everyone on the team has nicknames. Some that are used in moments like this, where we are with a bunch of staff and coaches. Then, there are a few nicknames that are used more between just us players. Not saying that we never use those in front of coaches because we do, just less frequently.
The most common nicknames the guys use for me is Goldy. A few seasons ago, when I grew my hair out for playoffs, a couple of the guys started calling me Goldilocks, and it stuck.
Kos announces the starting goalie. “And between the pipes is MACAROONIE!”
Matt MacArthur is our main goalie, and a rockstar on the ice.
Macaroonie, Mac and Cheese, Macaroon, MacArthur, King Arthur, Macky, Mack Attack—the list goes on.
“Yeah!”
