MARA O’CONNELL
(pic of the whole crew, all of them with some kind of frozen drink and purple tongues)
Big Princes fans up here. You’re mean down there
Won’t lie, Hazel’s a little fussy
Shit
Sorry
She’s ok for now but we’ll see how this last inning goes
Period
Fine
She’s ok for now but we’ll see how this last inning goes.
I added the period :)
You’re a menace
And yet, I couldn’t stop grinning.
We were up four to three with just three minutes left in the third. I’d already banked an assist, and I tried not to think too hard about who was watching and whether my kids were behaving.
Ohio’s goalie had left the net. I got the puck and probably could have lobbed it from our end and gotten the empty net goal. But I had a little case of the zoomies and felt extra dickish. I took off up the ice toward Ohio’s zone, their defenseman Jones hot on my tail.
“Fuck off,” I called back to him as I picked up speed.
“Don’t think about it, Leroy,” he warned, swatting at my stick.
But he was too late, and I couldn’t help myself. Just a few feet out from the goal, I clapped it on the empty net, not only scoring the goal, but scoring it in the most asshole way possible. An “ooh” issued from the crowd and I threw off my gloves, predicting the drama to come as I turned back to face my opponent. His gloves were already long gone and his first punch caught me off guard.
“The fuck you thinking, huh?” He grabbed my jersey to pummel me. The power of Nickelback surged through my veins. I was so ready.
Romelski and Mikey arrived at my side as the rest of Ohio’s guys showed up and it became a full-on pile in seconds. Jones slipped away from me, but plenty of his comrades took his place.
The crowd got louder as the fight escalated. I looked to center ice where Obi was even taking their goalie, and goalie fights are a rare and beautiful thing. Somebody’s fist came out of nowhere, and my lip split. It had been a good long time since I got into a brawl of this scale, and the refs were doing their best to break it up. I kept reaching for whoever’s jersey I could get. My knuckles were split, my helmet was gone, and my lip dripped down the front of my jersey.
Stelle and Mikey stood off to the side with their arms around Jones’s shoulders, their faces in various states of beaten disarray as they watched Obi struggle to wrestle Ohio’s goalie to the ground. Both goalies were laughing, Obi with a cut on the side of his face that left blood running dramatically down his face.
They split up and the crowd got even louder as the ref skated to center ice.
“Los Angeles number twenty-nine and Ohio number eight, five for fighting!”
Well, there went my game.
I waved as I headed for the tunnel, garnering applause from the crowd. I’d gotten what they call a Gordie Howe hat trick: a goal, an assist, and a fight in one game.
God, I love hockey.
MARA O’CONNELL
Hey I think we’re going to have to leave right after the game. Hazel is melting down
Good lord what are you doing? It’s like you’re fishing for a fight
