My Hockey Enemy

Warm-ups

The coaches are going over plays and which numbers to be wary of while on the ice. They gave advice to watch the other team during warm-ups to know who to watch out for and who is not a real threat. I know who I will be watching.

N.Lawson.

Every second I have when I'm not doing my own warm-up, my eyes will be on him. Watching for any signs of weakness to exploit on the ice.

A buzzer rings, calling us out onto the ice. We all line up behind our goalies, Shawn and Markus, our sticks in hand, and head out onto the ice.

The air on the ice is cold, but I know I'll miss the feeling of it once I get warmed up and desperate to cool off. We start by circling round the net for a few half laps on our side of the ice. We then stretch as a group. When we're done with the initial body warm-ups, the coaches drop the pucks, so we can start our warm-up stick drills.

I was waiting in line for my turn in the horse shoe, hardly paying attention to my own team, looking for Lawson.

I spot him by his team's bench, doing his own separate stretches from his team while they do the same horse shoe drill as us on their side of the ice. I keep watching him when Baxs gives me a shove from behind. It's my turn. I passed the puck hard, and made a perfect connection with Jax's stick as he came around the dot. He even caught it inside the blue line this time. Perfect. I don't have time to marinate in that beauty of a pass before I push off and skate hard around the face-off dot above the blue line. I catch a not perfect pass, made by Kyle, just inside the blue line, and skate hard, stick-handling my way to Markus at the net. I shoot at the hash marks and the puck goes in. A perfect bar-down.

Damn i'm good. I hope Lawson seen that, so he knows I'm just as good as the guys. Maybe even better than some.

I get out from in front of the net, so I'm out of the next persons way. I now stand at the back of the line opposite the one I was just in. My eye's searching to find Lawson again. I can't see his name on his jersey from this far away, but I can make out his number.

Correction.

My number.

#6.

I find him as he catches a terrible pass from one of his teammates. As fast as I could, I looked at that guy's number. #19. Okay, noted. 19 is a terrible shot. My eyes drift back to Lawson right before he makes his shot on net.

A. Perfect. Bar. Down.

I literally just did that. Is he copying me?

When I mentioned hoping he'd seen my beautiful shot, I didn't mean he should try and copy me.

Whatever I did it better.

I think.

Probably....

But his shot was so smooth...

Maybe it could be a tie?

Who am I kidding? He caught a terrible pass, deaked out his goalie, shot from the hash marks, giving himself ample space and time, and did one of the most smooth bar downs I've ever watched in person. Maybe not NHL smooth, but... Definitely better than mine.

How rude. He copies my number, gets me sent to the sin bin for HIS sin, hits my head with a puck, and now he has the audacity to copy MY moves?! AND do it better.

Unbeliveable.

Unacceptable.

Simply, terrible!

I am going to destroy him this game. I mean that wholeheartedly. Remember me mentioning how I avoid violence? Well mark my words on this ice today, I will hit that snot eating, fart smelling, lanky, beautiful...

Beautiful? Nooooooo. Not happening. No thinking the enemy is cute. Bad.

I will hit that stupid snot eater so frigging hard. Yes, that. Much better.

After coming to my conclusion, I saw him skid to a rough stop.

Okay. There's the weakness I needed. His skates are dull, so he can't stop easily, or speed up very fast.

Now that I have my enemy's weakness known, I pull my focus into warm-ups. I want to be good and ready for when I can take him down.

The buzzer rings when our five minutes of warm up are over.

We gather all our pucks from in and around the net and bring them back to the bench. We all huddled inside and outside the box, as Coach Hardin and Coach Zellen gave us a quick on-ice pep talk, quickly spouting off whatever weaknesses they saw in the other team. They mention #19 being a terrible shot. HA! Called it. The ref whistle blows, we all stick our heads in, Coach Hardin yells "FOURTH RIVER!" and all us kids yell "STARS!".

With that, everyone not on my line heads into the box, Shawn heads to his place in the net, and me and my line make our way to our assigned positions. As we skated to center line, I whispered to Jaxs that I'd be passing to Bax, so the other team would think it was Jax I'd be passing to. I assume my position at the center dot. I take my helmet off for when the anthem plays. When it's over, I slide it back on.

I'd seen before the anthem started that I'd be facing-off against Lawson. I don't think he saw me yet as he faced the flag, back to me, as the anthem played.

I watched him as I did up the straps of my helmet. He turned around, messing with his own straps. He looked at me. Looked away. Did a double take. His eyebrows raised, I could see him start to smile, as I assume his first thought was, "Oh, it's a girl. I got this face-off in the bag" (Yes, in my mind he sounds like a high-pitched annoying little girl, even though I know full well he has a smooth, deep voice).

He skates forward, to take position. Makes eye contact with me. He makes a face of shock as he takes in my face, eyes darting to the small, very light-coloured bruise you can see on the side of my forehead. I smiled back with malice. Oh, he recognizes me now, does he?

He starts to say something when the ref skates up beside us, I get myself set up and into position for the face off.

The ref blows his whistle and slams the puck down.