The Hockey Boy

Chapter 14

EASTON

December 2

"West, you ready to go?" asked Koivu as he grabbed his duffle bag. "The bus is leaving in two minutes, and we'll leave you behind if you're not on it."

"Yeah, I'm ready," I replied hastily as I threw the last of the stuff from my locker into my duffle bag. We were getting on a bus that would take us to the airport. For the next week, the team would be in New York for a road trip.

I threw my duffle bag over my shoulder and followed Koivu out of the locker room. We were some of the last people in the locker room. Only Dubnyk and Kuemper, the goalies, were left in the locker room. They were always the last ones out of the locker room before a road trip because they had twice as much stuff to grab as the rest of us.

I climbed onto the coach bus after handing my bag to one of the assistant coaches packing stuff under the bus. I looked around for an extra seat and saw that there was one open next to Ryan. Despite being one of the rookies of the team, I was proud to call him, a veteran, one of my good friends.

"Hey, Easton, how's it going?" he asked as I sat down.

"I'm all right, I guess," I replied glumly.

"You guess you're all right? What's going on now, Easton. You're never unhappy right before a road trip. Usually, you're the one that everyone wants to shut up," laughed Ryan. He was right, I usually loved road trips. One of my favorite parts of being a pro hockey player was being able to travel all over the U.S. to different cities. Even though we were only in a city for a few days at most, I loved to get out and explore the city, even if it was just for a few hours.

"It's nothing, Ryan, nothing important, anyways," I replied.

"It's Ty, isn't it," stated Ryan. "I know it has something to do with her."

"You know me so well, it's almost scary, dude," I laughed.

"Hey, at least you're smiling now," grinned Ryan.

"Yeah, I guess I am."

"So what's going on with her?" he asked, pressing the subject.

"Well, yesterday I went to her game, and I found out she has a boyfriend. She didn't tell me about him or anything. Yeah, I know it's not really my business, but still. Her boyfriend was the guy she was with at the restaurant the other night. I thought she had been with him for a while, but it turns out she's only been with him for a few days. I got pretty mad and went to confront her when she was alone. She basically ended up telling me that she never wanted to see or speak to me ever again and that I was supposed to leave her alone," I finished with a sigh.

"That's rough."

"No s**t," I huffed, irritated once more. "I don't know what to do, man. I've tried everything."

"No, I don't think you have," said Ryan.

"What haven't I tried then, Mr. Love Expert?" I said sarcastically.

"Hey, unlike you, I'm actually married, so I'd cut the sarcastic comments. Anyway, the thing you haven't tried is leaving her alone. Don't talk to her or see her for a few days and see if she does anything. If she doesn't do anything, then she must really hate you. On the other hand, if she makes a move to talk to you or something, you might still have a chance."

"Gee, thanks, Ryan. Thanks for telling me to basically avoid the girl I like. That'll totally give her the message that I'm still into her," I sneered.

"You're impossible when you're angry, West. Eat a Snickers or something," grumbled Ryan as he put some headphones on.

I rolled my eyes and pulled out my phone. After scrolling through Twitter for a while, we were at the airport. We all loaded off of the bus and onto the team's plane. We all basically had assigned seating partners, and I was with Kuemper. I slid into my usual window seat and put on my Beats. After a while, I dozed off.

A few hours later, I woke up to Darcy elbowing me in the ribs. "Hey, we're here," he said to me.

"Thanks, Kuemps," I replied with a yawn. We all filed off of the plane and onto another coach bus that would take us to our hotel. After that, we could do whatever we wanted before the team dinner that evening. After dinner, we'd go to the hockey arena and have a skatearound for about an hour, then go back to the hotel.

Once we reached the hotel, I went straight to my room that I'd be sharing with Jonas Brodin and Erik Haula. Unlike our plane seating, our hotel roommates changed every road trip. This season I hadn't roomed with either Jonas or Erik, but I was pretty excited since they were both around my age unlike a lot of other guys I had roomed with this season.

I flopped down on one of the king-sized beds and just sat there for a while, thinking about what Ryan had said earlier. Maybe the guy does have a point, I thought to myself. I'll leave Ty alone during this road trip and see if she does anything. If she doesn't try to talk to me at all, I guess I'll just have to move on.

Jonas' voice snapped me out of my thoughts. "Hey, Easton, we're going to go explore the city. Want to come with?"

I debated whether or not I wanted to stay in the hotel room all night. Finally, I decided that exploring New York might take my mind off of Ty. "Yeah, I'd love to. Let's go."

"Cool. Where do you want to go first?" asked Erik.

"No idea. Let's just get into a taxi and see what the driver recommends. That's always an adventure," I replied with a smile.

"That sounds a bit sketchy," said Jonas unsurely.

"Yeah, that's what makes it so fun. Taxi drivers usually know the best places in town. The cool thing is, sometimes the taxi drivers will either lead you to a total touristy place or a place that only the locals know about," I explained.

"All right, let's go then. I'm up for some fun," smiled Erik.

The three of us climbed into a bright yellow taxi once we were outside of our hotel. "Take us to one of the best places in town that you know of," I said. "We don't care what it is."

"All right, sir," the driver replied as he pulled away from the curb.

A few minutes later, the taxi dropped us off at Central Park. "See? He dropped us off at a total tourist place, but it's still fun," I said.

"You were right, West, this is pretty cool," said Jonas.

"Yeah, now let's look around. Can we go to the zoo?" asked Haula, and Jonas and I just laughed at him.

"Sure, Haula, we can go to the zoo." The three of us strong hockey players went to the Central Park Zoo. Sure, the rest of the team would give us a lot of crap if they found out, but we didn't care. We had a blast looking around at the zoo, and then the rest of the park. I glanced down at my phone and noticed that it was only fifteen minutes until we were supposed to meet at one of the restaurants in New York for the team dinner.

"Crap, guys, we've gotta get going or we'll be late for the team dinner. Yeo and Koivu'll kill us if we're late!" I exclaimed.

"Shoot, and I was having fun," pouted Haula. "This was a great idea, Easton."

"Now do you see why I like doing it so much?" I replied.

"Yeah, now come on guys,we have to leave now or else we'll be late!" said Brodin.

"Yeah, let's get a taxi," said Erik.

Erik hailed a taxi for us and we all climbed in. We quickly told the driver the address of the restaurant and began praying that we wouldn't be late. We arrived at the restaurant just as the team was heading in.

"Whew, we made it!" I said in triumph. I glanced to my right and saw that Koivu was giving me a disapproving look. I turned to him and said, "You really don't like me, do you?"

"Well, you're an arrogant i***t, and you have no respect for team events, so yes, you could say that I don't particularly care for you," Koivu replied.

"Hey, the other guys and I were just having a really good time and we lost track of time. We still made it here on time," I argued, but Koivu just shook his head and entered the restaurant. "What's his problem?" I asked Ryan as I sat in a booth next to him.

"He just doesn't think you have your head where it needs to be. He's right, you know, about being arrogant. You really do need to learn how to be more humble and respect those that have more seniority than you, which basically means the rest of the team," said Ryan pointedly.

"I guess you're right," I sighed. "So what did you do this whole time?"

"I hung out in the hotel with Parise, Pominville, and Koivu. What did you do, teach Haula and Brodin your stupid taxi game?" scoffed Ryan.

"Hey, don't knock it till you try it, Suter," I retorted. "Yes, we played the taxi game and ended up in Central Park. The guys and I were having so much fun that we lost track of time. It was nice to be able to act like a kid again."

"You are still a kid, West. You're only twenty."

"Yeah, I know. It just seems like this has all happened so fast. I feel like I've had to grow up so much since I got drafted."

"Get used to it," stated Ryan. "This is life."

"That's very reassuring, Ryan, thanks," I said sarcastically.

Ryan rolled his eyes and replied, "You're so sarcastic all the time, West. Do you listen to anything I say? Just a few minutes ago, I told you that you need to treat players with seniority with respect."

"Oh, I thought you didn't count, even though you are old," I joked.

Ryan punched my arm and laughed, "You're an i***t, West. A funny i***t, but still an i***t nonetheless."

"Thanks, Suter, I'll take that as a compliment," I smiled.

Dinner and the skatearound went really well, and when I got back to the hotel room, I went straight to bed since I was so exhausted. I was glad for all of the distractions New York had to offer. They kept my mind off of you-know-who.

***

"Okay, team. Yes, I know that the Rangers were in the Stanley Cup Finals, and yes, I know that they're a very good team, but I know that if we work together, we will be able to win. Now let's go," Koivu finished his pregame speech before we all left the Madison Square Garden's guest locker room.

As soon as I hit the ice, I began to relax. Hockey just always seemed to clear my mind. When it was game day, all I thought about was hockey, nothing else. The game was a good stress reliever for me and also my greatest passion. I loved hockey with all of my heart. There was almost nothing better to me than the rush I got when I played the game. Hockey was just simply a huge part of me.

After warm-ups, starting line-ups, and the National Anthem, the game began. Koivu was at center ice for the opening face-off, and he won it easily. I could honestly say that Koivu was the best at winning face-offs on the entire team, hands down. Even though I didn't particularly like the guy, I had to admire him for his ability to win face-offs.

We scored on our first possesson with a Parise wrist shot, Koivu and Suter with the assists. After Parise's goal, there was a chorus of boos from the crowd. I didn't care about the boos, none of the team did. As funny as it sounds, we fed off of the opposing team's fans' negative yelling. It gave us the fire to want to beat a team even more.

The score stayed the same as it was throughout the first and second periods, 1-0, Wild. In the third period, things started getting interesting. Ryan McDonagh, a defenseman for the Rangers, received a pass from one of his teammates and got on a breakaway. He was skating hard at the net, but Suter was coming up from behind him quickly. Before Suter could stop him, McDonagh got a shot off at the net. Kuemper was able to make a great glove save before McDonagh came crashing into him.

"Hey, get off my goalie!" yelled Suter, and he threw a punch at McDonagh before the refs dragged him to the penalty box for roughing. The Rangers would go on a two-minute power-play.

"Oh, great," I groaned. This was the worst possible thing that could've happened next to the Rangers scoring a goal. The weirdest thing of all was Suter never got penalties. Never. Only once in a while would you see Ryan Suter get a penalty. When Ryan did get penalties, they were usually because he was defending one of his teammates, like he had done just now.

"West, your line's in!" yelled Yeo, and I quickly jumped over the boards and onto the ice. The other guys and I set up in our power-play defense, hoping we could hold the Rangers off for the two minutes that Suter would be in the box.

At the end of the two minutes, our defensemen had gotten at least four blocks, and Kuemper had made five saves. It was a great penalty kill on our part.

"Nice job, boys," Yeo said to us as we took our seats on the bench. I was sweating like crazy, but I couldn't feel any better. I loved playing hockey, even if we were trying to kill a penalty.

We ended up winning the game 1-0, but it was still a win, nonetheless. I went to bed that night with a smile on my face. Nothing felt better to me than holding on for the win in a tight hockey game. I was excited to continue on with our road trip, but I was also ready to be back home at the X. I was ready to be back home because it meant there was at least a slight chance of seeing Ty, even if she did hate me. I certainly didn't hate her, not even after she said those awful things to me. I was going to win her back, even if she never really was mine in the first place.