Sticks and Skates [Wayhaught]

Tis The Season

(1) New Email
From: Jeremy Chetri (popculturenerd423@gmail.com)
Subject: NEW ARTICLE!!!

Nicole blinked sleep out of her eyes and propped sat herself up straighter in her seat on the bus. She'd been more than glad to finally be home from yet another road trip. This one was only six days, but stops in Brampton, Winnipeg, Trois-Rivieres, and Mississauga had been exhausting. Compounding this, their flight back from Ontario had been delayed due to a snowstorm sitting over Manitoba, and the team bus back to their home arena was a less than ideal mode of transportation, especially at 3 am right before Christmas.

She opened her phone to read Jeremy's article. Ever since Waverly had more formally introduced her to the reporter, she found the boy to be quite charming, if not a little socially awkward at times. At some point during a night she and Waverly spent out at Shorty's with Jeremy and his (maybe-kinda) boyfriend Robin, absolutely butchering 90's pop songs, Nicole had made a deal with the writer that he'd send her advanced copies of anything he wrote for the local paper.

PURGATORY GAZETTE

SPORTS: An Early Christmas Present for Bunny LoblawStory by Jeremy Chetri

(Nicole rolled her eyes at the article title with a hint of a laugh).

After a rocky start to their relationship, tensions seemed to have eased between the players and upper management of the Purgatory Blue Devils. As many recall, the first month of the new CEWHL season was defined by comments fired back and forth between the two groups over the demands for success for the hometown squad. The feud drew league-wide and national news, as all eyes fell on the Ghost River Triangle and questions arose of how the weight of the expectations would impact the players. 

Luckily for Bunny Loblaw, it looks like she may have gotten an early Christmas present. Her team currently sits on top of the BC/AB Division, the Western Conference, and the standings for the Entire league with a record of 27-8-2 (11-0-1 in the month of December to date, following the win against Mississauga Mayhem). This season's performance would be incredible by normal standards, but for a team that had been living beneath the basement of the league, it's downright astronomical. 

It seems that when it rains it pours for the Devils, who have made a miraculous turnaround from just a season ago. Purgatory has gotten production up and down the lineup, and outstanding goaltending play from their main tandem: second-year standout Lauren Miller, and the offseason acquisition Sabine Legrand. Miller is making a strong argument for the Rheaume Trophy, the league's top goaltending prize, boasting a .923 SV% and a 2.54 GAA. 

Miller's strong performance is not the only thing gaining league-wide award talk. The Devils' top line of Jenna Boardman, Nicole Haught and Shae Pressman, recently assembled by coach Randy Nedley, has drawn attention as one of the most productive and dynamic across the entire league. The two rookies, Boardman and Haught, are high in the early polls for the Ranscombe Trophy for league's best first-year player. Pressman and Haught are vying for the scoring title and are among the players on the shortlist for the MVP trophy. Of course, when I asked the players about these prizes, they all had the same answer: "None of the individual stuff matters if the team's not hoisting the cup at the end of the year."

Things are looking more than great for the red-hot Blue Devils, and with all of Purgatory behind them, the team aims to continue at this high level.

She quickly shot an email back to Jeremy, telling him she thought it was great, even if the title was a little cheesy. 

Nicole sighed contently to herself, looking around at the darkened bus, the rest of her teammates fast asleep as they approached Purgatory. She'd take the long travel days and the hectic schedules and even the batshit crazy owners any day as long as it meant she'd get to keep doing this—playing the game she loved surrounded by people who loved it just as much. She knew there was something special on this team, something special about what they were doing. Beyond the goals and the wins, they were a team who wholeheartedly banded together to play for each other, who didn't care about their individual achievements and only cared about each and every single one of their teammates. (Well for the most part—she'd take what she could get with Shae. The winger hadn't gone out of her way to be chilly to her anymore, but Nicole hadn't quite developed the bond with Shae that she'd had with her previous two linemates. As long as Nicole was providing her with opportunities to score, Shae seemed content enough, and Nicole supposed that was going to be as good as it got with her).