The Road to the Cup ~ Wattys 2015

Spark

Tonight we were playing Ottawa. I wasn't going to deny it, I was nervous. Ottawa had been fighting their way up the ranks in the league and now they held a wild card spot. That meant they were desperate enough to fight, and I didn't know how prepared the boys were for that.

Sidney and I went out to lunch and I nervously drummed my fingers on the table as we waited for our orders.

"Hey," Sidney grabbed my hand, "Why are you so nervous? You haven't been this nervous since our early games."

"We can't take them lightly tonight. They've been doing really well, and that will give them momentum."

"Momentum isn't real. Energy is real. Motivation is real. Trust in your teammates is real. Momentum isn't. It's just what the analysts like to throw in to get the fans all riled up," Sidney shook his head.

"Well, they've clearly got a lot of the stuff you've mentioned. I'm worried for you all. Their goalie is great and we are missing a lot of our guys on defense. I don't know how this game will go, and usually I can tell when I walk into the locker room," I explained.

"We aren't in the locker room yet. And we can't blame the missing d-men. If we're going to blame someone, we blame ourselves. So relax, Erin, okay? You can stress out later during the game, but I don't want you worrying just yet," Sidney smiled and rubbed the back of my hand with his thumb.

"Okay," I sighed. He was right, as usual. I couldn't control what happened, so there was no point in stressing over it.

"Tanger is a no, huh?"

"He isn't in his best shape and he wasn't feeling it this morning. I don't want him out there if he feels off. If we let him rest, he'll recover and be back sooner," I was really hoping to have him back in a week or two, but I didn't want to rush it.

"And Maatta?"

"He said he's feeling much better and the trainers said he can start skating again."

"Non-contact?" Sidney asked, though he knew from injury experience that players always started without contact so they didn't get injured again.

"Yep."

"It could be worse," he shrugged, trying to be optimistic for my sake.

I changed the subject, "So, your stats have been fantastic these last few weeks. Have you been doing something different? Are you working out behind my back?" I joked.

"I don't know. I feel like I have more energy now. Ever since we became a couple I've been happier. I think it's carried over to my ice time because I feel more motivated and capable. It's not that I didn't feel those things before, it's just like everything was brought into perspective," he smiled at me. I did this? I helped end Sidney's point drought and got him back in the running for the scoring title? I don't think so. I couldn't have made that big of a difference, it's not like we weren't hanging out before, we just hang out more now.

"That's crazy talk. You've got to be doing something different," I replied as we walked into his house.

"It's not crazy talk. Remember how I played at the beginning of the season? I was scoring all the time and tallying assists. I was setting a good example, most of the time."

"Yeah, I remember."

"Then in October or November we started seeing other people after flirting for months."

"I remember that, too," I nodded.

"My game fell apart then," he shrugged.

"It might have, but that has nothing to do with me!"