The One

Meet Who?

We had just beat Montreal in our second to last game of the pre-season. For the first time in history of the Ottawa Senators, we are playing our first games ever in Europe. Our last game of the pre-season will be in Stockholm, Sweden and for the NHL opening season we will face the Pittsburgh Penguins for two games in Stockholm.

I'm so thrilled to be playing in Sweden. Sweden is such an amazing country and a lot NHL Hall of Famers have come from there. There are a lot of hockey fans here so I'm pretty sure the atmosphere will be fantastic when we play.

After our win against Montreal, our coaching staff informed us all about the upcoming events for our trip to Sweden. After all the press and interviews I headed down to greet my family.

"Hey guys" I said as I hugged my mother and sister.

"Way to beat those Canadiens bro, seriously you guys blew them out!" Said Bud, the youngest of the family as we fist pumped each other.

We all left to go eat dinner. We chatted and laughed as we ate our food. My family and I have always been so close. They come to all of my games. I'm very fortunate to play so close to home and to have my family support me all those years. They keep me grounded and make sure I have a strong head over my shoulders. Without them and God, I most definitely wouldn't be the man I am today. For the next couple of days, I'll miss them for sure.

After a long 7 hour flight we finally landed in Stockholm, Sweden. It was early in the morning and there was tons of fans that greeted us as we left our bus to check into our hotels. A couple of my teammates and I did a quick meet and greet with the fans. After an hour of taking pictures and signing autographs for the fans, I decided to go to my room because I was a bit jet lagged.

As soon as my eyes closed my phone began to ring. Seriously. I leaned over towards the counter and glanced at the screen. Mark. Mark and I met through church and we become pretty good friends. But Why on earth is he calling me at this time? It should be about Midnight over in Canada since he's in town.

"Hello." I groaned through the phone.

"Mike, how's it going?" He said.

"I'm good, I just landed here in Sweden an hour ago" I said as I stood up to grab a my water bottle.

"Holy crap! I forgot that you were in Sweden! That's so awesome but listen, I got to tell you something." He replied in a more serious tone towards the end.

"Umm sure, what's up?" I replied a bit nervous as I stared out the window.

"Umm yeah, as you know I'm here in Canada for a couple of days and I was wondering if you would, you know want to meet her." He quickly rambled.

"Meet who?" I replied quietly.

"Mike, don't act all confused. You know exactly who I'm talking about." He said, raising his voice a bit.

"Look, I don't know man. I mean, I don't think I'm ready for the dating scene again. I'm sure Carrie is a great girl but I just don't know if I'm ready to trust someone and give them my heart so they could just rip it into pieces." I confessed to him as I leaned my forehead against the glass window.

"Mike, I know you've been screwed with a lot of times and I get that your not ready. But if you never try to date again, I'm afraid that you'll end up alone. And I don't want you to be alone and miserable your whole life! I want you to be happy with someone who loves you. I'm not saying that it's going to be with Carrie but you never know until you give it a shot." He sighed at the other end of the phone.

It took me a couple of minutes to think about it as I fought back and forth with my thoughts. I finally came to an answer.

"Alright Mark, I'll give it a shot." I replied with a small smile.

"Yes!! Look, trust me everything will turn out fine and you'll thank me one day!!" He shouted confidently.

After chatting for about ten minutes, we finally hung up. Mark hooked me up with tickets to her concert. I get to meet Carrie during her Meet & Greets in Toronto on October 7. And to be honest, I've never been so anxious in my whole life.