After dropping a fairly significant amount of money on a roundtrip flight from Detroit to Denver and a two night stay at the modest Holiday Inn Express Hotel, Moss receives a thumbs up emoji from his mom in acknowledgment of the booking confirmations. He decides to cancel his Netflix subscription for a bit to make up for the financial hit to his bank account that will surely come from this trip.
Au revoir, Riverdale. We had a good run, but now I'll finally be forced to stop hate-watching your train wreck of a TV show.
Moss works from home on Friday's which allows him to pack and head out early to go to the airport ahead of his 5:02 PM flight. The three hour flight is uneventful and—before he knows it—he arrives at the Holiday Inn Express. Showering under the dim light of the bathroom relaxes his body, allowing him to fall into a deep sleep once he is dried off and buried under the cool sheets of the hotel bed.
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The next morning, Moss wakes to his several text notifications from the family group chat.
The Team
mom<3
Mo. Your father and I are taking your brothers out for breakfast. Are you awake?
elly-boy
get your ass up bud
mom<3
I've tried calling your phone twice now with no answer. We're heading out.
mom<3
Please meet us at the arena for the game today at 5:30 PM sharp.
shaney-boy
**sent group selfie of mom, dad, Eli and Shane at a breakfast diner**
dad-man
**liked image**
mom<3
**loved image**
elly-boy
**responded to image with four fire emojis**
Moss likes his mom's message informing him on when he should meet them at the arena and loves the picture that Shane sent in acknowledgment.
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Wasting away in a hotel room for a couple hours is, admittedly, kind of fun. Moss ends up DoorDashing a late lunch from a nearby Chipotle and watches trashy reality television in bed until it's time for him to Uber to the arena.
Midway through an episode of Chrisley Knows Best, he realizes that he knows very little about the 2023-24 Boulders team. He didn't keep up with trades made during the offseason, but Shane didn't complain about losing any of his friends, so he assumes it must be a similar lineup to last year. Wanting to educate himself before the game, Moss pulls out his phone to research their current roster.
1st line: Thomas Barrette - Ethan Landry - Mikael Halla
2nd line: Tapio Kivi - Shane Kettler - Alexander Vasili
3rd line: Hudson Smith - Samuel Lewis - Conor Byrne
4th line: Angelo Rossi - Felix Armstrong - Justin Davis
1st pairing: John Evans - Tye Martel
2nd pairing: Mason Graham - Fredrik Gustafsson
3rd pairing: Eli Kettler - Marcus Enlund
Starting goalie: Petar Vanko
Backup goalie: Jakub Prochazka
Their top six are seemingly stacked, even in the absence of their injured captain, William Larsson. Landry has consistently been a Hart trophy candidate in all eleven seasons that he's been in the NHL and Shane is no longer a rookie, but instead a reliable second line center working on cementing his role with the team.
Even with the star talent of the Barrette - Landry - Halla line and the additional offensive dominance brought by Shane—the real backbone of the team is their number one defenseman, Tye Martel.
Martel is a twenty-four-year-old Canadian drafted second overall in 2018 to the Colorado Boulders. Bypassing the college hockey experience, he chose to dive headfirst into the NHL at the age of eighteen and has been breaking records ever since. He was awarded the Calder trophy after his first season with the Boulders for rookie of the year and the Norris trophy twice since then because of the impressive versatility he has demonstrated as a defenseman.
Eli is ecstatic about being on the same team as his older brother, but it is no secret that he was even more excited at the prospect of potentially getting the chance to play alongside Martel. Hell—the guy has practically been Eli's hockey idol for the last five years. Throughout the duration of the NHL combine, Eli had even told teams and interviewers how he modeled his play after Martel's defensive prowess.
Moss continues his deep dive on the team by scrolling through the Boulders' Twitter account. Evidently, the social media team has been really hyping up the Kettler brothers playing their first game tonight considering four of their last six posts are about Shane and Eli.
**graphic of Shane and Eli with the Boulders logo behind them** Turn up the heat! The Kettle(r) brothers are ready to steam the competition Saturday night!
We sat down with Eli Kettler ahead of his NHL debut—read more about how he and brother Shane grew up in their hectic, hockey-centric family.
**gif of Shane Kettler laughing while watching Eli Kettler in the middle of a busy locker room media scrum after practice**
Colorado Gazette: Shane Kettler is thrilled to be playing with baby brother, Eli Kettler, and has a message for all fans ahead of game one.
The further he goes, the more content he sees sporadically posted on the team's Twitter account about his younger brothers.
Moss ends up scrolling to their tweets from September, which must have been around the time of the teams' media day. There seems to be endless tweets from behind the scenes of their annual headshots as well as random fan-service interviews and games.
The video for the obligatory puppy calendar shoot catches his eye. He ends up watching the—almost two minute long—video where his brothers and their teammates put sweaters on dogs and pose with them for whichever month they are assigned. Moss is more of a cat-person himself, but he can appreciate a cute dog just like any other person with a beating heart.
He notices that Martel looks a bit flustered with the litter of puppies he is given for his portion of the shoot. His seemingly permanently red-stained cheeks flare even darker with the effort of wrangling in a baby pit bull who wiggles excitedly in his arms.... it's sweet. Moss feels the corner of his mouth lifting slightly in amusement at the video.
His phone alarm suddenly goes off, alerting him that it is now 5:00 PM and he needs to order an Uber ASAP if he wants to make it to the arena on time. Throwing on a burgundy sweater over his white t-shirt, Moss then jumps into a pair of black jeans and slides into his shoes which sit neatly by the door. He hasn't gotten around to buying any team merchandise yet, so sporting the team colors will have to do for now.
-
His first Uber ends up canceling on him last minute, but luckily another driver is able to pick him up right away. He arrives at the arena with eight minutes to spare and immediately spots his parents.
"Good to see you, Mo." His dad gives him a slap on the back.
He turns and barely gets out his greeting before his mother throws her arms around his shoulders. They are almost eye-to-eye since she stands nearly as tall as his 5' 8" frame.
"Let's head inside—I want to make sure we see Eli do his rookie lap before warmups." She drags the three of them along through the busy arena and to the family suite offered to them and other player's families courtesy of the organization.
Upon their arrival, they are cornered by a gaggle of reporters who immediately bombard them with questions about watching the Kettler boys playing their first regular season NHL game together.
"Hey! Older brother! How does it feel observing Shane and Eli's success from an outside perspective?" A reporter jams their voice recorder in his face.
Taking a deep breath in and a deep breath out, Moss thinks about how he just needs to get through tonight.
I'll be back in Detroit before I know it.
YOU ARE READING
Unsportsmanlike Conduct
RomanceMoss Kettler has always been overshadowed by his impressive younger brothers. After graduating college, Moss falls into a quiet life working for an accounting firm in Detroit, Michigan. Meanwhile, his youngest brother, Eli, has recently been drafted...
