Sweet Caroline (Corey Crawford)

Anything Is Possible

Corey

I hit the ice with my team for the first time since April of last year. No training camp and no team bonding this season, there's no time for that. We practice then we play, that's how it is going to go for the next two plus months until someone comes out victorious, and I'm hoping that's us.

I head to a net and start to warm up by myself. The guys flood onto the ice and everyone was pretty happy about being there.

"Hey Kaner" I yell nearly making him jump out of his skates. I laugh as he skates over and runs into me.

"What's up big man" he asks.

"Just happy to be here" I admit.

"The feeing is mutual" he agrees.

"So how have you been? I see you were tearing it up in the ECHL" I admit.

"I loved it over there. The ice was bigger, I felt like a little guy playing on nhl ice" he claims.

"Patrick... you are a little guy on nhl ice" I joke and he knocks me outside my helmet.

"Their goalie was a lot nicer too" he scoffs and I laugh.

"Glad to have you back" I insist.

"Glad to be back."

We get practice started and it was longer than usual, we haven't practiced as a whole team in a really long time but a lot of us did stay back to train. They work on lines and pairs and take shots at me and Emery. The practices lasts about a hour before Joel calls us over to explain what's going to happen next. We have a few more practices before we head to LA for the first game of the shortened season.

We all head off the ice and into the locker rooms where the reporters ask their questions. I see Caroline walk over and I smile at her. She gives me a wink making me smile too. They start asking their questions and I answer to the best of their ability.

"What is your guys' plan going into this season with it being 48 games in just over two months with no breaks" Caroline asks and I smirk.

"To win as many games as possible" I say and she rolls her eyes.

"Alright. And how do you plan to do that? There are a bunch of back to backs so are you taking most of the load or are you splitting it with Emery" she asks.

"We're splitting it. No goalie can take that many games in that short amount of time. The name of the game is to go in every night and try for two points, every point counts" I explain.

"Do you think you guys are ready" another reporter asks.

"I was just talking with Kaner about what he was doing overseas. He's obviously ready. I feel like I'm ready, I've been on the ice since October and in the gym when I'm not on the ice. I know Jonny is ready because he is ready for everything. So yeah, I think we're ready" I admit.

We finish off interviews and I get changed into some street clothes. I go out to my car because that's where I usually find Caroline, but there was so many people around her that I couldn't see if she was there or not.

"What's going on" I ask as Bryan walks over.

"The guys are testing Caroline's hockey knowledge and even Kaner is choking" he laughs.