Toronto Love

The start

"Can I at least bring Auston?" I read the text from my childhood best friend, Mitchell.
Auston is his best friend, teammate, and roommate. They never do anything alone and always are with each other.
"Fine, I guess. I mean, I bet Dylan's bringing someone too. But please be nice and at least sit with him and say hi." I tell Mitch knowing he probably wouldn't.
Dylan is my other guy best friend. He went to the same college as me before he went into the NHL to play for the Detroit Red Wings and we both played hockey for that college. Since he's only not even an hour away, we hang out when neither of us are busy which means when we don't have practice or a game. Having two best friends that are guys and who play in the NHL is not a perfect life. You have to live through the hate, fan girls, and things they say. But I love them like brothers so nothing will ever tear us apart. Only when the Leafs and Wings play each other...

My name is Teagan Parker Lindros. I am 20 years old, a sophomore at the University Of Michigan. I was born and raised in London, Ontario, where I met my best friend until this day: Mitchell Marner. We we neighbors and he was the only kid on the block, only a year older than me so of course our moms forced us to be friends. We clicked instantly, soon getting enrolled into the same school, playing everyday after dinner, having sleepovers on the weekends, and then when we got to the age, we started on the same ice hockey team together. We started from playing in the driveway, to playing on travel teams together, and then him going off to play for the London knights then finally drafted into the NHL as a 19 year old. I, myself, had to move to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for my fathers job. When I turned 18, I got a scholarship to 5 different schools to play on a girls ice hockey team. Notre Dame, Michigan, Boston College, Wisconsin, and Arizona. It was a long, tough decision but I had chosen the University Of Michigan. It was only 2 hours away from my hometown London and not much farther to Toronto, where I was raised afterwards.
Hockey was always my dream, especially being raised from a hockey family.
You might recognize my last name: Lindros. I moved to Philadelphia, does that give you a hint? Well, my dad is Eric Lindros. The famous Flyer. He was drafted first overall in 1991, but did not play for that team. He then got traded to the flyers in 1992. He averaged more than a point per game. My dad was the one of the best the flyers had and worked his ass off each and every game he was in the ice for. My dad was described as hard- nosed back in the day because of how he played but it led to many injuries, mostly concussions. Some awards he earned was the Hart trophy and the Pearson award in the 94-95' season. In 2001, the flyers traded him to New York to play for the Rangers for 4 seasons until he went back to the city we grew up in, Toronto. Sadly, he only played for the leafs for 1 season, in 2005-2006. In 06-07', he played for the Dallas Stars, which he ended his NHL career there. He loved Philly so much, we moved there after Dallas when I was 8 years old. We lived there for 10 years, I called it home. Toronto is my second home though. I am proud to say my father is on the '100 greatest NHL players' list. He retired in 2007, at the age of 34 which I think is amazing. One of the greatest sights I had seen in my life was in 2016, when I watched my dad get inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.

He was the one who got me started into hockey although my mom absolutely hated it. She never even wanted him to play and kept begging him to retire but he didn't and kept going which gave him his remarkable career. I was always the only girl on the travel teams and always known as the Philadelphia hockey superstar, Eric Lindros' daughter. Trust me, I was proud to be, but I always wanted to be known as Teagan Lindros. Now, even as a playing for Michigan, as a wolverine, they still recognize me from the name on the back of my jersey, not the face or what's on front of the jersey. Sometimes, I think that's the reason why scouts came to look at me, because of who I know and who my family is.

Toronto from Ann Arbor is 4 hours away, Ann Arbor to London is 2, so my family and friends always used to come down to watch me play when I had a game and he's the one who introduced me to a great friend of mine to this day, Dylan. Dylan Larkin. He played for the men's ice hockey team for Michigan. He was a sophomore, while I was just a freshman. We played hockey for fun together, he showed me around campus, he was there for me. Over the years, he grew as a very good friend of mine and he's like a brother to me. He's a big leaguer now, playing for the red wings. He still comes back to his Alma Mater to watch the guys and even my games. I also make trips to Detroit to watch him a lot of weekends when I don't have a game myself.

Today is Thursday. Tomorrow I have a game against our huge state rival, Michigan State Spartans. They aren't that good so I'm not that worried, but it's a playoff game. If they made it to the playoffs, we still got work to do. Dylan and Mitch is going to be there to watch me. The maple leafs are flying in around 4pm, and my games at 7pm so it'll be tight around time but it'll be all good! On Saturday, the leafs play the wings in Detroit so I'll be there to watch them also and spend the little time we have with them. Mitch asked me this morning if he could bring Auston with him because he doesn't want to be alone with Dylan, who he'll be playing the next night.

I cannot wait to see Mitch who I haven't seen in person for a while, not since the beginning of the season, the first time they played Detroit. It is now April.