The Guy She Never Noticed a. cirelli

14

I was standing around the area where the players stood waiting for them to come out all dressed up in their uniforms so I could get some pictures and videos of their pre warmup rituals. I was scrolling through my phone on instagram aimlessly until I heard some doors open and loud voices echo through the halls. I closed out of instagram and opened up my phone camera and turned on my professional camera. Butterflies began to swarm in my stomach as the voices got closer. I was confused, I was close to the guys but for some reason I was really nervous to see them all in their game time modes. 

The loud voices finally came into view and it was Tyler, Pally, and Kuch filing out in a line.

"Smile for the camera boys!" I mustered out and held up my camera and took each of their individual pictures. 

Tyler obviously smiled, and so did Pally and Kuch, they were wearing their blue sweaters like I was wearing.

"Who's sweater are ya wearing?" Tyler asked as he joined me by my side and craned his neck to get a look at the back of it.

I did a little turn to show him the last name on the sweater, "Tony, he let me borrow one of his jerseys cause I didn't have any for the game." 

"La, why didn't you call me? I would've gladly let you borrow one," he asked sounding a little hurt. 

I had a funny feeling this was going to happen, Tyler was my best friend and I probably should have at least called him before I called Anthony, but I was going out on a date with Anthony tomorrow so it just felt right to call him first. 

"I don't know Tyler, I'm sorry, he was just the first person I thought of for some reason," I confessed. 

I could still see he was visibly upset so I tried to make things right.

"Hey, next game I promise I'll wear your sweater ok?" I said and turned to face him, "don't let me not wearing your number put you in a funk, you need to focus on your game and bring a win home!" 

He sighed and nodded, "okay, you're right, it isn't a big deal it's just a sweater." 

"There you go! Now, go get your head in the game, I have to work!" I exclaimed and pushed him off to be with the guys who were pumping each other up.

"Ma'am, yes ma'am," he smiled and walked over to growing group of players. 

The players continued to slowly file out and I took pictures of each of them whether they were looking serious and focused or if they were smiling. 

I switched taking pictures on my phone camera and on my professional camera and I also took a few videos as well. 

When I was satisfied with what I took I went onto the official Lightning twitter account and tweeted some of the pictures I took of the players walking out individually. I ended up posting Tyler, Anthony, Gordy, and Killer and captioned it "bring em out, bring em out!"

I moved over to Instagram and decided I would post a video of them walking out of the tunnel and onto the ice. 

It looked like all the players were out of the dressing room and I was doing my best to capture what I thought would look best on social media. There was so much going on in the area before the tunnel that I started to feel a bit overwhelmed so I moved away from the commotion and down the tunnel. I leaned up against the wall and looked through the pictures I took, they looked really good and some of the candids of the players were awesome, it showed their focus, their excitement, or their general camaraderie. These guys were close and had a strong bond there was no denying that. 

It was getting to be about that time for them to come out of the tunnel and get on the ice for warmups so I took my place at the end of the tunnel just before the opening to the ice.