(She/her)
Sideblog to avoid clogging the main (again) since i'm apparently in my hockey's second era after a 12 year cleanse (i'm old).
Any hockey player can be gay or bi etc (sic.) if i squint hard enough.
I have to admit, i didn't expect this godforsaken white maga boys sport to claw its way back up into my heart in 2026 but here we go.
Hi, I am (was) was a recovered NHL hockey (rpf) enthusiast back in 2014 - 2016. Not usually a big sports person, but a shipping-leaning person, brotherhood situations devotee and narratives enjoyer.
Unsurprisingly, i was at the time following the main trifecta of narratively loaded NHL teams and ships : the Penguins and their 'Two-headed monster' SidGeno, the Stars and their 'Let's prove them wrong' Bennguin and the Blackhawks and their 'Let's fill this place up' Kazer. Things came to a withering end after the Kaner shitstorm and it became harder for me to ignore that the League is rotten to its core in terms of values and behaviour.
Last year, Heated Rivalry happened and thanks to this Hockey Era Part 1 twelve years ago, I suddenly became the dedicated Hockey 101 explainer in my social circle. I hate being imprecise about things so i caught up on 10 years of NHL changes, rules evolutions, new teams that appeared while i wasn't looking. iPads on the bench? 3-on-3 overtime format? Player and puck's real-time gps sensors? Instagram NHL follow tracker? Drone shots at center ice?
10 years is a lot in the hockey world. When i closed the door, the Penguins were in the process of winning back to back Stanley Cups, and the Blackhawks had just won two, effectively fulfilling their narrative aspirations. My teams were at the top of the NHL ladder and i found them back in the gutter. There's a tentacles monster team now? An ancient elephant team? The news of Vegas having a team had barely reached my ears.
The 2026 Olympics reminded me that hockey is actually a lot of fun to watch and a great insight on who's at the top of their game nowadays (i'm european, my country's team is famously shit at hockey and Team USA could already get fucked in my books before they even were cancelled so Team Canada was the main object of my attention).
I've missed the beginning of the McDavid era and i feel like it's now too late for me to get behind it but his generational talent had percolated up to me enough during my off-years that i shed a tear when i saw the two Captains on the silver medal ceremony line.
These past months, I have loved getting to tumblr-search players, to hop from primer to primer to learn about new team dynamics, who's in, who's out, what rookie became great, who retired, who got traded.
As someone who enjoys the sport but has never played it and don't care too much about the technicality of it, few players stood out to me in terms of styles of play: Kaner's stickhandling, Sid's low-gravity play, Geno's slow inevitability... Watching Team Canada was like: 'wait, who's that kid?' and i was fascinated by how Macklin Celebrini seemed to always be on the ice, always putting himself out there to make plays, always trying ways to score. Kid was 10yo when i last watched a hockey game before that.
So i read about him, quickly learned about his red string of fate being entertwined with one Will Smith Hockey (got a quick laugh out of the nickname) and oh, the narratives.
Look, I'm a 'will lowkey accept any ship thrown to me if it has any roots' kind of person - I don't need much, but i need something. My old hockey ships had quite a lot of something, not most-written-about ships for nothing, but them? Right now, i want to dissect them, put their heart in formol and put their brain under a microscope. It helps that Willmack are young enough to not have been caught doing too much shady shit, bashful enough to not have any major leaked scandals, media-trained enough to not have realeased any too maga opinion.
I'm 10 years older, 10 years wiser, i'm better at knowing my limits.
The League is still rotten, still puts forth shitty values and behaviours, still does the bare minimum to rake money from the LGBT+ with empty-spirited Pride nights, still pulls up the breaks at any progressive evolution that could make conservatives frown even a tiny bit.
But i'm choosing to keep a look at the tiny glimpses of hope, at Luke Prokop saying coming out got him more support from inside the League than he expected, at unnamed closeted LGBT+ players reaching out to the Heated Rivalry people to share their experience, at the new teams seemingly building 2026 locker room dynamics rather than dragging around decades of outdated traditions, at the Kraken hiring a female coach and an openly gay head trainer, at the Sharks veterans looking like they're good at giving teenagers a healthy-ish structure.
I'm curious to see where it leads, I'm managing expectations, I'm prepared to be disappointed, but I give up not caring.
on the one hand Will and Mack are extremely respectful of each other to a noticeable extent, and on the other, they are major gossip mongers who want to know everything about everyone else for reasons… their duality 💖
Note: I highly recommend you read my first ntdp post (NTDP primer chapter 1.0, if you will) before reading this one! It will give you important context, and prevent excessive re-explaining in this post.
Breaking down the individual
"We run around the building with logs on our shoulders. That brings us together, because you can never leave somebody behind, we always have to stick together.” x
“They come here and need to learn how to play as a team so you want to break down the individuality." x
"Boot camp situations with log and tire carries, push-ups and intense cross-training workouts. Physically excruciating conditioning challenges players to endure adversity and, in turn, builds teamwork skills as individuals learn discipline and mental toughness." x
“tries to break you down to build you back up to be mentally a lot stronger and tougher than you were.” x
“The team spent all of their time together building muscle and camaraderie” x
“They went through an entire offseason program, which is typically 10-12 weeks of training, in just six weeks. The NTDP has that standard — they are going to work hard and train hard." x
"The head coach of U18 team this year, he comes in the gym every single day to check out what's going on, doesn't say a word. Looks around and says, How the boys looking? I say, They look like crap. He goes, Okay good, hit 'em. And he walks out." x
Will Smith: “The first couple months were like, Get me out of this place. It was just, it was awful. The workouts, everything. The workouts and all that, it just…you’re at the rink for 8 hours a day. I mean, it was army-style.” x
Ryan Leonard: “Countless hours, every single day with them, going through hell with them, countless hours of workouts, skates that are just pissing you off, workouts that just don't end. It's like, Come on, get me out of here.” x
Coaching philosophy
“They’re tired. We grind them. […] Because we are exhausting them, we’re stress inoculating them. So they're using every ounce of energy, physically, emotionally, everything. They’re away from home, their mom and dad aren't there, they’re emotionally drained, they're physically drained, they're challenged by the competition, by us, by their peers. They’re pushed, so when they add one thing or their grades start falling in school, everything falls apart.” x
"Once you see a player can do it, can keep pace, then you demand that from them more. Then, they give you more and you ask for more." x
“They need to be pushed. They’ve never been there [past their limits], they don't know. Any way you can push them, push them.” x
Push/Squeeze/Pull & Constant Demand being one of the core tenets:
“Manipulate emotions” on coaching slide: x
Very…interesting names of video review clips seen when a coach was adjusting his screenshare (this was the 2002s i.e. Brock Faber, Matty Beniers cohort. also note the clips for the incoming 2004s): x
USA U18 POST YT SHIT EFFORT 2-28-20
USA U18 LRF POOR EXECUTION 3-10-20
Training load
"NO OFF DAYS!" (on a slide from Coach Seth Appert) x
"We hammer them in the weight room." x
"At the one-hour mark, the coach blew his whistle and the members of the NTDP skated to the bench and walked off through the open gate in single file - they didn't head to the dressing room, but through a tunnel to another freshly flooded pad in the building. A great convenience: a two-hour practice didn't have to hit pause while a Zamboni circled the rink." x
Also mentioned here: “the team are on the ice at USA Hockey Arena — after the first 60 minutes of practice, the team walks through a tunnel to a second pad, thus not having to wait for the Zamboni to flood the rink. Practice runs a full two hours and it’s high-tempo.” x
Trainer: "We lifted after BU, we lifted after we lost to North Dakota, we lifted after we lost to Wisconsin...we lose a lot." checking the schedule, these were ROAD games, so this was either at the hotel gym, or straight off the bus after driving through the night. x
"This year...I think the U17's did close to 150 off-ice workouts, about 200 skates. Both teams were in that range. So that's pretty much training every single day." / "[we do] skates every day during the week now" / schedule showing 7 days a week: x
"Half of the 46 players I have do ice baths in the morning at the hotels before games." x
Regular normie trainer who was hired and was at first shocked at the training load, then learned they could 'take a lot' and he could push them even harder than he ever thought possible ("I couldn't believe it, the intensity level was so high" to "I noticed how much these guys could take" to "I realized I've been undertraining kids.") x
“There are no days off with the program,” Hughes said. x
"They're pretty ripe" and the male suppleness chart
The entire rest of the medical/athletic field calls it Flexibility or Mobility. So does USA Hockey do the same? No, they decided to be unique and chart male "suppleness". (Note: I did a lot of digging to see if this was some insane niche term, but all other sources that call it suppleness are merely pulling wording from the original USA Hockey model). x
"This window now between 16-20 is huge for development, when the hormones are kicking in and last couple surges, the recovery is there, it’s a unique time. There’s an opportunity to get bigger, faster, stronger, it’s all about really buying into it." (Coach Wrobo) x
"15-year-old boys who enter the NTDP leave as 18-year-old men." x
Coach: “I love being on the road because we have no veterans. There are no returning players that can show guys the way things are run around here. We get 20 rookies at a time.” x
“He turns boys into men.” x
"Bill Smith recalled sending a boy away to Michigan two years ago. Will Smith came home this spring as a man." x
Ntdp trainer who describes boys at this age as "pretty ripe" x
Very odd rambling quote from a coach about Alex Turcotte: “He’s very respectful but not guarded behind it. Like some kids are respectful to all adults and aren’t willing to kind of cultivate that relationship because of that. He’s not that way. He’s respectful but also is part of the family. I don’t know if that makes any sense but he’s very unique in that regard where just because he and I have a close relationship or he and the other coaches, he doesn’t overstep because of that relationship. It’s like he has figured out what you usually don’t figure out until you’re an adult as far as what line to cross.” x
"The trainer's room sometimes tends to be a hangout as well," Hodges said. "We've got recovery boots and a cold tub." x
Will Smith with trainer Hodges’s dog.
Players as packages and products
“He was a Bambi-looking kid,” Wroblewski said. “But the package looked too good to pass up." x
"We were looked at like pirates and the bounty was the player," Cronin said. x
"He's as good as I've seen come through here in terms of talent, work ethic and being the complete package on and off the ice," said senior director of operations Scott Monaghan. x
No qualms about describing and comparing/contrasting the bodies of literal teenagers...Coach Wrobo: "Jack was tiny, so small, so weak.” x Director of operations Scott Monaghan: "He's more like Patrick because of his skating and shiftiness than Auston, who was really big and strong.” x
USA Hockey-written headline: "Fifteen NTDP Products Will Play for Team USA at World Juniors" x
'Wroblewski calls Hughes "manicured." It's an excellent way to describe him. Hughes doesn't sound like a 17-year-old. He's well-spoken because he's well-groomed, unfazed by the hype.' x
"I feel like it's the best place to be for a 16-year, 17-year-old," Hughes told The Associated Press. "No one trains as hard as us. We skate every day. We lift three days a week. We play a great schedule. I think it's the best place to be to groom yourself to be an NHL player someday." x
"Part of the philosophy here is that it was like a PR show.” x
“It’s become like a factory.” x
On food
"The players know when they’re a pound up or a pound down" x
"[Our coach] was really strict - you couldn't drink pop, he didn't want guys eating dessert, your body is your temple. One night, I go to [my teammate], "Hey, you want to get a McFlurry?" He was like, "Oh, man, that sounds unreal." We went through the drive-thru, looking over our shoulders to make sure nobody saw us, and just crushed those McFlurries. Didn't think anything of it. The next day, we had a team meal and [our coach] says, "Well, gentlemen, two of your teammates decided to be selfish and have some ice cream last night." He asked if anyone wants to own up to it." x
4-5x a year, players undergo a full detailed frame assessment, including measurements of height, seated height, shoulder width, weight, lean mass, bodyfat composition, etc. x
If a player is "slipping" by "not making lean mass gains, or they're gaining fat, or they're overfat and not losing fat" then the trainers can re-assess the individual as often as they want, noting "the numbers don't lie." x
Players must "maintain their desired caloric intake as designated by the team nutritionist" x
Players eat “dinner per the schedule from a nutritionist” x
the looming orthorexia in this Will Smith/Ryan Leonard/Gabe Perreault video
screenshared athlete meal plan with guidelines such as "snack may be protein bar OR a baggie of assorted nuts" (god forbid you have both...?) and "a piece of toast" as part of breakfast (god forbid you have two…) x
screenshared portion control guide that is given to NTDP players, including detailed serving sizes such as “16 grapes”, “10 fries”, “23 almonds”, “12 baby carrots” x
no wonder these boys are OBSESSED with chipotle…they’re hungry!! no wonder auston matthews was getting choked up at the memory of him mom sending $20 to get chipotle with the boys, and will and zeev were spending four hours at Red Lobster!
Post-NTDP quotes:
Will Smith: “My food schedule is pretty intense. It is kind of about what you're eating but the timing of it, too. You got to plan how your day is more.” x
“For me, it's getting bigger, stronger and enhancing my skills," Hughes said. "Maybe like two or three pounds, nothing crazy though. I don't want to get too big to where I can't move out there." x
“Hughes said he had some food after the game, but after he found out he wasn’t playing Saturday, he dialed back his typical recovery and hydration routine.” x
Special mention: NTDP slop philosophy x
ntdp figured out that soft foods (shall we say, SLOP) are easier for the players’ (young, exhausted) bodies to digest
so when they cater food to hotels for road games, they order chicken, rice, and then a BUNCH of soup. to pour all over the food. I am not kidding.
related anecdote, when the U17’s were at an international tournament:
Coach Wrobo had this belief that “you CAN out-eat your opponent” so they had a huge breakfast at the hotel
then the trainer went back to the kitchen and ordered seconds of everything and had the hotel keep bringing out more food
Team Finland was witness to this entire slop fest and looked on with something akin to fear
and then USA lost to Russia
Playing up
NTDP trainer: "They're away from home and they're getting their ass kicked every weekend because they're playing up. So it's somewhat of a trial. It's not for everybody, I guess." x
"They are 17 year olds paying against 18, 19 and 20 year olds,” says Jim Hughes. “The first year is turbulent and it’s rocky because they’re playing against older competition on a daily basis." x
"punching up a weight class against a lot of 19- and 20-year-olds in the USHL, or punching way, way up against collegians who might be four or five years older." x
"People seem to forget that when you're playing at the NTDP, it's the hardest schedule in minor hockey," said Jim Hughes, Jack's father. "You're playing against Division I colleges, a difficult USHL schedule against kids three to four years older.” x
“The crucible of competition against older teams means players have to develop quickly. And we’ve found—through experience—that they do improve at a rapid pace when playing against older, more experienced players.” (NTDP FAQ)
Will Smith: "17 [under] year was brutal. The first couple months were like, Get me out of this place. Cause we would just go out to Youngstown and lose 10-1, you couldn’t - it was just, it was awful." x
Trevor Zegras: "We were pretty nervous going into our first USHL game because we had heard a lot of stuff from the 2000 group on how hard it was and everything." x
"I played 100 games my senior year or something like that. You're playing junior, you're playing out of your comfort zone. You go from playing 45 games at prep school to anywhere between 80 to 95 games." x
The Program regimen
NTDP trainer: "When I got here, I've seen it firsthand now, and I think part of that is the regimen, we have a regimen: the sleep, the eating, skating, the lifting, they're scheduled for two years, so regimented. These guys are getting a two-year head start on that and they're coming out just machines." x
"An all-consuming environment with daily practices, off-ice conditioning, strength training" x
“Players realize committing to the program means much more than working hard on the ice. There also is schooling and a strict weight-training program.” x
“If you don’t go to bed early, this place will eat you alive,” Jim Hughes said. x
NTDP trainer: “It’s not enough to just put the sweater on. It’s just not enough. You’ve got to go to bed at a certain time, you have to eat right, you have to do off-ice work, or you will not survive - not the way we practice. And if you don't buy into the nutrition, if you don't buy into the regimen, you're gonna have a very, very hard time.” x
“Wroblewski said the NTDP has a rather regimented setup and that going to college will allow Zegras to take more ownership of certain aspects of his life such as picking his classes and balancing coursework.” x
“[Jack] eats a dinner per the schedule from a nutritionist. After dinner he does his homework and if the stars line up, has an hour at liberty. He’s in bed at 9:30. Though living at home, he follows the schedule laid out by the NTDP staff for all players.” x
Will Smith: “The two years at The Program flew by. Everyone says it does... And there’s some days where you’re like Oh my god, get me out of here.” x
"I didn't realize how hard it was going to be. We practiced almost every day or did something. You try to have a social life, but you don't have much of one." x
Practices and competitiveness within the team
"You're fighting for spots on the roster every day. You're trying to move up the depth chart, get certain positions on the penalty kill or power play. We're good friends off the ice, but on the ice ... Let's just say it's really competitive." - Jack Hughes x (Example: Wrobo taking Alex Turcotte off the half-wall on the power play to give that preferable spot to Trevor Zegras x)
Getting into scrums in practice: "Tempers flared midway through the drill when Zegras was cross-checked by McCarthy. Zegras returned the favor, and a twisting bear hug ensued as teammates converged to separate the two." x
Coach Dan Muse (coach of Will Smith/Ryan Leonard/Gabe Perreault et al cohort): "Guys have to have their heads up [...] and they go until there's a whistle, on the whistle. A lot of times we'll make this a little competition, there'd probably be like three push-ups on the line for the player that doesn't have a puck." x
"Every day having a highly competitive environment. We keep score in a lot of the things that we do... having weekly or monthly winners, just really creating that highly competitive environment." x
"Put players in positions that compete constantly throughout our practices. So as many ways as you can, whether that's physical competition, whether that's competition and the scoreboard, keeping score of a drill, a game, whatever it is - we want to foster competitiveness." x
Coaches aim to “create chaos” by design x
"You want everybody to be fighting every day to try to be the best player on the ice. We do post it [for the players to see]." x
Alex Turcotte: "You’re really competitive with each other. It makes you compete against one another. No one wants to look bad. You face the best." x
Constant monitoring / lack of privacy
Recruitment process: “The NTDP players are tracked and evaluated for two years prior to coming to the NTDP.” x
"About the program, I noticed they're the most overanalyzed group of players on the planet." x
"They watch how these guys go over and back over the boards. They watch everything. Somebody asked me about one of our players, saying 'he looks like he walks around [with] shoulders internally rolled'. You're sitting in a chair like this, you're not gonna make that team. They're not just looking at how good you are as a player, [it's] body posture, body language." x
Phone confiscation at USA Hockey Arena / hotels: "how we do it at The Program - one of the things for cell phones, we have a bag and when you come in the building, your phone goes in that bag. You do not have that bag while you're in the building, period. We bring it on the road. We have, at the hotel, we have a technology check-in. They have to check in at like nine o'clock usually or maybe a little earlier, you know, depending on the game, they have to turn in their cell phone, computer, iPads, no technology." x
"Within a couple hours of a game, a member of the NTDP staff will edit together videos for the players - general team footage, but also packages specific to individuals, readied for the coaches to review. The coaches will probably wait until the next day to screen it, but Hughes and a lot of his teammates won't. As soon as that video is up for sharing and streaming, Hughes will be all over it." x
"Jack Hughes has to arrive at school shortly after 7 a.m. and if he's tardy or misses a class, USA Hockey has a staff member who knows it and there are consequences." x
Trainers check players' lock screens x
Coaches keeping tabs on the boys' dating lives ("You know, we had one kid that just went through his third girlfriend.") x
Coach asking players to write down if they have a girlfriend, and if so, how much time are they spending with that girlfriend instead of on hockey x
and even getting teammates to call each other out for it ("After the kids get to know each other, beginning of the second year, I'll have them write their priority list on a big whiteboard just like this, and then I'll have their teammates grade him, say 'nope no no way you're with your girlfriend all the time')
“Intern coaches perform location checks of each player by conducting random curfew calls during the season” visiting the players at their billet homes as late as after 11:30pm….. x
Trainers were looking at the heartrate monitoring data and noticed some of their players’ heartrates were ‘through the roof’ as early as the national anthem of a game. This was a surprise to them, because the players had never shared that they had any issues, i.e. the players must have been telling them they were fine. Do you see where I am going with this? Through the heartrate monitors, they even knew when they were being lied to. x
Special mention:
Coach Muse forcing 15- (in Zeev's case) and 16-year-olds (Will, Ryan, Gabe, et al) to dress and undress in the public hallways of the USA Hockey Arena for a month until they "earned" the right to privacy
Also for your consideration: in Bardown’s puff piece NTDP locker room tour, the hosts show the lavish locker room, showers, sauna, cold tub, etc. but when they get to the private changing room, it’s full of boxes and clearly unused. x
YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE
“One of the things we say at NTDP is take responsibility for your own development. The goal for them is to be professional athletes." x
"Your priorities as a player, you need to evaluate that. You need to take responsibility for your development." x
You might be wondering, how does all of this get normalized? Well, it's simple. Because they are taught that everything that happens to them, they are responsible for it.
And if they ever forget it, all they have to do is look up in the hallway they walk through every single day:
I’ve reached the link limit, so yet to be covered: billets with legal guardianship, how they go to school (both before / after their transition to online classes), NTDP origins, noted crimes and coverups, and any other facts I can think of. It will be another long post!
smitty: he always sends me all his stuff before he gets it. ask him about it.
fowler: he made me do this. he wanted me to do this all year. he would get mad at me if i didn't do it. smitty--smitty was like the customizer of all my gear this year. we'd be like bored in the back of class and like i'd open my laptop and give it to him and perrault.
int: i gotta ask you more about designing fowlers pads.
smitty: yeah i would get a little bored so. i would kind of go on my bauer and customize a bunch of different ones for him. i like the--the simple. like russian goalies wear.
Why are we all collectively so fascinated by the WillMack phenomenon? What is this mass psychosis we are all under?
Good question! Whyyy are we all so down bad for the Wackles? Well, I can only speak for myself, but here are some of my reasons:
1. They’re not like other girls
lol no seriously. One of my favourite things about them is how unapologetically unconventional they are by hockey standards. Their hobbies, when they’re together — look away Fratlin Kegbrini of Sidneh Crosbeh fame— mostly consist of curbside sports, playing with children under the age of 12, Catan nights at their Unc’s place, candlelit dinner dates at establishments with dress codes and reservation waitlists, watching rom-coms, reading books and discussing them over brunch, and baking for their coworkers. Or, rather, Will bakes and Mack quality controls the products. It’s like they’re constantly roleplaying as married suburban dads with a nuclear-family lifestyle and a white picket fence, even though they’re basically teenage boys who should be at the clerb getting high.
2. They’re together all the damn time
Their teammates, coaches, parents, and media can all confirm this. And if they’re not physically together, they’re FaceTiming and yearning to be together. Cat says she can count on one hand the number of times she’s had one of them over without the other. Like??? Will’s mom has openly wondered whether they ever get sick of each other, and this is a woman who has watched her son have 1736262 different boybestfriendships. Gabe and Leno literally lived with Will at different points, and Will lives with Matty B in the offseason, but you don’t catch her making the same comments about those friendships. So the amount of time Will spends with Mack must be abnormal even by Will Smith standards. Hell, even Bill Smith Hockey isn’t immune. That man had to spend eight hours a day with his son’s bestie during a visit. Like?
3. You can’t sit with us!
God forbid anyone infringe upon their togetherness. They’re attending a function? Attached at the hip, with Ostapchuk looking into the camera like he’s on The Office. They’re sitting on a plane? The Sharks agree no one would want the middle seat. They’re playing sewer? They’re either giggling and flirting, booting balls at their teammates’ faces to make each other laugh, or ditching team sewer for private sewer. They’re on the bench waiting for their shift? They’re either halfway across each other’s laps, crossing five bodies to get to each other’s laps, or talking over their unfortunate third linemate’s head *cough* Graf *cough* because obviously what they need to say cannot wait, and also is not meant for anyone else’s ears, thank you very much.
4. You had me at hello
I fear they might actually be soulmates. They knew of each other for years, played on rival teams, existed in the same tiny hockey world, kept an eye on each other, and somehow never exchanged a word. Then San Jose gets the 4OA pick, then the 1OA pick, they meet at development camp, and boom: worlds collide, chemistry explodes, souls bond from the first words exchanged. Suddenly they’re pissed they can’t play together. They want their jerseys hanging from the rafters together. They want to move in together, be roommates on the road, have a joint TikTok (RIP wcpsmrc), wear matching costumes, and show up in matching tailored walk-in outfits.
5. Girl, get off him!
No, Toff, you cannot stand close to Mack for “good times.” No, you cannot wrap your arms around Will’s waist during cellys; Mack will physically remove them because that waist is his belt loop. No, Connor Bedard, Mack does not think about you. No, Ekky, Swedish wrestling with Will is not allowed under Mack’s watch. No, Connor McDavid, Will may not be you, but Mack is his significant lover. Like. Do y’all hear yourselves? BFFR.
6. I made you my temple, my mural, my sky
They are constantly hyping each other up, defending each other to the media and their coaches. “Will just needs guys who can play with him.” “You see what a special player he is every night.” “I don’t think you need to worry about Mack’s scoring. He’s our leader.” They play with the utmost joy two people can feel at their place of employment. Every day is a great day when I’m next to you. I’ll stay up all night watching you play at international tournaments and take your calls morning, day, and night until dark circles bloom under my eyes. I won’t support my own country or celebrate in any way, because your pain is my pain, and I stand with you first and foremost. I’ll sign you up for silly little side quests, skip practice to take a midday nap with you while playing white noise so you can sleep, and make a hype reel to remind you who you are and what we can do together. And you’ll do the same for me. You’ll fight for me until the guy who hurt me bleeds. You’ll win the game in my name. You’ll take me shopping the next day and then to a game. You’ll take me out for espresso martinis on my birthday until we’re both sick and commiserating about how much this past month has sucked for us. You’ll drive me to our Unc’s place so I can cuddle their little dog with a blanket wrapped around me, then sneak off to a quiet room with me, giggling and wishing we could share our happiness with the world and go live. And it’s just you and me. It’s always going to be you and me.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. It’s rare to witness two people make belonging look that effortless, so I had no choice but to stan.
[with a far off distant look in my eyes] hockey players used to be in the club. they used to be dancing on bartops with strippers. they used to be railing cocaine. they used to post drunk party photos on instagram. they used to tweet and the tweets were funny
everyone following me under the age of 25: alright sure grandma now lets get you to bed
it is worth mentioning that the lack of partyboy behavior by nhl players has done absolutely nothing to prevent many of them from committing horrible crimes, like what was this meant to achieve. if theyre evil theyll be evil in private and no amount of watering down their public personas will change that. hockey players please go back to the club
will smith hockey does this Thing when he makes contact with other people where he like,,, draws his shoulders in and makes himself physically smaller and ducks his head down and keeps his knees together and it drives me insane
