The Road to the Cup ~ Wattys 2015

Don't Be a Debbie Downer

"Where'd you go last night?" I asked Sidney after practice.

"I went to see a man about a dog," he grinned.

I raised my eyebrows, "You were talking to my dad about Gizmo?"

"Among other things."

"Like what?"

"That's for me to know and you to find out," he tapped me on the nose. "Now, isn't it time for me to kick your butt at NHL15?"

"Kick my butt? I think you've got things a little mixed up," I teased.

"You're on, Fitzpatrick!"

Sidney did kick my butt at the game, but only just barely. By that point, it was getting late, so we parted ways to go to bed; we had a big game tomorrow.

Morning skate at the Joe was quiet and it was kind of freaking me out. They had done so well the past four games and I didn't want to see a slump again coming into the series against the Red Wings.

"How are y'all feeling?" I asked tentatively.

"Great," Ian replied, "I like being on this ice, it feels like home."

"That's how I felt out first few times here," I nodded.

"Aw, you're not going to go soft for Detroit, are you, Erin?" Marc asked.

"No, of course not. I'm still adjusting to the idea of being a coach in the NHL, that's all."

"You've coached us all year and you're still adjusting to it?" Beau seemed surprised.

"I never pictured myself here. I figured I'd be a trainer at my high school or Union, this is more than I could've asked for," I explained, "But I'm so glad to be here. This is an amazing opportunity and I got to meet people like Alexander Ovechkin and Tyler Seguin and you losers."

"Ouch, she ranked Seguin above us," Perron said.

"You're worried about Seguin being above us? What about Ovechkin?" Sutter demanded. "I can take that skinny little Canadian any day, but the Russian scares me."

"Us losers," Sidney scoffed, "you coached us, our loser status came from you."

He had me beat there. "Okay, fine," I sighed, "you guys are the best thing about this job," I grinned.

"Much better," Geno said, "I thought you sick or something. You like Ovechkin better than us," he snorted and shook his head, continuing in Russian.

"I hope you all are ready to play since you're just screwing around out here," Johnston said, stepping out onto the ice with us.

The rest of practice passed quickly and soon, Sidney and I were on our way to lunch. "How are you doing?" He asked, noticing that I was nervous.

"I'm fine. I just a little anxious for the game."

"You're more than a little anxious, Erin. You always are when we play them."

"I know, I think it's because I was raised with the Red Wings and I don't want to lose against them. I know I have friends on the team and my other friends support them, and they support me, too, but don't like this team, so I feel like I have to win to prove that we're worthy of their support. I feel like there's a lot more pressure than usual when we play Detroit as opposed to other teams. Maybe it's just me."

"It isn't just you, we feel it too. We don't want to let you down, especially not now."

"Are you going to leave it all out there?" I asked.