#asg 2022

[m3tth4ws]

[scoringeffects]

.

[fannyyann]

Hey, hope you're doing okay. I hope you don't mind me asking, but I am rather new to the mattdrai fandom and I couldn't help but wonder:

Was Matthew really as bad as a lot of fic lead to believe in his earlier hockey years in Calgary? And was he really disliked in the room - where there rumours like that? So many fics build on this premise, and seeing him now in Florida and hearing all the nice things his teammates say about him and seeing the things he does himself and the insane good hockey he plays... it's hard to believe.

It's so strange also that it's so rarely mentioned that Leon was the one to be sent down to the minors, not Matthew.

Plus what I don't get: matthew is a lot hotter than Leon? why is it always told like Leon is the hottest dude on earth while Matthew is nothing? comparing early pics and pics from now... it's just not true? Leon looks good, a bit bland IMO, but Matthew is and was just hot in a very unique and special way. maybe because he isn't that bland generic good looking Leon is? But good looking in a special way? so that got a lot longer than I thought it would, hope you don't mind the ask.

i don't mind you asking at all! this is basically my roman empire so MY apologies if this gets unwieldy but i have FEELINGS about matthew's early fic portrayal lmao

in his six years on the flames, matthew was always one of the top five scorers.

his rookie year, he was sixth in rookie scoring

the season he was picked for his first ASG, the flames were 16th in the league at the time all star rosters were announced and matthew was their top scorer.

so it's not like he was the best player from a bottom of the league team or going because he was the home town boy, he was a playoff team's best player (both at the asg break and when the season was eventually suspended because of covid).

and even in his career worst year (2020-2022), he ended the year as their third best scorer and only six points behind johnny (the leader). and as one of calgary's beat reporters said in his end of the year review, Matthew was "good, but not quite as good as the Flames needed him to be."

so i've never really understood why people were portraying him like that either and still haven't figure out if most of it was unreliable narrator kind of stuff or if some authors actually thought he was bad before he had his breakout season, but it doesn't reflect reality.

as for him being disliked in calgary, that all stems from jake muzzin flipping the puck at him, and the subsequent players only meeting that took place after it, in which matthew allegedly told the team he was upset they didn't join him in the scrum after and he was then told him it can't be a riot every night.

before that there were never any rumors that i'm aware of that he was unliked in the room, and in 2019 gio, who most people tend to think is the one who told matthew to tone it down, said this about another players only meeting:

so while the 2021 players only meeting was a story because matthew wasn't playing like his usual self afterward, i've never thought it was indicative of him not being liked by his teammates. and honestly, you have to take it all with a grain of salt anyway because while guys obviously bullshit the media, at the practice after the players only meeting guys talked about how there was a general lack of emotion, and how they came out there trying to have fun with each other and put it behind them, and in the postgame the next night, gio specifically sites getting into scrums and mixing it up when asked how much more emotion they played with in that win compared to earlier losses, so if mixing it up was good the very next night, the math doesn't quite add up, yk?

but johnny did confirm in his spittin chiclets appearance about two weeks after the muzzin incident that matthew was pissed after they left him out to dry that night, and when asked about matthew's struggles that season darryl sutter said matthew needed to, and would, get back to playing to his identity, so the whole cause and effect of the muzzin incident on matthew's play that season isn't completely unfounded, but i do think multiple guys saying the team needed to play with more emotion, johnny saying in the chiclets episode that the guys skating off didn't find out about the puck flip until they saw it on sportsnet and saying he felt bad about it, and the new coach coming in and getting matthew to play back to his style shows that it wasn't as personal as it was made out to be.

anyway, the flames may not have be as tight knit as the panthers are, but matthew had his people there. he's bffs with hanifin and his friendship with sam bennett is part of what drew him to florida. johnny always says great things about him, blake coleman called him the heartbeat of the team, and was such an important voice in the room that the flames suffered when he and gudbranson were no longer around to tell sutter to chill the fuck out when he was being too hard on guys in the room.

he probably wasn't close with every teammate, most people aren't friends with all their coworkers, but he wasn't some sort of loner in that locker room.

as for the looks, that's all down to personal preference. leon is definitely very conventionally attractive and while matthew has definitely glowed up in the last few seasons, he was by no means ugly. i wouldn't even say he's really unconventionally attractive either. he's got a good face and was a cute teen and people who are like "oh no i find matthew tkachuk attractive now" have literally never made sense to me. but again! personal preference and all that.

again, my apologies if you weren't looking for THIS MUCH of an answer to your question but this isn't even all the sources i pulled up when i first got this ask so i did TRY to keep it short lol

[linskywords]

https://www.tumblr.com/nuge/675379131297497088/connor-mcdavid-2022-nhl-asg-02042022

Connor McDavid trying to break the record of how many times someone can say Leo in a sentence. This record has been previously held by Connor McDavid

Aw, what a nice date he's describing. Hope the girls got to have some good together time back at home while that was going on. 🥰

[bropunzeling]

marriage of convenience!

i've never written a marriage of convenience!!! but if i did..... i think i would go one of two options:

option a - trevor and jamie get married during that 2022 asg because it seemed like a good idea at the time (drunk. so drunk. conveniently in vegas while drunk) and they don't want to be separated. during the first Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Season and then during trevor's long drawn-out contract negotiations they will occasionally joke about how it's a good thing they're married because the ducks will have to keep trevor around, but things are never tested. important note that they perhaps did or did not have sex on their wedding night? maybe they did but only one of them remembers? idk insert some ambiguity there.

enter january 2024. jamie is gonna get traded? well time to reveal all the cards. as in the "we're married, do not separate!" card. oh wait actually maybe it works better if trevor wants to pull the card and jamie is like no, don't, this sucks but like, think about our reps, think about the team, etc. jamie becomes buddies with cam york and trevor is furiously jealous. perhaps some pointed drunken phone calls about how trevor is jamie's husband, and if trevor were there he would -- he is cut off by the voicemail limit. everything boils to a head this summer? maybe jamie goes to see trevor after worlds so they can do a fun lil europe vacation/remember what it's like to be friends again except everything is deeply sexually charged and also romantically charged. big First Time We Had Sex (And Both Remembered It) scene. followed by a big What Are We and What Are We Doing argument scene. a stretch of miserably not talking. then trevor gets dealt to, idk, somewhere east, and they have a big conversation and decide they wanna try to be Serious. fin.

option b - matthew/leon regency au where matthew's family has the family name and leon has the funds and they have to get married to save matthew's siblings from miserable marriages/ensure they can marry for love (matthew's motivation)/if i don't marry matthew he's gonna marry some asshole who will make him miserable (leon's motivation). they fuck once on their wedding night and don't touch after that. spend like a calendar year being brutally in love (leon)/slowly figuring out they might be in love a little bit, maybe (matthew). idk how it resolves but it is suitably dramatic and allows leon to confess his real feelings like the prickly marshmallow man he is.

[leothil]

do you have any hockey fic recs? i’m itching for something to read

Oh absolutely! Fair warning though, they'll all be mattdrai (Leon Draisaitl/Matthew Tkachuk) fics since that's the kick I've been on for more than a year now. But if you want to check out more pairings, the authors of these fics are a good place to start! And, of course, the fics I don't mention from these authors that feature the same pairing too, because I simply can't list every single fic they've written that I love.

I'd also like to state for the record that @trippedandfell was the one who got me into reading hrpf while @onward--upward provided lots of recs for me, so for a wider selection of pairings they might be a good source <3

head above water by yourblues (@msmargaretmurry) that kicks off in an alternate summer of 2022 where Matthew is having a no good very bad time inside his own head. The crushing weight of your own expectations etc. Scenes from the fic written in another pov are found in the fic series, and I highly recommend reading those as well after finishing the main fic!

the land between our bodies also by yourblues, where Leon is the one having a no good very bad time after Matthew's trade to Florida. Surely calling him won't lead to anything bad.

The Next Next One also also by yourblues. And I lied, this is a Dylan Strome/Connor McDavid fic, but it grabs me by the throat like nothing else.

preference by daisysusan (@hopetorun), a winner's room fic that had me gnawing at the back of my chair.

wait a year also by daisysusan, and ok I lied again, this is a Quinn Hughes/Brady Tkachuk fic, in which once, in their teens, Brady said he'd marry Quinn if neither of them were married by 30, and Quinn doesn't dare to believe he was being serious.

linger by @bropunzeling, an omegaverse fic following them from the infamous ASG in 2020 to summer 2023. A/B/O is not my usual cup of tea, but this hit all the right buttons!

contact high also by bropunzeling, a sex pollen fic that had me go yes... hahaha... yes!

only fools rush in also also by bropunzeling, in which Matthew and Leon make a drunk bet during the 2022 All-Star game and suddenly find themselves married. An all-time fave!

Muscle Memory by @blaahaj, where it's the future year of 2023 (this is written late 2020), but Matthew got a bad enough concussion to make him forget almost everything past november 2019. Absolutely delicious amnesia fic!

Growing Into Someone also by blaahaj, where Leon and Matthew both play in Kölner Haie during an NHL lockout.

liebe geht durch den magen by lighthousetowers (@blankvcrs), where Matthew is a recipe/cooking youtuber that Leon starts watching. Incredibly funny!

slip under the tongue into translation also by lighthousetowers, in which Matthew decides to learn German during the 2020 lockdown to better be able to antagonize Leon on the ice. A lot of Leon's internal thoughts about living your life in a different language than your emotional language resonates very heavily with me.

the kids are alright also also by lighthousetowers, where Matthew is an elementary school teacher and his class gets a visit from the Oilers.

broken glass by dilangley, with born werewolf Matthew and bitten werewolf Leon, and the cultural differences that inescapably arise. Not a/b/o. It's incredible how much lore and personal history has been fit into 13.7k words!

The hockey but make it football series from RippingOffZeppelin. Both mattdrai and mceichel. I know nothing about american football, but I've been mesmerized by this series! I believe part four is the one that was actually written first, and I think that's the one I read first too, but imo you can read them in either the series-chronological order or published-chronological order!

comment for engagement also by RippingOffZeppelin, in which Matthew is made to start a youtube channel to improve his own optics on the Flames after he's gotten some bad press. It becomes very popular, and leads Matthew into some interesting situations!

long ago that current caught us by puckthisshift where werewolf!Leon can hear a siren call to him in Florida.

[tapedsleeves]

Who would you give your newly created hockey awards to first?

best celly

Noms:

Robo's hat trick celly - just laying down

Geno's shootout win - trying to throw the stick over the glass & missing.

Bergeron's 1000th point - rubbing the numbers off his helmet

winner: this is a HARD ONE, man this is hard, but I gotta go with Bergeron's 1k. it is SUCH a good moment, everyoneeeee loves him so much and just. it's sooo lovely and fun

should have been a kiss

Noms:

Jack & Marchy @ Marchy's Conn Smythe Win

Every time those bruin goalies hugged

Thomas Chabot telling Tim Stuzle that his goal was "fucking nasty, bro" CBJ

winner: As much as I love Jack and Marchy.... and as much as I'm on the Thomas Chabot kiss the homies agenda.... it''s gotta be those goalies man. They just. Linus Ullmark hand fed Jeremy Swayman multiple times and nobody said anything!!! should have been kissing the whole time the most of anybody.

oh my god they were roommates

Noms (all time)

Mark Stone Rookie House (2019-2020)

Connor Dewar & Brandon Duhaime (wild, 2021-2022 maybe)

Shane Pinto & Jake Sanderson

winner: This is very Sens heavy, but that's the roommate situation I know the most about. And for that, it's going to Shane Pinto & Jake Sanderson. Please understand, they adopted guinea pigs.

oops, ice slippy

Noms:

Jack Hughes

Tim Stuztle's general wet noodlyness

Cale Makar falling down during the fastest skater comp at the ASG

winner: Jack Hughes for sure. Timmy falls down a lot, but Jack's fall had SO MUCH flair.

[giganticism]

is there auston matthews/trevor zegras lore?? i remember AM tweeting about him during the wjc but im very eyes emoji at him name dropping out of the blue to quinn, a guy who obviously does have a connection with zegras

As far as I know, there’s nothing else really public about Auston and Trevor so far. But the Hughes guys have mentioned knowing Auston prior to now, there’s of course the overall NTDP commonality among them all, and specifically we know guys Auston’s close with guys like Dylan Larkin and Zach Werenski who have trained and hung out with Trevor and others from his NTDP gen quite a bit, so Trevor and Auston could know each other pretty well. They’ve also been at things like the 2022 preseason media day at the same time and do follow each other on Insta.

The other thing to remember about Auston is he’s a big nerd about gear, especially sticks. It’s come up here and there, particularly when Spezza was still a player on the Leafs because he and Auston would be nerds together.

So it’s also possible Auston just knows that offhand because he’s looked it up or asked Trevor about it at some point and remembers because he’s a dweeb lol.

Part of my hope for the ASG was that we’d finally get a little more of a peek at how well Auston knows them, and I’m glad we at least got this little bit!

[wehaveagathering]

Ok I'm about to tinhat but I think I'm right, so bear with me

the NHL knew that these guys were gonna get charged, and they worked out a deal with the London Ontario police dept to release the information at this particular time. Right before the All star game? All of this in the news cycle and fanbase is gonna get absolutely eclipsed by the ASG and while people are still going to talk about it, more people are gonna be talking about the ASG. And we know that police depts are absolutely corrupt to their bones, you're telling me that they wouldn't take yummy NHL money to keep something like this quiet for a little while? as @samuelbennett so helpfully informed me, Hart and Dube were in the final years of their contract, with Foote and McLeod on one-year contracts. E.M. came forward in 2022. Did they wait for two years for justice so teams wouldn't lose money? A month before the trade deadline? Right before the All-Star Game? And all those fucking "illnesses" Hart had earlier in the season? the "bad fish?" is that what we're calling it?

no fucking chance. The cops knew in November – at least – if not earlier, if we're thinking way long-term, especially considering a trial might not happen until 2026 – & the NHL paid them to keep it quiet til now, when they knew that people's thought processes would get suddenly interrupted by the ASG, and no one would think too hard about it. The blatant attempt to redirect attention by announcing a potential Utah expansion team? No way. Also staged, to make them look less intelligent than they really were, so nobody would accuse them of exactly what I'm accusing them of right now. "The NHL is so stupid if they think they can redirect our attention with the expansion team news" no. the NHL is not just gary bettman in his ivory tower. The NHL has leagues of lawyers and PR reps and god only fucking knows who advising them. The NHL wants you to think they're stupid. The NHL knows that you're dropping, hard, and they are going to cushion your fall with the All-Star Weekend, and you're going to like it.

[hopetorun]

woke up married!!

i have never written woke up married fic! however, it is a great trope that i love

if i were to write it ... hmm ... i think it would be trevor and jack waking up married at the 2022 asg but i haven't decided if it should be played straight (they realize they're in love) or subverted (the shenanigans cause trevor and jamie to realize they're in love). the trevor/jack played straight i think could be a delightful slow burn where they do it for whatever stupid reason and it really is just platonic but they don't bother to get divorced because that seems like so much work and it is pretty funny to be like, oh yeah that's my husband when someone doesn't expect it.

tbh same setup for the one where trevor and jamie realize they're in love, except in that one trevor does the "haha my husband" bit on jamie and jamie does Not think it's funny and they have a big fight and eventually make up (and make out)

in the jack/trevor one they have their silly little bit for several years and maybe one of them dates someone who gets weird about it and idk hmm maybe after those several years one of them does the husband bit and suddenly it doesn't seem so funny anymore and that sets off the horrible longing. and then eventually they get it all sorted out

[rouzys]

mentally i’m at the 2022 asg

[coffee-at-annies]

Maybe a bit niche but I love seeing pics of old all star games

oh boy I don't even have to go looking because I sent this from 2022 to the fic gc yesterday and asked if they thought they kissed

but for you, I'll look deeper.

here's EK looking yummy at the 2018 asg followed by Geno and Lazy (James Neal) in 2012

Flower and Tanger flirting in 2018

hello 2012 tanger and 2007 Sid

I dunno whats going on in this one or this one other than Flower deserves to flirt with 2011 Ovi and 2015 Giroux all he wants during the skills comp

[fannyyann]

hi! I’m not really sure why so many people ship mattdrai, and I was just wondering what it is about them that you like personally? I’m not usually someone who can see ships unless they have a lot of “canon” content, and I’ve seen them only interact like twice. can you help me see it?

hiiiii anon! i like mattdrai so much because as individuals matthew and leon are veeeery similar. they're two sides of the same "yappy alternate captain who likes to start shit and is obsessed with his quieter captain" coin and from the interactions they have had on the ice it's very clear that they have FUN riling each other up and that kind of dynamic has always been my favorite across all my fandoms.

also, i definitely get where you're coming from with canon content but from a writing and creating stand point it's sooooo fun to not really have anything but their personalities and canon events to work with!

but before i link you to the mattdrai primer, and some of my favorite canon moments, i'm going to say something super insane and say if canon ships are more your speed you should definitely just get into all matthew and his teammates because there's sooooo much good stuff going on in the panthers locker room lmao

anyway, here's a pretty comprehensive primer for their ~lore up to November 2023 and a list of things not mentioned in it but i'm constantly thinking about:

that time leon very gently grabbed matthew by the waist to pull him away from mike smith

(much funnier and compelling behavior because darnell nurse comes in after this and just pulls matthew back by the neck)

2. the way leon is pretty well known for zooming into scrums when connor's involved, but has been known to just stand by and watch while connor and matthew get into it.

like here in round 2:

and then again earlier this season:

(this is THE most compelling thing about matthew and leon's actual canon, like WHY DOES HE DO THAT?? what's different about matthew???)

3. that time in december 2022 one of the oilers' charity partners chirped matthew in the comments of one of leon's friends & family puma sponcons and instead of deleting the comment, he just deleted the whole post (which, if you scroll through his feed, you know he doesn't delete his sponcon posts lmao)

4. and then of course, my favorite hidden gem, the fact that matthew got some of his game worn jerseys from the 2023 asg signed by all the guys there, and then all the guys from the atlantic team (8:05), so somewhere in matthew's possession he has a jersey he asked leon to sign :')

[iamjackedwards]

2022 was the last good asg.

[bropunzeling]

↻ jamie/trevor for marriage bets please <3

oh gosh. okay. once again we set our scene at nhl asg 2022 (thank u las vegas). jamie comes to hang out with trevor. at some point they get schwasty enough that they talk about the future, and trevor is very sincerely like, i wanna play with you, this is the best shit, oh hey, what if we get married then we HAVE to play together, and jamie is drunk enough to go along with it.

smash cut to now. they have been married semi-secretly but not very seriously for almost two years. jamie hung around when his shoulder got busted and trevor jokingly called him his house husband. they haven't had sex but they've come incredibly close on four separate occasions which both of them think about basically daily. they both did some dating but it felt kind of weird due to the whole legal sitch so then they stopped. the tension is a strange, comforting constant, where they know they're gonna be together but haven't had the courage to do anything more, but it’s fine, they're gonna be together--

and then jamie gets traded. trevor breaks his ankle. everything is falling apart. so trevor decides, fuck it. they're married. he can probably force philly to take him, can't he?

[warningsine]

Taipei, Dec. 21 (CNA) Taiwan's government on Wednesday pledged to donate a further US$1 million to help Ukrainian refugees in Poland, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA).

The "Polish Cities in Ukraine - Taiwan Grant Fund" was announced by Taiwan's representative to Poland Sharon Wu (吳尚年) during a signing ceremony in Warsaw with the Mayor of Białystok Tadeusz Truskolaski and the Mayor of Poznań Jacek Jaśkowia, MOFA said in a press release.

Truskolaski concurrently serves as chair of the Union of Polish Metropolises, an organization representing the cities of Warsaw, Białystok, Bydgoszcz, Gdańsk, Katowice, Kraków, Lublin, Łódź, Poznań, Rzeszów, Szczecin and Wrocław.

According to the memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed on Wednesday, the project will support Polish local governments and nongovernmental organizations helping Ukrainian refugees in Poland.

The money will also be used to create a better environment in preparation for their ultimate return to Ukraine once the country's war with Russia has ended, the agreement states.

In her address, Wu said the Taiwan Grant Fund is an expression of Taiwan's strong commitment and concern for Ukraine and the latest milestone in cooperation and joint efforts to build partnerships with Polish local governments and nongovernmental organizations.

"I look forward to further cooperation with the Union of Polish Metropolises through the Fund's platform and cooperation in defending democracy, freedom and human rights," she said.

Truskolaski, meanwhile, noted that Poland had taken in more than 3 million Ukrainian refugees since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of the country in February 2022, adding he appreciated Taiwan's continued assistance.

Since February 2022, Taiwan's government has donated more than US$40 million, and 600 tons of necessities including medical supplies have been donated, according to the MOFA.

(By Joseph Yeh)

Enditem/ASG