#can we have a stretch of games where both geno and sid are scoring instead of one or the other 😅

[freebooter4ever]

dang it that should have been g with that winning goal -_-

[icebirdsmateforlife]

Your Smile Makes Me Smile

I asked for prompts and this was the one that got me writing: "Geno waiting up for Sid post-game to just to tell him how he always knew he'd break his scoring drought." This is not exactly that, but hopefully close enough. :)

Sidney scores. And then he almost gets the opportunity to do it again.

(AO3 link)

It’s not really all that late for a game night by the time he makes it home. He still feels a little fired up from the game, the buzz of excitement still humming under his skin, and he knows it’s not just the win. They played well tonight. Maybe not as well as they’re capable of, he knows that, but he also knows that they did play okay. The same way he is aware that there is still a lot of room for improvement. Their five-on-five definitely needs work and…

He shakes his head and rolls his eyes at his own overanalytic mind, closes and locks his front door behind himself and makes his way to the kitchen where he switches on the lights and gets a bottle of water from the fridge. It was a good game. And, he decides, he can leave it at that for now and overthink everything tomorrow. Tonight, he’s going to allow himself to float on this cloud of relief and the feeling of victory for a little while longer. He drinks his water slowly, leaning back against the kitchen counter, and simply can’t stop smiling.

Get me goal, Geno had texted him before the game.

I got you two, Sid had texted him back before he’d even taken his postgame shower, knowing full well that this wouldn’t be news to Geno.

He knows that Geno has been watching from home, still out with his upper body injury which he keeps insisting is fine, and that he’s ready to play again already.

Maybe he should have gone over, Sid thinks, instead of driving home. Maybe he should have asked Geno if he wanted to hang out for a bit, just a half hour or so after the game, to…recap. He grins against the rim of his water bottle before taking another sip. If he had gone over there tonight, they wouldn’t have talked about the game. He’s sure they would have found other things to do with their mouths, and as tempting as that sounds, all of this is still so new that he doesn’t want to push it. Geno hadn’t replied to his text anyway, which Sid thinks probably means that he fell asleep. And even if they have keys to each other’s houses — had since before they were dating, for emergencies or in case one of them locked themselves out of their house accidentally — he hadn’t wanted to just walk in on a sleeping Geno and wake him up.

He leaves his empty bottle on the counter and makes his way upstairs, thinking he’ll try to get some sleep now so he’ll be rested to properly enjoy his off day tomorrow.

He pushes his bedroom door open and flips the light switch and is met with a low groan and the huge shape of a person in his bed who is pulling the covers up high over his face to protect his eyes from the sudden bright light of the ceiling lamp.

Sid stops with one hand still on the light switch, the other holding onto the edge of the door. “Geno?” he asks, surprised.

Geno pokes his head out from underneath the covers hesitantly, looking a little grouchy as he blinks against the brightness, his hair a delightful mess and his mouth pulled into an unhappy frown. “Lights,” he grumbles in response, voice heavy and sleep-rough.

Sid opens his mouth, then closes his mouth again, brain trying to catch up to the fact that Geno is wrapped up in his bedsheets like a giant boyfriend burrito instead of being asleep at home in his own bed where he’s supposed to be. “What are you doing here?”

Geno sighs heavily, pushing the covers down to his neck to tuck them under his chin. He always complains about the cold when he wakes up, Sid has learned that by now, one of the many things about Geno he has been lucky enough to discover lately. “Sleep, until minute ago,” he says.

“In my bed,” Sid points out.

“Oh.” Geno yawns without covering his mouth, then looks around for just a second as if to remember where he is. “Yes.”

Sid finally lets go of the door and walks over to the bed with a grin, sitting down on the edge of the mattress, one knee up so he’s half-turned towards Geno. “Not that I’m unhappy to see you or anything,” he says, “But what are you doing here?”

Geno looks up at him, grumpy frown giving way to a slow smile, and his sleepy, hooded eyes are full of fondness. “Surprise,” he says.

Sid lets out a short laugh and stretches out a hand to ruffle Geno’s messy hair. “Yeah, it definitely is,” he says.

Geno catches Sid’s wrist as he tries to pull his hand back and holds on, tugs a little until Sid gets the message and leans down for a lazy, slow kiss.

“Hi,” Geno says quietly after Sid pulls back, and Sid twists his wrist in Geno’s grasp to catch his hand with his own instead and link their fingers together.

“Hi,” he says back.

“Good surprise?” Geno asks.

Sid laughs, louder this time, and the happiness in his chest absolutely isn’t only due to the win tonight. “Yeah,” he says. “Definitely a good one.”

“I fall asleep,” Geno says. “You take long time. Was going to stay awake, wait for you.”

“That’s okay,” Sid says, and leans down for another kiss. “How long have you been here?”

Geno shrugs a little, shuffles to sit up against the headboard, yawning again but not looking quite as sleepy anymore. “I drive over after game,” he says, “Let myself in. I’m think, maybe we celebrate.”

“Our win?” Sid asks. “You didn’t have to drive all the way over for that.” He feels warm inside, warm and happy and still a little overwhelmed that he gets to have this, gets to have Geno here, finally after all these years. “We could have celebrated tomorrow over brunch.”

“Not win,” Geno says. “Goals.”

Sid feels his heart jump, squeezes Geno’s hand in his. “My goals?”

Geno nods. “I know you worry, not scoring so many games, and you still worry after last game because maybe is just once, maybe you still not score after that. But you’re so good tonight and I know it mean a lot to you and I’m want to be here, tell you it mean a lot to me too.”

“Geno,” Sid says, and if it comes out a little breathless that’s just because the feelings welling up inside of him are taking up most of the room in his chest.

“I’m thinking we’re usually celebrate after game, talk and hug before we go home, but this time I’m not there and also I’m not only your teammate now. So maybe I come over and give you hug here.”

Sid grins. “Just a hug? You drove all the way over here just to give me a hug?”

Geno pokes his tongue out between his teeth, and that sparkle in his eyes is one that Sid knows as well as he knows the dimensions of a hockey rink. It’s usually followed by something that makes him laugh or smile, something completely Geno that lifts his spirits on a bad day and makes every good day even that much better. “Maybe little bit more than hug,” he says. “If you want.”

“I guess I could be persuaded,” Sid says, and laughs as Geno yanks at his arm again, making him topple forward onto the bed and against Geno’s chest, their noses almost colliding before their mouths find each other for a kiss.

They’re both still grinning too hard to do much more than press their lips against each other’s and simply enjoy the closeness, but it’s still perfect — it’s been a good night so far and now Geno is here to make it into a great one. Sid feels… He just feels so lucky.

He pulls back for just long enough to shift into a better position on the bed, up against the headboard and angled towards Geno so that they can keep making out. The movement makes the covers slide down further and Sid pauses, one hand against Geno’s chest, eyes slowly dragging down and then up Geno’s long body until he meets his eyes again. “Are you...naked?” he asks.

Geno just shrugs. “I’m say ‘surprise,’” he points out. “I don’t mean only surprise is boyfriend sleeping in your bed when you’re get home.”

“Oh. Right.” Sid can feel himself blushing a little, which is probably ridiculous. They’ve been together since the end of the summer and they’ve seen each other naked in that context more than once — much more than once — but it still feels kind of new, in a way. A little unreal sometimes, after all those years of hopeless pining.

“Don’t have to,” Geno says easily. “I think is good idea, good surprise, come over here and wait on bed for you, like...seduce you? But then you take long time and I’m little bit feel sleepy, little cold, so I’m just get under covers for a minute. And then you turn lights on and I know I’m fall asleep instead.”

“It was still a really good surprise,” Sid assures him. “The best surprise. Thank you.”

Geno cups Sid’s cheek in one of his giant palms to pull him in for another kiss.

“Take off clothes,” he suggests, “And get in bed with me. We see what happen, yes?”

Sid rubs their noses together gently and smiles before placing another soft kiss against Geno’s lips. “Sounds good,” he says.

And even though they end up just making out until they can barely keep their eyes open — which, to be fair, only takes about ten minutes because Geno is still sleepy and once Sid is horizontal all the activity of the day finally catches up with him — it’s still amazing.

He got his goals that he’d been hoping for and he has Geno who is holding him safe and warm in his arms as he drifts off the sleep. Geno who is sometimes even more excited and definitely prouder of Sid’s achievements than Sid himself is a lot of the time.

Sid turns his face to place a gentle kiss on Geno’s chest right over his heart as a substitute for the words he isn’t quite ready to say yet, and hopes that Geno understands what he means anyway.

And he definitely has some fun ideas for how to wake Geno up tomorrow morning.

[plms-hockey]

Leafs @ Penguins - Game 30 - Dec.9.17

KEY NARRATIVES

Toronto Maple Leafs ( 18-10-1) vs Pittsburgh Penguins (16-11-3)

Tonight the Leafs will get their first chance of the season to face the reigning Stanley Cup Champions. I'd be remiss if I didn't disclose the soft spot I have for the Penguins. As a relatively new hockey fan, Pittsburgh has been dominant since the first time someone explained what a line change was to me. Evgeni Malkin was the first player I could pick out in a swarm of skaters just by the way he moved. Love them or hate them, there was no better introduction to the sport than Penguins Hockey.

The person who got me into hockey analytics was a diehard Penguins fan. What I'm really saying is that I know someone much more qualified than myself to tell you exactly how Pittsburgh is doing after consecutive Championship runs and almost three years of so much hockey that even Sidney Crosby may have trouble swallowing it:

3 Storylines in 3 Minutes

1. The Stanley Cup Hangover is Real and the Metro Sucks

As we approach the halfway mark of the season, the Pens are sitting on a respectable record of 16-11-3. These 35 points are good enough for… the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.

The disparity between the divisions is at fault for this. As you can see below, by points, both the Penguins and the Islanders would be chasing second place if they were in the Atlantic.

Basically, the Metro is a clusterf*ck.

The Pens did not do themselves any favors with a few disastrous early season showings (the 10-1 loss to CHI, 7-1 loss to TBL and 7-1 to WPG all spring to mind). While the lopsidedness of these blowouts can be blamed in part on the baffling offseason acquisition of Antti Niemi for a backup goalie, the Pens have had noticeably slow starts and lackadaisical, lopsided possession for extended stretches that was only remedied by well-timed power play goals (sound familiar, Leafs fans?).

Nevertheless, they persisted. And the Pens are finally starting to look more like themselves.

2. Phillip Joseph Kessel, Jr. Is A Back-To-Back Stanley Champion…

…and also the most consistently excellent Pens’ player by a country mile (1.6 country kilometers).

By now, the Kessel trade has been as picked over as the cookie tray at Christmas dinner (seriously, Aunt Mary, no one is going to eat your peanut butter-quinoa balls). The general consensus is that this trade is a rare win-win-win: the Pens got an elite scorer and beloved, awkward meme as a face of the franchise; the Leafs got some exciting young prospects and the first round pick that enabled them to trade for franchise goalie Freddie Andersen; and the city of Toronto got rid of the locus of Steve Simmons’ misguided, hot dog-inspired rage.

This is now the seventh time that Phil has faced his former team, in which Pens have gone 3-3-1. His first points against the Leafs since the trade (1G, 1A), poetically, came in the second-to-last season Leafs’ home game that clinched the Leafs’ playoff spot.

Quietly, Phil the Thrill has been having what is shaping up to be a career season. After slow and inconsistent starts from fellow stars Sid, Geno, and Kris Letang, Phil has been racking up points and is currently at in eighth league-wide points with 35 (14G [4PPG], 21A); he leads the team ahead of Sid’s 31 points (12G,19A) and Geno’s 26 (8G, 18A).

With 3 goals in the last 3 games, Phil has been on a tear. With apologies to John Keats, a thing of beauty is a joy forever; a Phil in the prime of his powers is definitely a beautiful thing.

3. It’s that time of year…when the Penguins start succumbing to injuries

Ahh, December, full of holiday cheer, time with family and loved ones, and the complete and utter collapse of a healthy Pens’ core.

Matt Murray has been week to week on IR since the 11/27 Flyers game, since Jakub Voracek lost an edge and awkwardly pushed Murray’s right leg into the goal post. Justin Schultz was placed on IR with a lower-body injury after a collision with Rick Nash in the 12/6 Rangers game. Schultz has arguably been the Pens’ most consistent defenseman; while the Pens were able to win a Cup last year without their number one defenseman Kris Letang, his return has been…somewhat rockier. In Schultz’s stead, the Pens have called up a freed Frankie Corrado from the WBS Baby Pens, although he is not projected to make the lineup.

Even with the injuries, there are more than enough storylines to keep this game interesting: Speed Team v. Speed Team. Superstar Sidney Crosby v. emerging superstar Auston Matthews. Former Leafs Phil Kessel and Matt Hunwick v. former Pen Ron Hainsey.

This should be a fun one, yinz!

--Laura (@werewolfbrmtzvh)

In the Leafs camp, the lineup remains infuriatingly unchanged. Polak is still holding Carrick's spot and Willy is still in the doghouse after his winning shootout goal against the Flames on Wednesday. Though, I suppose it hasn't been Nylander's offensive play that's been earning him Babcock's ire. While the whole team made some serious mistakes against Calgary, Willy definitely had a couple of slip-ups that didn't earn him any love from a coach with high defensive standards like Babcock.

Implying less trouble in paradise, this lineup (minus Polak's presence ever) does work well on the road and against teams facing depth troubles like the Penguins are this year. If he's on his game, Willy should be able to prove he can at least help keep Pittsburgh's already offensively struggling bottom six off the board.

Some Key Numbers

87 - Sidney Crosby - Center - Captain 71 - Evgeni Malkin - Center 81 - Phil Kessel - Right Wing 58 - Kris Letang - Defenseman

THE HIGHLIGHTS

THE POST GAMEHappy Sunday, everyone. Today's trivia question is as follows: Who is really good at hockey?Sidney Crosby is really good at hockey. Evgeni Malkin and Phil Kessel can come, too. And damn if Coach Sullivan wasn't trying to give them every opportunity to exercise those skills. Not one of those players was on the ice for less than 22 minutes. Malkin was out for 24.1 minutes which was more than every single Leafs player, including the defensemen, except for constant penalty killer Nikita Zaitsev who had nearly 26 minutes of ice time (Babcock - what are you doing??).Kessel and Malkin were productive in this game but were defensively shakey which put them in a different category than their Captain last night. Simply put, nobody could touch Crosby, even though he only got on the board once. He ended the night with a 5v5 CF% of 96.30. When he was out with the Matthews line, for around 10 minutes of this game, the Leafs were outshot 18-0.While this does speak to Crosby continuing his dominance through his thirties, I don't think this was a pure comparison or evaluation of Auston's current abilities. He's looked a bit off since his injury but, from nothing more than my own speculation, I'm wondering if he might be sick instead of injured. He was out of practice a while back with a "cold" but this is reminding me a lot of when Marner's production dropped off at the end of last year and we later found out he had mono.But who knows. We can only hope he bounces back soon.Unfortunately for the Penguins, Crosby's dominance didn't reflect on the rest of the roster. It was almost as if there were multiple teams playing mini-games of hockey throughout the evening. Below is a matchup chart from HockeyViz.com. Explained fully in this post game, it shows how much time players spent facing opposing skaters, and then breaks down the shot share in each matchup.

Basically, the Crosby line dominated, mostly against the Kadri and Matthews lines. The Malkin line fought head to head with Kadri and Matthews, and then Marner, Bozak, and JvR cleaned house against Penguins depth (and notably the Malkin line when they were out together).Also - not particularly important, but I find it hilarious that Babcock didn't let Polak touch the ice at 5v5 against Crosby.The shot share didn't look good for the Leafs in this one, but it's a good example of a game where you can't judge a game on shots or attempt share in a vacuum because the scoring effects were too aggressive. The Leafs spent only 4 minutes and 55 seconds without a two-goal lead in this game, scoring two goals in the first two minutes of the game. When teams have that kind of lead they always play more conservatively which usually results in significantly fewer shot attempts made as they avoid risky plays.The Leafs ended the night with a CF% of 42.55 at 5v5 which I'm actually comfortable with considering the above. What's surprising is, once again, the Leafs dominated in Expected Goals For. While making significantly fewer attempts on net, the Leafs had a 5v5 xGF% of 74.53. They had about three-fourths of the expected goal share, and once again the shot maps show why. I feel like I've used these in every post-game recently, but I'll quit talking about this when I stop being fascinated by it.

What's interesting about the heat right in front of the net is that it doesn't seem to be one or two skaters who are lighting a fire there and skewing numbers. All three of Toronto's scoring lines have names in this pile more than once, which shows this is a strategic decision and something the whole team has practiced. While there have been quotes from the team that confirm this, it's nice to see it's not just a solid plan, but that they're executing on it as well.On another good note, Mitch Marner and the Bozak line is back. JvR had a goal, Bozak had two and assist, and the Marner had three assists. The Mouse needed a good night like this, as bad luck can often be compounding as confidence gets shaken -- especially for a player who relies on creative plays like Marner. With his poor primary assist luck shaken, now we just have to wait for some goals to start coming, too.Speaking of, while Marner is a known playmaker (passer), there's often call for him to shoot more. While I don't disagree entirely, I think it's slightly overblown and the fact that he only has two goals on the season is due to his unsustainably low shooting percentage, not his shot count. Marner currently has a team worst shooting percentage of 3.4%. League average is currently 9.3, and Mitch should probably be shooting even a little above that. And while he should shoot a bit more, he's actually still shot the seventh most of any Leaf.Finally, while I won't be discussing this much today, I'd be remiss if I didn't note that William Nylander had a career-low 8.7 minutes of ice time last night. It's one thing to put a skilled, young guy on the fourth line to get him going and then play him as needed on other lines and on special teams.This... is not that -- and I'll have a lot more to say about it if Babcock doesn't do something about it tonight against Edmonton. Statistics and visuals courtesy of HockeyViz.com, NaturalStatTrick.com, Corsica.Hockey, Hockey-reference. com, and Hockeystats.ca.