#chl news

[offsidenewsco]

The QMJHL swapped the 'M' in its name from Major to Maritime yesterday and we know what you're thinking: What the HELL is a Maritime?

Not to fear, Offside News is here! Read all about the #QMJHL name change: https://bit.ly/41ngDdg

[hms-incorrect-quotes]

addendum:

whole: anyway, where we droppin’, boys?

whole: these are all the new maps that they’ve added, and that’s a newspaper.

mind: have you ever actually interacted with a woman in your life, whole?

‎

[opens-up-4-nobody]

It turns out teaching is a lot more fun when you're not violently depressed

[gawankeundco]

@nonametis and i went to see our foxes play live and in color in their first chl game against mannheim this season 🦊❤️‍🩹🤍 | 31.08.2023

[604to647]

Fics that Live in My Mind, Rent Free (Pedro's Version) - Part 2

Welp! It seems there are link and tag limits? Who knew? Not this newb 😂😂 When I said that I've read so many good fanfics, I really meant it. Again, below the cut is a continuation of the list of some of my fave Pedro character fanfics that I've read on this site - ones I think about and revisit often. These are all fics I should have/would have reblogged if only I wasn't so weirdly nervous about it; in 2024 we will muster up some courage and reblog (it will be slow, probably, but I promise I will be trying!). This is a good time for me to also say that one of the reasons I am motivated to step out of my comfort zone on this is because of the genuine joy every comment/reblog/like has brought me this year as a new writer - thank you all from the bottom of my heart for the kind reception on anything I have ever posted. 🥹 ilysm 😘

Anyways, we press forward (Part 1 of Rent Free PPCU fics can be found here):

Din Djarin (The Mandalorian, GOAT)

Of Shadows and Roses by @the-scandalorian (Bodyguard!Din x Royalty!Reader)

All Mine by @mellowswriting (Possessive!Din after Reader uses herself as bait)

Narcissus by @bits-and-babs (Armour/mirror sex)

Looking out for you by @beskarandblasters (Jealous!Din after Reader uses herself as bait)

Cherry Liqueur by @decembermidnight (Reader teases Mando in public)

Breaking in the New House by @beskarandblasters (I love Husband!Din and Wife!Reader fics)

Javier Pena (Narcos)

Sweet Dreams by @javiscigarette (Javi can't sleep)

Phone Sex...amiright? by @tightjeansjavi (Reader calls Javi at work)

Sharing is Caring by @ezrasversion (Corrupt DEA Agent!Javi, Mafia AU!Joel Miller, Reader Threesome)

The Saint, the Sinner, and the Devil by @joelsgirl (Corrupt DEA Agent!Javi, DBF Mafia AU!Joel Miller, Reader Threesome)

MIA by @itsharleystuff (Jealous!Javi with Undercover!Reader)

Surprising Javi P with a Lingerie Set by @swiftispunk

Not here...not now by @gracieispunk (Reader visits Javi at work)

Bunny by @whatsnewalycat (Sex Phone Operator!Reader; Part 2 is great too!)

Ease by @javiscigarette (Javi takes care of Reader after a bad day)

Joel Miller (TLOU)

Say It Right, Peeping Neighbour, and Right Place, Right Time by @chaotic-mystery (All the DBF and BFD fics are amazing; these are my fave)

Quickie by @joelscruff (This falls in the middle of the Boyfriend's Dad series, but it's the first one I read and I was hooked!)

That Funny Feeling by @bluebeary-jay (Joel loves pet names 🥹)

I've Got Lust on My Tongue by @itgetsdark-x (Bratty reader a la Maddy Perez)

The Babysitter, Part 1 by @proxima-writes (There's a Part 2 as well!)

Under the Table by @toxicanonymity (A lot of good Joelkemons, but Speakeasy is a classic and maybe my fave?)

Online Friends, Sticking it to the PTA, and Caught Sunbathing by @walkintotheriveranddisappear (All of Emma's Joel fics are really hot [honestly you can't go wrong], but these are my faves)

Late Night Smoke by @bettercallwillow (Dbf smoking. sigh)

Calling Joel Daddy by @inkedells (I honestly love it when authors bold the dirty talk 🤭)

Gimme What I Want and In the Next Room by @atticrissfinch (The masterlist is some of the hottest Joel fic, if I may say so; these are my faves)

An Open Window by @velvetmud (Joel being a peeping tom; I also always hope for a sequel to this one!)

Crave by @toxic-seduction (Part 2; Reader finds Joel in the QZ)

Good Luck Charm by @javiscigarette (Joel watches the football game)

Ravish by @psychedelic-ink (Webcam Model!Reader; Part 2 is also incredible!)

I Know it When I see It by @bageldaddy (Pornstars!Joel and Readers. This series has me and everyone else, I think, in a chokehold. Reading, as well, the writer's thoughts and feelings about the porn industry and the care put into the characters is such a joy and makes the fic that much more rich)

Chaser series by @livingemkayde (Nanny!Reader and a love triangle; not finished but so good I'm happy to wait forever)

Right my Wrongs by @chloeangelic (Father in Law!Joel)

In A Feud with Her Neighbour by @proxima-writes (Read this delicious fic and the bonus scenes will be the icing on top)

Kiss and Tell by @toxic-seduction (Stepdad!Joel and mom goes away for the weekend)

Peaches and Cream by @javiscigarette (Joel buys reader peaches)

Didn't Cha Know by @chloeangelic (The Joel Reader has been pining for is her boyfriend's brother)

Gif to breakup the text block:

Camgirl by @phuckinphia (Another Camgirl but this time she's Sarah's friend 🫣)

The Right Wrong Number by @proxima-writes (Sarah's soccer coach!Reader)

Nightmares by @fruispunk (QZ!Reader has nightmares that Joel hears and mistakens for something else)

Damage Done by @bluebeary-jay (Joel accidentally triggers Reader; mind the tags. Heavy angst, heavy topic that is beautifully written)

Yes, Mr. Miller by pedropascallme (Babysitter!Reader, Part 2 Thank You, Mr. Miller is also excellent)

How Long series by @gracieheartspedro (Link is to Part 1; series is complete and wonderfully hot and emotional. Reader's boyfriend Tommy is a cheat😢)

Francisco "Catfish" Morales (Triple Frontier)

Fictional Death by @psychedelic-ink (Frankie comforts Reader)

Well Fed by @the-ginger-hedge-witch (Frankie is HAPPY 🥹)

Forest Ranger AU by @the-ginger-hedge-witch (I'm not an outdoorsy person but this AU makes me wish I was)

It's Always the Quiet Ones by @thot-of-khonshu (Frankie surprises Reader)

Pero Tovar (The Great Wall)

Kinktober 2022 - Breeding by @moralesispunk (Guard!Pero and Royalty!Reader)

Bodily Exchange by @absurdthirst (Mafia AU!Pero and daughter of mafia boss Reader)

Damnation or Salvation by @absurdthirst (Pero is sent to retrieve Reader)

Dying Wish by @absurdthirst (Pero makes Reader's father a promise; okay at this point, just all of Keri's Pero fics 🤭)

Marcus Moreno (We Can Be Heroes)

Beat Poetry on Amphetamines by @psychedelic-ink (Marcus comes home hurt)

[selineram3421]

*lies awake at night and has an idea*

[Its 4 a.m. by the way.]

Other Worldly

Prologue

Alastor X Shy Reader

(Oneshot turned short story)

Warnings? ⚠

⚠ selectively mute reader, mentions of death-drowning, shaking head = no, signing-ASL ⚠

They were an oddity.

How could such a meek and bashful thing like them end up in this fiery inferno.

Alastor watched from the bar as they bumped into the check-in counter and squeaked before getting off balance and falling.

Clumsy, jumpy, barely making a sound other than some odd squeaks.

Yes, they were quite the wonder.

An entertaining one.

❇

You were somewhat new to Hell. At least two weeks in.

There was an accident where you worked in the aquarium and well..you kinda caused a mass drowning? It sounds impossible but it happened.

It was very challenging to get up after your fall, but you managed and wound up at the hotel.

With the help of the Princess, you were able to figure out what kind of demon you are. It came with pros but it also came with cons. One con being that you couldn't speak unless you wanted to hypnotize someone.

It made you a little sad, but also relieved. You didn't do well around others, too shy to speak up or get involved with anything that put you in the spotlight.

Maybe it was for the best.

There would be one thing you wouldn't give up though.

❇

Alastor was in the hotel's library.

There wasn't a whole lot of demons coming into this room, especially after some guests saw him walk in here a few times.

It didn't matter. At least there were multiple things that could entertain him. A small music room with instruments, projectors in another with film reels and other types of tapes, and the most dazzling room of all was the astronomy room.

The Princess made sure to have this room's dome ceiling painted with an accurate mural of the Earth's night sky.

Deciding to mess with the trinkets on the shelves, the demon in red walked towards the back of the room and glanced at the star charts. Tapping at some of the books and measuring tools on the desk nearby before sitting down on a chair.

No one ventured this far into the library. He was probably the only demon who knew of this room's existence.

And then he heard something.

Someone had entered the room.

Turning around and looking between the shelves, Alastor spots the timid demon that he enjoys flustering so much near the armillary sphere in the middle.

A little spook wouldn't be too bad.

He thought with a small grin, starting to summon up a shadow creature. However both dissipated when there was a note sung into the air.

"Let's go in the garden

You'll find something waiting

Right there where you left it lying upside down

When you finally find it, you'll see how its faded

The underside is lighter when you turn it around "

The Radio Demon sat there, mouth agape as they sang.

"Everything stays right where you left it

Everything stays

But it still changes

Ever so slightly, daily and nightly

In little ways, when everything stays "

Like a siren- a water sprite? A nymph? It was hard to pinpoint what he could compare their voice to.

It was other worldly.

Their voice echoed due to the room's acoustics.

He didn't notice that he had gotten out of the chair, didn't notice he was making his way towards them, didn't notice when they stopped singing until they gasped.

Blinking out of his trance, he found them facing him and covering their mouth with their hands. A panicked look in their eyes.

"You stopped.", Alastor spoke up. "Why not finish?"

They shook their head quickly and backed away.

Before he could say something else, they moved their arms down, one made into a fist on their chest and moving in a circle clockwise. Then they ran out. (Sorry)

He stood there for a while, his smile widening. Maybe there was more to them than he thought.

How interesting~

I'm still on break but I couldn't help myself with this one. 🐚 (Old note)

~Seline, the person.

Part 1

.

Alastor ML I🎙 | ChL OW🦀

[sergeifyodorov]

Your post of all the first overalls to girl interrupted actively makes me feel crazy. Do you have a ranking of the most compelling first overalls?

cody's list of most compelling (active) (to me) first overalls

21. aaron ekblad (2014.) i don't care for the florida panthers

20. alexis lafreniere (2020). his strongest narrative juices are a) the bust thing (he was a covid baby, it takes time) and b) maybe him also going to rimouski like sid, if you really wanted to pull it out like that. but the two of them have little otherwise connection, so not really

19. owen power (2021) this is a list ranked by compellingness and not cutieness or who i would want to provide most with feminizing hrt against their will

18. nico hischier (2017) even some of the least compelling 1oas are still quite interesting IMHO -- nico is the highest ever drafted swiss player + a very young captain on a basement team + a CHL import. all of which *are* juicy. he just lacks... i don't know, a little extra je ne sais quoi

17. macklin celebrini (2024) invoking the power of "He Literally Just Got Here" for this one. the daddy issues are a powerful offset though

16. ryan nugent-hopkins (2011). the power of the longest-tenured member of a team is quite something. earns points for not being an upper middle class rich boy either

15. nathan mackinnon (2013). controversial to put him so low i know but in my genuine and honest opinion he's way more interesting as a Character than a Part Of The Narrative. crucial divide here. i'm about to talk about slaf's personality making him interesting narratively but they do want their good canadian boys to shut up and take it and nate doesn't rebel against that. all he wants to do is win (accomplished) and fuck sidcros (negligible)

14. juraj slafkofsky (2022) just barely edges out the nuge by virtue of a) the whole First Slovak thing (see nico) and b) his new and upcoming beef with the slovak federation??? what's all that about because THAT'S juice. THAT'S spark. slaf's great because not only are his little circumstances compelling but he's also got such a Personality to him. his little rockstar attitude. his little braces. I will show him where is Slovakia. yessss girl

13. rasmus dahlin (2018). im a dahlin attention payer so he's probably higher than he "should" be but CAPTAIN OF THE BUFFALO SABRES I AM SO SORRY.

12. erik johnson (2006) hugely fascinated by his fall from grace via golf cart, which is not a route most people take. and then of course he was a crucial emotional crux of the avs up until their 2022 run and in my belief a much more important part of their fall from grace post-run than whatever landeskog is doing. and of course any flyer is relevant by nature

11. jack hughes (2019) you cannot deny the hughes are interesting narratively because they are important. he's not as interesting or as important as quinn though so obviously not as high on the list as he might have otherwise been

10. taylor hall (2010) actually super interesting because he has, throughout his entire career, been on one (1) good team (the 2022-23 boston bruins). he has a hart trophy!!! you guys know he has a fucking hart trophy right???? while they were drafting davo et al, he was an oiler. while they were drafting nico, he was a devil, while they were drafting owen, he was a sabre, and when they drafted connor bedard he was a blackhawk. always the bridesmaid, never the bride

9. steven stamkos (2008). there's always something to be said for waiting a long time to get what you want. and then once that goal's been accomplished, they throw you out.

8. connor bedard (2023) Let's Get Generational With It

7. john tavares (2009) brief let's un-get generational with it to talk about mr magic amulet breaking TWO entire playoff round curses as captain, twice. about him choosing toronto. about Him

6. auston matthews (2016) what if you were a vain shy arizona boy who wanted nothing more than to be a star and then they gave it to you and then you immediately had to learn that it's not nearly as good as you thought it was going to be. and you were actually kind of gay the whole time (im biased. this is cody sergeifyodorov's immense toronto bias. be normal)

5. patrick kane (2007)

4. marc-andre fleury (2003) the whole saga of him in pittsburgh AND the whole saga of him in vegas AND the whole saga of him in minnesota (and the brief intermission when he was in chicago) are all massive narrative moments of their own, but to have all of them? to be a goaltender that lucky and that loved for that long? it's not done. it will never be done again.

3. connor mcdavid (2015) I Love It When The Ginger Man Suffers

2. alexander ovechkin (2004) you know i could write essays on ovi. i could write dissertations. people have already done so -- i would not be the first and will not be the last if i join their ranks. i could take about the goals and the record chase. i could talk about the way he's been juxtaposed against the guy who you really should have known going in was going to be number one for his whole career. i could talk about the hunt for 2018, and the long, long time they said he was useless, no matter the record. but i will say after me. after me, i give it to you, baby.

sidney crosby (2005). obviously

[immaturityofthomasastruc]

IOTA Reviews: Adoration

You know, between Sabrina and Zoe, it's hard to tell who gets screwed over more in this episode.

Let's get into the seventeenth episode of Miraculous Ladybug's fifth season: Adoration

We start off with Zoe talking with Andre about a movie he made when he was younger. Apparently, he made it to declare his love for Audrey. The fact that he thought making a movie to please someone as abusive as her either means Andre is a real idiot, or Audrey is an absolute goddess in bed.

We then cut to school the next day, where Marinette and Zoe are put in charge of organizing it. The two met up at Marinette's room, where Zoe comments on how beautiful it looks... even though she was already there at the end of “Gabriel Agreste”.

Okay, in all seriousness, this is a minor error compared to the other retcons this show has made, and I can see the writers forgetting that scene since Zoe didn't say anything in it anyway, but this does have a purpose. While thinking about where to hold the dance, Marinette settles on the Eiffel Tower, and asks Zoe if she can talk to Andre about it.

The two go to Zoe's place, and surprise, surprise, Chloe throws a hissy fit about Marinette stepping on one of “her” stairs. Okay, writers, just admit you're running out of ideas for Chloe to antagonize Marinette. Zoe stands up to Chloe, who then goes to Audrey, but she's so apathetic, she doesn't even intervene, so Zoe calls it a win.

Marinette: What happened to the scared Zoe who moved here from New York a few months ago?

Zoe: It's all thanks to you, Marinette. You're the one who helped me change!

Uh... how? Outside of “Sole Crusher” and “Queen Banana”, the two have never really had any meaningful interactions. It's almost like Zoe has had absolutely no development since her introduction last season, and the writers are trying to convince us that they actually gave her character development.

Andre decides to approve holding the school dance under the Eiffel Tower, he tells Marinette and Zoe not to tell Chloe. Chloe overhears this, and gets angry for... some reason. Seriously, what did they even do? All Marinette and Zoe did was ask to hold a dance, Chloe overheard it, and the very next scene, she's talking with Lila and Sabrina about how to get revenge. She doesn't even make it about the dance, she just gets angry Zoe is talking with her father. Again, after five seasons, it really seems like the writers are running out of ways for Chloe to incite conflict, because this is just lazy.

At the Agreste Mansion, Adrien talks to Gabriel about asking Marinette to the dance, but Gabriel forbids him from doing so. Nathalie convinces him to concede, but then he calls Lila. The next scene has Chloe talking with Sabrina about a plan she has.

Chloe: Do you want to be demoted from underling to punching bag? You want to join the baker girl and the half-of-a-sister?

Sabrina: (gasps) No! I'm your friend!

Chloe: (shakes her head) My underling. You are my underling. If you're not willing to do anything for me, then get lost!

This can't seriously be the script the writers stuck with, right? Now Chloe's just saying things you'd hear from a dark lord from an RPG. Granted, it's hard to tell how honest Chloe is since her chewing out Sabrina is revealed to be a plan by Lila, but given how Chloe has been this episode, it's hard to really believe she was exaggerating anything. Either way, Sabrina is upset enough for Monarch to send an Akuma her way, akumatizing her into Vanisher again through a whistle.

Vanisher's design is pretty lazy, even back when it first appeared in Season 1. It's just Sabrina with a purple filter when she isn't using her powers to turn invisible. I guess it kind of makes sense given she's not meant to be flashy, but this just screams “cutting corners”. The Miraculous power shown this time is the Dog Miraculous' Fetch, allowing Vanisher to steal as many things as she wants.

Vanisher comes back into the room, and we actually get a funny joke where Chloe asks Lila if she's a witch, even if a funny joke in this kind of show only gets a reaction along the lines of...

Anyway, Marinette and Zoe plan out the dance some more, where Marinette talks about how hard it is to tell Adrien she loves him, to which Zoe agrees, revealing she has her own crush on someone. As the two talk, Vanisher sneaks in and we get a montage of her tagging things with her whistle. During the montage, Marinette assumes that Zoe has a crush on Adrien, which will be more important towards the end.

Once things with the dance are set up, Vanisher uses Fetch to teleport all the things she touched into Marinette's bag. Chloe accuses Marinette of being a thief, and even though Lila isn't in the rest of the episode, everyone's about as gullible as they normally are in a Lila episode, so they decide to believe Chloe. Mr. Damocles prepares to expel Marinette, but Zoe takes the blame for it, allowing Marinette transform into Ladybug.

Ladybug figures out that Vanisher is behind this because Chloe threw some paper flowers that accidentally fell onto her, so she summons her Lucky Charm, a pinata. While Ladybug fights Vanisher, Adrien gets to a safe place to transform into Cat Noir. Ladybug hands Cat Noir a bottle of some kind of spray-on glue and just as Ladybug breaks the pinata above Vanisher, Cat Noir sprays her with it, covering her in confetti. Ladybug ties up Vanisher while Cat Noir Cataclysms the whistle, freeing the Akuma.

Ladybug de-evilizes the Akuma, uses Miraculous Ladybug to fix the damage, Chloe yells at Sabrina for failing, and even though this blows her cover, somehow isn't punished for it, Sabrina gets a useless Magical Charm from Ladybug and because I've already seen the rest of the season, I already know that Sabrina is still going to work with Chloe for some reason.

Anyway, Marinette and Zoe talk about the latter supposedly having feelings for Adrien.

Marinette: I know... you're in love with Adrien. Don't sacrifice your feelings for him because of me. He has the right to hear your declaration.

Zoe: Adrien? But you're the one he loves.

Marinette: Even if he loves me, he'd be flattered to know that you love him too. Let him know how you feel about him. Zoe, you're an amazing person. One can only feel honored to be loved by you.

Zoe: Are you sure?

Marinette: Of course! You can't keep it to yourself! Zoe: But... Adrien’s not the one I’m in love with.

Marinette: Oh? Who is it, then? (Zoe simply looks at Marinette and smiles) Oh... Oh! Oh. I am truly, very honored. I mean it, Zoe.

Zoe: Thanks, Marinette.

Oh my God... I can't believe Zoe has feelings for Alya.

Okay, in all seriousness, let's discuss this scene. While I'm glad that we have confirmation that Zoe has feelings for Marinette, which is a big deal after the show danced around the idea with Juleka and Rose, and the reveal itself is done very well with Zoe and Marinette's facial expressions doing all the work, my problems with this scene stem from a different issue, and it ties back to my earlier point about Zoe.

Zoe as a character has always been criminally underdeveloped. Other than the fact that she's nice and is different from Chloe, very little is done to establish who she is as a person. With every focus episode she gets, the writers just slap on some kind of trait or idea to try and get viewers invested in her. In “Sole Crusher”, she had her vague backstory about being bullied, in “Queen Banana”, she became Vesperia, in “The Kwamis' Choice”, she temporarily replaced Cat Noir as Kitty Noire, and in this episode, we have her feelings for Marinette. None of these are really bad things, but the show just expects us to connect with Zoe for all of these things that happen to her with little buildup or character development. Like I said earlier, the show tries to act like there's been character development with Zoe, but it doesn't work because she's barely gotten to do anything that isn't the writers trying to shove her into the main cast.

As for the reveal that Zoe has feelings for Marinette, it sort of falls flat because again, the two have barely spent any time together since “Sole Crusher” and “Queen Banana”. Yeah, Zoe was present in other episodes like “Gabriel Agreste” and “Crocoduel”, but she was only part of the group and didn't really interact with Marinette on her own. It's hard to really see this reveal as impactful because not only did we not get a lot of hints that Zoe was into girls, but we didn't even get a lot of hints that Zoe had developed feelings for Marinette in the first place. That's not to say this couldn't work. In The Owl House, there weren't any hints that either Luz or Amity were into girls, but the difference there was that their growing feelings for each other became an ongoing story. Here, there's nothing that really comes of Zoe having feelings for Marinette other than so the show can say they have an LGBT character. If there was an episode about Zoe struggling to deal with her unrequited feelings for Marinette, or an episode where she tries to ask another girl out, this could have worked, but nothing really comes from this.

And finally, there's the reason behind this reveal. The episode goes out of its way to establish that Zoe has feelings for Marinette not to really expand on Zoe's character, but rather, to expand on Marinette's. Zoe's coming out story is less of a big reveal about her sexual identity, and more of a cautionary tale about not being able to confess your feelings to someone you care about until it's too late. The reveal that Zoe has feelings for Marinette isn't about Zoe taking a risk that could jeopardize her friendship with Marinette, it's about giving Marinette the confidence she needs to tell Adrien she loves him, and even then, that moment is undercut because the very next scene, Gabriel uses his influence to order Adrien to go home when he's about to kiss Marinette. The episode basically ends with Marinette trying to reassure herself that progress was actually made when we know Gabriel screwed that up.

So basically, THIS EPISODE WAS A GIANT WASTE OF TIME! Oh my God, this was bad, and it's hard to really explain. I'm not really as angry as I was towards episodes like “Kuro Neko”, “Penalteam”, or “Illusion”, but this episode just had so many little things that got to me that all piled up by the end. The attempt to give Zoe character development didn't really work, Gabriel and Chloe had no reason to incite the conflict other than because they felt like it, Lila had no real purpose being here (yet she gets to be in the end card instead of Chloe), the Akuma was underwhelming, Sabrina still hasn't gotten any major character development herself, and the ending just felt like a cheap excuse to keep the story going. This is still one of the worst episodes of the season, but I still think “Derision” and “Illusion” are worse.

THE BIGGEST IDIOT OF THE EPISODE IS... ANDRE (THE OTHER ONE)

While Gabriel came close to getting his third Biggest Idiot Award in a row, I ultimately gave it to Andre because the episode tried to make him out to be a good father even though he's scared of his own child. He made an entire movie to show how much he loved someone as terrible as Audrey, wanted to keep organizing a school dance a secret from Chloe, kept enabling her even when she framed a classmate, and didn't even punish her afterwards when it was obvious she framed Marinette with the help of an Akuma.

[brahmsthirdracket]

A little bit of a baby hughes brothers fic from my drafts I didn’t really know where else to post. Enjoy!

Jack can’t fall asleep.

He tugs his blanket up over his face and breathes in deep. If he shuts his eyes and really concentrates he can almost trick himself into believing he’s at home in his real bed, and in a few hours he will wake up and go to school and see his friends and play hockey and everything will be normal.

His blanket doesn’t smell like home anymore though. It smells like airplane and rental cars and home is a thousand miles away. He’d pressed his nose against the plastic plane window and watched as they flew over a whole ocean, hours and hours of nothing.

When their parents had first told them, Jack had thought they were joking. It had sounded like something out of a story, like they were going to Mordor or Hogwarts and it had taken his dad pulling up Google Maps on his laptop right there at the kitchen table, to convince him that Switzerland was a real place. To Jack’s amazement, his parents had even seemed happy; telling them about the huge garden they’d have, the mountains they could ski in, even the fancy chocolate, blah, blah, blah.

“There’s a great programme in Zurich,” his dad tells them, eyes fixed on Jack, steady and warm. “Plenty of CHL alums, even some NHL.” He reaches across and pats Jack’s hand where it’s still holding a picture of some stupid wooden house in a stupid made-up country. “A new environment, new coaches can offer a different perspective. We’re not worried about you boys playing out there for a coupla years.”

Jack would very much like to differ. To his left, Quinn looks vaguely sick.

“Can we get a dog?” Luke asks, when it becomes obvious that their parents are waiting for some kind of response.

“Maybe,” says his mom, which is all it takes for Luke to fling himself out of his chair and throw his arms around their parents’ necks, squealing and vibrating like an alarm clock, the little traitor.

Later, when they’d held a second, more urgent family meeting, the news finally sunk to the pit of his belly.

“Fuck,” Jack had said, for like the third time.

“Yup.” They were slumped shoulder to shoulder against the headboard and Jack had felt Quinn shrug next to him.

“Maybe it won’t be so bad,” Luke had piped up from the foot of the bed where he was scratching stickers off the bedpost. “Dad said we can go to Eurodisney.”

“They have Disney here, idiot.”

“Hey,” says Quinn, as Luke’s face falls. “Lukey’s right. That would be really cool..”

Now, if he squeezes his eyes shut and concentrates really hard, he can almost trick himself into thinking he’s still lying on Quinn’s bed in Toronto, and if he opens his eyes he’ll see a constellation of glow in the dark stars. Jack swallows hard around the big, sore lump in his throat but it’s no good. He has to roll over and press his face into his pillow so he doesn’t wake Luke and Quinn, curled up together on the other air mattress.

Jack was supposed to share with Luke so Quinn could have a mattress to himself, because he was bigger but Luke had refused, and said Jack was horrible.

“Fine by me,” Jack had retorted, tossing Luke’s pyjamas out of their shared suitcase. “Not like I want to share with a whiny baby.” Quinn had shoved him good for that, and he’d landed hard on the floor, winded. Jack, blind with hurt and humiliation, had picked up The Diary of a Wimpy Kid and launched it right at Quinn’s face.

The fallout was truly epic, both of them wired on too little sleep and too many sugary plane pretzels. It took their parents pulling them apart and Luke bursting into noisy tears to make them stop, still panting and scrabbling on the wooden floors.

“Enough!,” his dad shouted over them, shaking Jack for emphasis. “Goddamnit. Do you three realize that right now, you’re the only friends you’ve got in this country?”

“Don’t remind me,” Quinn retorted, throwing his stuff back into his suitcase. Jack yanked himself out of his father’s grip and stalked down the corridor to lock himself in the bathroom and sulk. He’d refused to come out to poke sticks in the huge old tree in the yard with Luke, or walk to the little supermarket for ice cream, even refused Quinn’s vanilla and strawberry peace offering.

“Jack, c’mon, this is stupid. I said I was sorry already! This is melting!” He hears Quinn sigh, and then a slurp. “Okay, fine. You’re being a moron but whatever. That’s your pejorative.” Quinn is so dumb, Jack thinks. Just because he’s in middle school now doesn’t mean people won’t know he’s just making up words.

Every time he feels his resolve weaken he presses his face into his knees and thinks of his parents sitting across from him at their dinner table and saying You’ll make new friends, baby.

He has to come out eventually though, because he hasn’t eaten since the flight, but he refuses to speak to anyone all through dinner. There’s no furniture yet and his mom has no pots and pans to cook with, so they sit on the terrace, backs against the sun-warmed stone wall, and eat huge cheese and ham sandwiches from the supermarket, washed down with milk and apples. It’s cooler now, but the sunlight is still warm where it streaks through the tall, dark trees that surround them.

Jack pretends not to care about the neighborhood kids who’d waved from their bikes or the soccer ball his mom found stuck in a hedge, and puts himself to bed before it’s even dark. He curls up on his side and waits for someone to come up and give him a cuddle, but in the end it’s just Luke and Quinn, tripping over boxes and whispering.

The house is quiet, so quiet now, the only things Jack can hear are his brothers’ sleeping breaths and the pad of his bare feet on the floorboards. His hand grazes along the wall, seeking, until he finds his parent’s room. He’ll restart his protest tomorrow, he thinks, worming under the blankets into the perfect, warm, Jack-sized space between them.

***

“Dude,” Luke squeals, hand coming up to cover his mouth. It’s his favorite thing to say these days, because Quinn came home from school one day and suddenly everything was dude-this and dude-that. It would be kind of annoying except it’s Luke. Jack probably copied Quinn too, when he was that age, he thinks.

Jack lifts the wooden spoon and the pot with it, superglued together by their third failed treacle attempt and they both collapse into giggles again.

Their dad and Quinn left early to drive down to Zurich to pick up their new car. Jack and Luke had been left behind to help unpack boxes; the treacle a consolation prize and reward for not breaking any wine glasses.

They’re horribly hot and sticky, stripped down to their underwear and sitting on the counter to take turns trying to stir their concoction when the doorbell rings.

”Boys, there’s a friend for you!” His mom calls but Jack’s too busy pretending his teeth are glued together.

”We’re stuck to the counter!” Jack protests. He pretends to try and get up, flailing his arms and setting Luke off all over again. His teeth unstick themselves real fast when he looks up and sees who’s trailed his mom into the kitchen.

It’s the boy who’d waved to Jack yesterday in the street.

“Hi,” he says, smiling. He’s barefoot and tan, in shorts and a t-shirt with the arms cut off, a cap backwards on his head. He’s got big smile and a basketball tucked under one arm.

Jack can feel himself turning pink all over. He draws his knees up to his chest, suddenly shy, and wishing he was wearing more than his Raps underpants. He’s been in locker rooms all his life, and never felt embarrassed about changing in front of people.

“Hey,” says Luke, waving a spoon in greeting, not embarrassed at all.

“Nico,” says the boy, pointing a finger at his own chest. “Would you like to play?” he asks in slow, careful English, jerking his thumb in the direction of the street, his big brown eyes fixed on Jack. The treacle in his belly flutters like sticky butterflies.

”Uh,” says Jack dumbly.

“Only if you take your brother,” his mom interjects, eyeing Jack.

“Of course,” Nico says, easily, smiling at Luke. “Now we are three and three, it will be fairer.”

“They’ll be right out Nico, as soon as they’ve cleaned up,” his mom says. She winks at them. “Go wash or you’ll be a wasp buffet.”

“Be cool,” Jack hisses at Luke once they’re in the upstairs bathroom, trying to rinse the treacle off. Luke gives him a weird look from where he’s trying to towel off the stickiness in his hair.

“Dude! I’m always cool.”

”No being a crybaby if you fall on your ass.”

“Says you! What’s your problem?”

Jack doesn’t bother to respond, just sticks his head under the tap and hopes the cold water washes the heat from his cheeks.

[princess-of-the-corner]

https://www.tumblr.com/princess-of-the-corner/772225286879297536/once-again-assuming-this-is-true-its-impossible

assuming this is true, im looking at the spelling of the real 1st ep and my brain said the "chl" in chlimatiqueen = chloe and they didn't want to have her in the very first episode of the new season

Fear

[pacific-coast-hockey]

@ anon -

acknowledging that i got your message and am not posting it (thank you for your very kind and sweet words about me being ripshit mad about prospect development unprovoked) but did want say that for me when it comes to like learning prospect development, so much of it just came from watching ahl hockey pretty much exclusively from 2021-2024 - excluding the avs cup run, i think i watched less than 20 nhl games for three straight seasons combined and less than 5 that didn't involve seeing the sharks in person - and being able to see in close detail how the pacific division specifically develops their pipelines.

cut for length:

so for example, watching all these pacific division teams constantly has given me a pretty good eye for how they landed at the nhl level now - lak have a youth movement because the reign have been incredibly good at developing chemistry. dustin wolf is a beast bc he'd been fighting demons in stockton (and you can say the same for most of the goalies who came out of tucson for the yotes and are now successful league-wide.) i can also see why teams struggle to develop prospects -- among other things, san jose's goaltending prospects have never been balanced correctly between starts, san diego struggles to build a balanced team, vgk just drafts super weirdly and now henderson is kind of mid.

it's not all a 1:1 fit for what's happening in the ahl vs the nhl - if that were the case edmonton would have been calling up WAY more prospects from bakersfield than they did lmao - and there a lot of varying factors in development like, who gets stuck in the chl until they're overagers, who spends time in the ncaa and for how long, which european prospects get sent back to europe to continue developing for a year and then return. but at least at the ahl level -- i have watched so many gd games with the cuda against the same 10 teams each season, so you really start to notice patterns in the teams and see the ways teams either embrace or discourage that growth/those behaviors/the patterns.

and then that's not getting into how veterans and journeymen can define the team culture (toronto and rich clune, the barracuda and john mccarthy when he was a player) and how a lot of the success of a team AND (hot take) prospect development, can be chalked up to what kind of example the vets and journeymen are setting, how many vets you retain each year etc. cuda were a nightmare position two years ago when the entire vet corps walked. so much of the reason they struggled last year was, imho, no captain and a completely new veteran group that was completely blown over the problems that have been kind of endemic san jose. ([further hot take] i think that's why a lot of the kids stuck to simmer and knyzhov during games, because those guys had been in the soup for years and could model how to play in the system at the nhl level. )

and then even more specifically for me, i do not really give care about the draft - they're not my boys until they're MY boys, so the draft is none of my business lmao. i'm way more concerned with like -- okay, these are our newest lil guys so how are we developing them, where do they fit in our system...which then ends up being, over time, how is our system evolving, where are we failing them, where did this go wrong. some of it is unfixable from the start - a guy has been skating for his whole life one way and it's not nhl caliber and it's too late for him to change - and some of it systemic to the team - a guy is too short on a team that the new gm wants to be big - and some of it as a spectator makes no damn sense and the mind of gmmg is a mystery that i grow to detest more and more every day. why did we sign valtteri pulli and then call up henry thrun for an entire season. gmmg answer my phone calls i watched that man play in person 36 times i know he's better than henry by orders of magnitude. gmmg why did you block my number

i don't have a concluding thought here... tl;dr for me learning prospect development just came from being completely lost in the ahl sauce due to being a season ticketholder for the cuda and just watching the same ten teams over and over again. you get really familiar with prospect development when you're watching that much and you do start to get a broader view and realize that not all of a team's success can be chalked up to high draft picks and drafting well. there's so many factors outside of a teenager's natural talent that can make or break prospect development if the teenager isn't nhl-caliber out of the gate. and all of that can be a deciding factor in whether a team lets a prospect walk after their elc, or whether a prospect chooses to walk after their elc, or a european decides it's not worth the money sink to keep trying in north america, or a prospect requests a buy out because the minor leagues are a difficult league to play in financially, emotionally, and physically and they want to go home before their bodies get destroyed etc etc. that was not a tl;dr and also now it is 2am. thank you for asking feel free to write in anytime.

[offsidenewsco]

Have you ever wondered about NCAA Hockey? What's the Frozen Four? How do the rankings work? What players have played through the system?

We've got you covered in our primer here

[kishmishorkissish]

Okay so am gonna talk bout shubman

Pehle to bande ko ek team de di jaati hai jisne do saal bhot khatarnaak perform kiya hai, to vo pressure+ captaincy ka vi rehta hi hai.

Jb ye news aa rhi thi mujhe lga rumour hoga kyuki gt mai hor vi ache players hai jo international level pai captain hai ,they could have let him gain some experience , usko thoda bhota to pta hi rehta, descision making waale mai rkh lete usey to kya pta agle saal vo acha kr ta no doubt go abhi vi kr rha hai but man he is learning in a hard way 🙂🙂

mere ko ye batana ki pichle do saal shub tha kya descision making mai gt ki ? Like tha to kuch to experience hai hi uske paas 😌😌

Aur fer ye chlta hi hai ki stadium mai chants start ho jaati hai, but banda jeet gya tha uss time. Kl wala vi match tha haath mai but nhi ho paya koi nhi next match to hai hi 🙂🙂🙂

Aur fer do match se chl vi nhi rha ye😔😔, koi nhi aage waale matches vi hai abhi to . Bhai itna postive kha se soch rhi hu mai .

Vo jis post pai ish ne comment nhi kiya vo dekh ke aisa lga na ki ye log bta rhe hai ki indono ke beech sb theek hai 💀 like vo to pta hi tha but assurance di hai 😌😌😌😌 iss se jyada kya chahiye. Aur fer aditi ki story vi dekh li iss krke aur chill hu kyuki there is beauty in privacy 💀💀

(⁠◕⁠ᴗ⁠◕⁠✿⁠)(⁠◕⁠ᴗ⁠◕⁠✿⁠)

[frasermints]

tagged by my beloved @seedlessmuffins thank you k <3

tagging @iamidentical @anaphylactic-dread @lukevangelista @onmytape and anyone else that feels like it <3

if you had a spotify wrapped but for which hockey players you talked about the most, who would be your top five?

as the hockey panels say, i think i have to go off-board with this and break it down by pwhl - nhl - juniors because... i actually couldn't narrow it down to just five if i tried

juniors:

5: Landon DuPont, Everett Silvertips (WHL)

this kid was granted exceptional status to enter the whl a season early, and iirc at one point was tied for second most points in the league. he's "dropped down" a tad (tied for sixth of all defensemen in goals, tied for ninth in points) but like i need y'all to understand the only other whl player to be granted exceptional status is connor bedard i will never shut up about him okokok

4: Quinn Beauchesne, Guelph Storm (OHL)

drinks moon water before every game now at the suggestion of his crystal girlie billet mom who replies to everyone in the instagram comments of every video about him posted by the guelph/ohl/chl accounts. i think that speaks for itself.

3: Carter Savage, Tri City Americans (WHL)

wears number 21. i think that also speaks for itself.

2: Morgan Stickney, Shattuck St-Mary's (USHS)

she's the first female american player to be drafted into the whl, & the second female ever. she's a goalie and she's fucking insane, 23-4-3 with a .928 and 1.52 GAA. tri city had a female goalie in net in september 2002 (shannon szabados) and vancouver drafted a defenseman 286th overall in the 2022 draft (chloe primerano) so like. if she leaves shattuck it'd be historic for her to do both. i talk about this a LOT irl when discussing the pwhl and the future of juniors drafting, and the potential for women to not have to take the ncaa route and enter the pwhl before their early 20s.

1: Lukas Matecha, Tri CIty Americans (WHL)

second ever goalie i imprinted on. we traded his #2 after the very first whl game i watched in person and it was awful for me personally so he was the obvious next choice. got his first shutout last year, he and his new tandem went on a twelve game win streak and after losing in prince albert have continued it. i watched the entire 2024 nhl draft just to see where he'd go (he was projected as the third best goalie in all of north america, i expected him to go SOMEWHERE) and he WASN'T DRAFTED... biggest betrayal i've ever experienced tbh. he went to the cats development camp though and he took lots of photos with luongo so that eased some of my outrage.

pwhl:

5: Lexie Adzija, Boston Fleet

at the start of the season last year, this girl's mom surprised her by asking lexie adzija to show up at her birthday party and she fucking did. she showed up with like a signed stick i think?? if i remember correctly?? literally walked into this eleven year old girl's house and said happy birthday and brought her a fucking birthday present and ate cake with her and her friends. if that isn't the best way to grow the game i don't know what is and i'll never shut the fuck up about how important that is To Me

4: Emerance Maschmeyer, Ottawa Charge

my introduction to emerance maschmeyer was her replying to a comment on this video of a little girl the nhl (?) instagram account reposted of her making quite possibly the most insane save a seven year old is capable of, someone was like "can't wait for her to replace maschmeyer in ottawa in a few years" and she liked it and said "me either" and when i tell you that got me this 🤏🏽 close to switching sides and becoming an ottawa fan

3: Marie-Philip Poulin, Montreal Victoire

completely disregarding her talent as a hockey player because that alone is something i could talk about for a very long time (i still stand by my statement that if the nhl went coed she'd fucking smoke the men and i'm not sorry about it there's nothing you can tell me or show me that'll get me to change my mind) montreal is my pwhl team and the narratives of mpp and laura stacey being linemates got me GOOD. i take every opportunity to talk about this when i try to get people into hockey bc most people's frame of reference for women's sports is either tennis or the wnba and there was that meme going around of "oh all wnba players are lesbians, oh this wnba player had to play her ex and defended her against her own team" a while ago and it's like... if you're into women's sports just for the narratives there's so much better than that i PROMISE bro.

tied for first: Natalie Spooner and Blayre Turnbull, Toronto Sceptres

k knows why. that is all.

nhl:

workplace honorable mentions: Jeremy Swayman, Boston Bruins. Connor McDavid, Edmonton Oilers. Connor Bedard, Chicago Blackhawks. Macklin Celebrini, San Jose Sharks.

coworker kyle asks me about these guys all the time. i don't know why. i think he thinks that i'm a fan of them. he only knows the connors by name and even then he thinks they + mack are all the same person.

5: Joseph Woll, Toronto Maple Leafs

he's just a funky little guy i enjoy projecting onto

4: Seth Jarvis, Carolina Hurricanes

i need to bite him. i also believe wholeheartedly with my entire chest that we WOULD get along in real life.

3: Jake McCabe, Toronto Maple Leafs

i have his card in the back of my phone case and experience extreme cute aggression when i see his face i can't explain it

2: Fraser Minten, Toronto Maple Leafs

the only one i actually have any legitimate reasons for. watched him play up close and in person once when he was with kamloops and it was life changing i'm so serious. there's something insane about watching Your Rookie play hockey five feet from your face, close enough that you can reach out and touch them through a hole in the glass and knowing that one day they'll be Doing The Damn Thing. also knowing that he's the reason connor bedard pushed himself so hard he became what he is, and that mints took the ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ approach and is still That good... i will literally throw up and die if i think too hard about this kid

1: Matthew Knies, Toronto Maple Leafs

my best friend that i took to the kraken/canucks game last szn and i call him "boyfriend" because she can never remember his name

[theerurishipper]

I remembered seeing an old post that comparing Marinette and Chloe and how they have similar behavior. I forgot the detail but the more season I watch, the more it clicked.

They both don't think of problem as "how it affect others" it's always "how it affect me", they both think of Adrien as a property, they both also never get a "no" from their parents, now I think again. In Animaestro Marinette insist that she want to help despite her clumsyness and they end up give in with Sabine say "we should make double batch just in case".

And I think that's why Marinette is the way she is : she's good at putting boundaries but bad at respecting other boundaries, she thought if she insist enough they'll give in (and she's not wrong, almost everyone in the show end up give in to her demand/request, event Su Han) Her parents spoiled her in different way than Andre does to Chloe but in the end, they're spoiled and never/rarely get a "no" from their parents, they let them do what they want.

I wish I could say the difference between them is that Marinette has higher moral ground than Chloe but after s5 I don't know if that's valid.

Reding back now I feel bad for Adrien because those who pursue him think of him more as a property than actual person with feelings, except Kagami.

I think that's uncharitable to Marinette. She does have trouble understanding others, but it's often when she's trying to help and she always means well, it's just that she isn't good at considering others' perspectives. Chloe on the other hand doesn't care about the people she torments (I don't include Andre in this list for obvious reasons). The one exception to this is probably Sabrina, whom she likes but treats poorly regardless.

And I don't agree with the comparison between Andre and Tom and Sabine. Tom and Sabine are good parents. I don't think them agreeing to let Marinette help them is a bad thing, in fact it's good that they are allowing her such opportunities. She didn't browbeat them into anything or ask for anything that was unreasonable. Marinette's parents don't spoil her, they give her responsibilities (Timebreaker), and they do take her to task when they have to, (Simon Says). We see less of that in the future seasons, but we don't see much of her parents in general, so.

I also disagree that they think of Adrien as property. Both Marinette and Chloe think Adrien is perfect, as does almost everyone else, but they also genuinely care about him. Marinette tries to help Adrien many times throughout the show (The Collector, the New York Special, etc.) and Chloe also cares about Adrien as a person (Felix). Marinette is bad at recognizing Adrien's feelings and sometimes her crush on him overtakes that care for him (Glaciator 2), but she does care.

They can both be self-centered and can think of themselves, yes. But their reasons are entirely different. Chloe thinks about herself because she doesn't care about whether she hurts someone or not, because she considers herself better than them and derives joy from hurting them. Marinette is self-centered because she can be very anxious about things, and this can cause her to get stuck in her own head and forget to think of others. It's something she needs to work on, but she's also shown that she does try to work on it. Of course, Chloe isn't evil or anything and most of her worldview is derived from her abusive mother and her enabling father, but still.

But I will mention this:

I wish I could say the difference between them is that Marinette has higher moral ground than Chloe but after s5 I don't know if that's valid.

I do sort of agree. I harp on and on about the protagonist-centered morality that began pervading this show in Season 4, and that is once again the problem here. Marinette is not as bad as Chloe thanks to her intentions being pure and because of her willingness to grow and change, but the narrative started to justify her actions, which started getting worse. I think she can't be compared to Chloe, because the mistakes they make are different and stem from different situations and reasons, but my point that Marinette is never portrayed as being in the wrong still stands. She's the most amazing person in the world, and everyone must apologize to her.

Marinette is not a bully. She's not cruel and she's not arrogant. She's not like Chloe. But there's not just one type of mistake in the world, and Marinette is making an entirely different kind of egregious mistake by doubling down on her lying and covering for Gabriel, all after she spent a while deceiving her partner. She hasn't grown as a person, she hasn't learnt to consider other people and listen to them, she hasn't learnt not to deceive them (which is especially bad since that was the whole point of the conflict last season), she's doubled down on her flaws and her mistakes and she's gaslighting her boyfriend into loving his abuser. And the show portrays her as in the right.

(And not to be nitpicky here but I think the Season 5 finale dashed the idea that Kagami respects Adrien as a person, because she also seems to be on board with the lying and the gaslighting, so.)

I think it's not fair to compare Marinette to Chloe, but as of the Season 5 finale, she's awful in a completely different way. And honestly, I wish I could chalk it up to it being OOC for her, but it's not. She's poorly written as in she doesn't develop and is always justified, but honestly, it's not out of character for her, and so I can't even wave it away like that in my head. And she angers me more than Chloe does, because like, at least Chloe gets called out. But yeah, that's what I think.

Thank you for your ask!

[onmytape]

Colton Dach on the Showbound Podcast

spending the summer doing shoulder rehab from his injury and working on getting “stronger” and “faster”. and went back to kelowna after the mem cup to pack up his stuff because he didn’t have a chance after being traded to seattle at the wjc 

his grade 9 bantam team only lost two games all year (with zellweger, guenther, savoie?) he and some of his teammates skipped school on 2018 whl draft day because they knew they were getting picked high

on playing with kirby in saskatoon: “it would’ve been nice if he didn’t make the show at 18 so i could’ve played with him there [longer]”

took him 30 games to score his first whl goal. “wasn’t very positive” with himself

names Tristen Robins ("offensive weapon”) and Kyle Crnkovic as memorable players on the blades

When asked if he thinks the dub is the toughest league in the chl: “i played against the other two [at the mem cup] and going into it we’re like okay we’re just going to bully these kids, we’re just going to run them out of the rink and i’ll give it to the quebec team. Was probably the hardest, toughest guys to play against.” 

One of his teammates tried to look up the fights of the ohl players before the mem cup and (because of the limits of fighting in the league) couldn’t find anything to study and gave up. 

“Growing up I was always a feisty kid and I always thought when I get to the dub I'll be able to handle myself” first dub fight at 16 against a 20 year old. lost horribly.

Kirby spoiled that colton was getting drafted by chicago because he told one of their friends to grab the hawks hat after getting a text from someone in chicago’s management before the pick was announced.

Thought he was going to st. louis because he had the most conversations with them before the draft 

Montreal asked him which animal he’d be and he answered grizzly bear “bigger guy, not so fast but physical” and at the end of the conversation one of the montreal guys said “i don’t think you’re a bear” Guenther and Zellweger were present at the zoom call. “Zellweger said he’d be a wolf or a predator or something like that” 

Colton found out he was traded to kelowna while he was in chicago with kirby driving to the rink and duncan keith called kirby and told them colton was traded to kel before either of them knew

About kelowna: “they were great guys. It was awesome. Still best friends with a lot of them.” 

Kirby’s trying to sell colton his car so he can buy a new one. Colton doesn’t want to show up to camp without having played a single pro game with a g wagon. 

He was roommates with reid schaefer at the world juniors. Their room faced the hotel exit so they anxiously watched guys leave as they didn’t make the cut. Schaefer got a call that his car was being towed in seattle and Colton’s dad kept calling to ask if he had made the team yet. The phone calls made them think they were getting cut. 

Didn’t have high expectations because he was told during a meeting “just to let you know you're not here because of your play this season so far, you're here because what you did in the summer at our camp”

When asked what happens when they cut one roommate and keep the other - during the 2022 summer wjc zack ostapchuk and his roommate were told to pack their stuff and it wasn’t until the roommate had already left and ostapchuk was about to leave that they told him he wasn’t actually cut 

After losing to czechia nobody on the team talked until the next afternoon. Captain shane wright didn't let the team play sewer ball before the next game so they would focus better

About bedard: good ping pong player. Colton mentions coach chippy’s videos about bedard’s wrist curls 

Almost got kicked out of the media box during bedard’s ot winner vs slovakia because he was being too loud and banging on the desk while the staff was trying to work 

On the playoffs: played kelowna first, says his ex teammates knew how to trigger him on the ice and chirped him with inside stuff when he skated by the bench 

Calls guenther the “powerhouse” during playoffs 

After guenther met crosby he texted colton on instagram and colton was like “i hate you so much right now” 

After being drafted to chicago colton got a text from kane to congratulate him and made some comment about getting the “better dach” 

Calls seattle thunderbirds fans “unreal” 

“one funny story actually after we won, you know, boys did their laps with the trophy and take the team photos, two of the guys went out to the parking lot to get the coolers of beer and drinks so you know the guys can have some fun in the dressing room and they get locked out and because we're in the states it's 21 you know like you can't - they're not supposed to drink - right yeah, everyone's under 20. the commissioner is walking by and he's the one who told everyone that we can't drink or something like that in the room. the commissioner walks by outside these guys are stuck outside sitting on the cooler drinking beer. in full gear as well. just sitting there and he comes up shakes her hands says congrats and walks away. it was pretty funny”

“Partied friday night, saturday, sunday, skated monday/tuesday” after winning the whl champs

After they got back on the bus after losing the mem cup, the team was dejected and crnkovic stood up and yelled “we’re still champs” to rile the boys up again

considers himself “grumpy in the mornings” 

crnkovic is the funniest guy on the thunderbirds but the worst chirper. colton considers himself the biggest chirper.

Saunders is best dressed, crnkovic is the worst and can’t tie a tie.

says Ciona is most likely to be a coach when they’re done playing “lot of patience” “good leader” 

"Stranded on an island for a month with three seattle thunderbirds?" “Bryce pickford for sure. He would know how to handle a situation out there. Maybe Milic. You know if he brings his guitar he can sing some songs out there so that’d be nice. Maybe gunner (Guenther). Just get some laughs out there. Create some chaos. He was my roommate so it was pretty funny.”

“Any funny coach stories?” “I wouldn’t say it’s really funny it’s kind of awkward. So in kelowna last year we had to put one of our dogs down and my mom called me and told me that the night before and I go to practice the next day and I told one guy on the team and everyone's skating around it's kind of, everyone's not talking, just a quiet day and the coach comes in he's like what? what the hell? like did someone's dog die last night? and oh you know I just I sat there I'm like oh no wiping my eyes. one of the guys comes up to me gives me a hug and he's like, "yeah Colton's dog.”'

about bedard and media: “I always went behind him on the bus [at wj] so I can get a little extra air time on TV” “no he’s definitely, he does really good with that stuff. He’s very well media trained” 

On seeing kirby: they call after every game, don’t always talk about hockey. Call each other on off days to play video games. Colton went to montreal for kirby’s bday for a week while his shoulder was separated. “That was pretty special. I haven’t really got to watch him play since he’s been in Saskatoon.” 

(jun 25th, 2023)