#these are blues fans booing *THEIR OWN* player after a comment that was taken out of context/misinterpreted

[blusical]

hey just a psa to sports fans; booing players (ESPECIALLY your own) for... basically anything but especially simply bad performances, trades/signings or in this particular case firings (and poorly worded interview comments), is fucking shitty. can we just... not do that please?

[fratboyvivimatthews]

never apart - auston matthews 

summary: from birth twins auston + y/n have never felt like what it’s been to be apart from each other, and for the rest of their lives they’ll never know the feeling 

warnings: swearing, mentions of sex

word count: [2,959]

“AUSTON STOP” his hand was placed in mine squeezing it tight. His wide eyes pulled away from the stage and down to meet my e/c ones. “Stop being so nervous.” 

Scoffing he looked away from me and back to the stage, “That’s easy for you to say Y/n/n, you’re not the one who’s about to be drafted.” Rolling my eyes at my twin I turned to look at our mother. She was having a conversation with our two sisters, but her eyes stayed glued to Auston and I’s intertwined hands. 

The time was starting to count down now. Two minutes until the pick had to be in, but we already knew. All of us did. My twin brother was about to make history. “Quit looking around,” I then teased leaning over to him. “We all know you’re going to get drafted first overall.” 

Auston’s hand squeezed mine a little harder once again. Looking over at me he shot me a smile, “I’m just taking it all in Y/n/n, you know what that’s like.” My e/c eyes rolled before I looked forward. “Come on, don’t be like that. You said it yourself, I’m gonna get picked first.” 

I whipped my head around to face him again my eyes narrowing in the process, “Aus sometimes you make it really difficult to love you. You’re a cocky little shit you know that?” 

He had now turned his body so he now faced me completely, and I could make out how broad his shoulders looked in his suit. “I’m almost sure you’ve been telling me that since you were born.” In a mere matter of second our mother now turned to scold the two of us. 

“Why is it always you two that bicker? Maybe some time apart from each other will do you two some good,” she started to explain causing Auston and I to share a look. Our mouths were both on the floor, she’s never said anything about us being apart before - in fact she always wanted us together. 

We both looked away from each other to our mother, “You are joking, aren’t you?” I asked before starting to laugh. “We’ve never been apart. You’ve never let us be apart before.” 

Auston nodded his head, “I don’t think I could survive living without Y/n. She’s always been there to push me to be better than what I used to be.” Our mother shook her head at us, a pointed look on her face before she turned away to carry another conversation with our sisters. 

“I’m never gonna leave you, you know that right Y/n/n? This isn’t an ending to us, okay?” As Auston spoke to me I turned my gaze away from him to the stage. The pick was in. In seconds we were going to be able to clap as he went up to clam his new Toronto Maple Leafs jersey. “I could never leave you. You’re my best friend, my twin, and I love you Y/n.” 

I snapped my head back to look at him, before sending an elbow into this rib-cage. “Are you going to ignore the fact that I just said I loved you?” 

“Auston - I,” my voice was cut out by Lou Lamoriell’s, the general manger for the Maple Leafs. 

“For Toronto’s,” Lou was then cut off by the sound of fans booing. I squeezed Aus’ hand, only for him to return the favor. I could feel him kiss my temple, an old tradition of ours when we wanted some luck. “For Toronto’s first pick of the two sixteen national hockey league draft we’re going to have director of personal make that selection, Mark Hunter.” 

Lou backed away from the podium, and Mark stepped forward. From the corner of my eye I watched as Auston had seemed to stop breathing waiting for the pick to be announced. He knew all to well that in a last minute chance they could have decided not to pick him. 

But I knew that, that didn’t happen. 

There is no way they couldn’t have picked him. 

“Toronto’s proud to announce from Zurich Men’s League Switzerland, from US Program Auston Matthews.” My heart had stopped beating, while my brother had started to smile since the first time we walked in. He stood up and hugged our mother first, followed by our younger sisters. Our older sister was after. The spotlight and cameras were on him the whole time. 

He hugged our father and his friends behind us before turning to me. His arms wrapped around my smaller figure holding me close to him. His lips were pressed to the shell of my ear, “Y/n I love you so much more than you know, and I couldn’t have done this without you. You’re my twin sister move to Toronto with me. Please.” 

His whispers and the fact that he was taking the longest moment with me out of all of our family made me have butterflies grow in my stomach. I was so happy for him. I pulled myself out of his arms to look up at him, a full blown smile across my face. “I love you too Aus and you could have made it without me. You just probably wouldn’t be as good. I’ve never been, and never could be more proud of you than I am right now. And of course I’ll more to Toronto with you.” 

Auston’s million dollar smile graced his face, before he pulled me close to him again. A kiss was placed on my temple once more, “You’ve just made me the happiest twin brother ever.” Pulling away from me he had started to make his way to the stage. My parents had pulled me into their embrace, but instead of looking to them I stayed focused on the Arizona native hockey player on the stage. 

Walking across he shook hands with everyone, before struggling to try and pull the jersey over his head. 

I could never be more proud than I was right now. 

I stood in the stands of the Ottawa Senators arena with my parents on either side of me. Auston was lining up for another face off. He had already scored three goals tonight, and was probably looking for the fourth. It was only because in my first high school game I had scored four. Then in his next US Program game, he went out and scored five. 

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to how competitive we were. Our mother had already been crying, and I couldn’t stop smiling to save my life this was my twin brother who was older by ten minutes. You could also see that Auston was trying hard to keep the smirk off his face. 

He had one the draw, and now the Leafs were trying to break the puck out of our zone. The people who were getting the job done, was Auston and Will. The pair now had a two-on-one. Will had carried the puck over the blue line before passing it back to Auston, and he put the puck into the back of the net. I jumped from my seat once again, cheering for my brother, and boyfriend. 

The game then dragged on, and we ended up losing in overtime. But it didn’t matter to me as I made my way down to the locker room so I could congratulate my brother. Auston was standing out of the locker room. Turning to look over at me a smile laced his features like he could tell I was coming. 

Will was standing next to my brother a bright smile also covering his face once he saw me. “Auston,” I whispered smiling back at him, before jumping up and wrapping my arms and legs around him. “You’re something else my dear twins brother.” 

I felt as his chest vibrated underneath my body. “It’s only because you scored three in your college debut,” he then went on to tease before setting my small body on the ground. My brother’s bigger frame stayed wrapped around me, and the smell of sweat and washed out Old Spice filled my nostrils. 

“I’m still here guys,” Will’s voice called making me pull away from my brother. Slowly Auston released me from his hold allowing me to walk over to Will and hug him. Kissing his cheek he answered, “That’s better.” 

I rolled my e/c orbs while making eye contact with Auston who was now starting a post-game interview. “And here I thought I had good hands, but damn did Auston prove me wrong. His are so much better.” My smile grew at Will’s words, and as Auston smiled back at me. 

Biting my lip I turned to face Will. “Oh trust me, I know,” I explained looking back at Will’s shiny blue eyes, before looking back to Auston’s big brown ones that had lit up his whole face. Pure joy and happiness had soon taken over his facial features. 

“I know better that anybody.” 

I had walked into the apartment next to Auston, Mitch and Matt Martin in front of us. “Why did you guys ask me to come?” I asked not seeing one person in the room that I knew, other than the three men I came with. 

Auston looked back at me grinning “We’re never apart - plus I wanted to beat you at your own game.” It was my turn to start grinning while I stuck my hand out for him to shake. 

“Oh it’s on Aus; I can’t wait to see you cry when you lose to me.” Dramatically he rolled his eyes before narrowing them on to me. 

“Don’t worry Y/n/n, you’ll be the one crying in the end,” he remarked before we went and started this little ordeal. The video cameras were everywhere, while we started this little game. Before Matt, Mitch, Auston, and I got the chance for us to start the shootout challenge we each had to do an intro. 

For mine, I kept it simple, “Hey I’m Y/n Matthews, and I’m just here to beat Auston.” Mitch was the first to shoot, and had only scored one goal. Auston was next, and had scored on his first one. He fell short and only finished with three out of ten. 

Matt was after, and on his second goal had broken the net. “I bet I beat all of you,” I spoke earning the attention of Mitch. 

“No way will you beat Auston,” Mitch said giving me a look before watching Matt work on his last couple of shots. 

“Well we all know I’ll beat you,” I teased grabbing the stick from Matt and walking to the line. I could hear Auston and Matt both laughing at my comment, while Mitch sat there with his mouth hanging open. 

“For all of your sakes I really hope this unknown girl doesn’t just swoop in and beat all of you.” 

I rolled my eyes before taking a quick wrist shot, making it in the top right corner. “I call this performance the Y/n Matthews, because it’s the one that Auston will never be able to outdo.” 

And just like that I had scored all ten of my shots, meaning I had beaten the three NHL players. 

“I don’t think I could ever be more proud of you,”  Auston recalled as we walked into our apartment. I laughed while closing the door, and shrugging my jacket off. “Seriously Y/n where did you learn how to do that?” 

“Uh, from practicing, and my ability to be better than you helped.” Aus just stood there in the middle of the kitchen shaking his head and laughing at me. I kicked off my converse placing them next to Will’s Nikes that were laying on the shoe rack. “Oh Will’s over by the way.” 

I had started to make my way back to my room when I heard Auston groan. My last sentence must have just hit him. “Really? You don’t say Will’s here. I couldn't tell by his shoe on our shoe rack, or the fact that his car keys are on our counter. I better not hear anything - impure coming from your room or so help god I will come in there - even if you're naked, and I will kill him. I swear to go Y/n-” 

Cringing I glared at him, “Come one Auston we aren’t that stupid. We’d go to his apartment if we wanted to have sex. Plus it’s not like I don’t get stuck staying up all hours because of you and all of your girls you bring up here.” Auston’s mouth was on the floor as he glared at me. 

He had started to chase me into my room screaming cruses at me, until I slammed the bedroom door into his face. Leaning my back against it I had gotten to see that Will was lying on my bed mindlessly scrolling through his phone unfazed by the fact that Auston and I had been fighting. 

It was a normal thing for us. 

Phineas and Ferb was playing on my smart TV. Sighing I went to admit defeat before pulling the door open to see Auston hunched over at the kitchen counter. “Aus we’re watching Phineas and Ferb if you wanna join.” 

In a flash he was in my room lying down next to Will. The Swedish hockey player had set his phone down, and let my twin brother lay in his arms so they could cuddle. “Wow, I feel so loved right now.” 

Auston and Will shared a look before staring at me, “We do love you - not.” 

Flicking them off I stomped my way over to the queen sized bed and curled up into a ball on the opposite side of them. “Why do I love either of you?” 

Once again I sat in between my brother and father. Our hands were intertwined resting in Auston’s lap. “I don’t think I’m going to win,” Auston mumbled as the speaker started to announce the rookies that were up for the Calder. 

“Don’t say that Aus,” I started to say giving his hand a light squeeze, “I have a great feeling that you will.” Auston gave me the are-you-kidding-me look. 

“I dunno Y/n/n,” he whispered against my temple before placing a kiss there. “I need a little bit of luck on my side.” Nodding I leaned over and placed a kiss on his cheek for extra luck. 

“And the Calder Memorial Trophy goes too,” my hand squeezed Auston’s a little bit stronger. It seemed like the pause had lasted forever before the envelope was opened. “Auston Matthews.” 

Auston had squeezed my hand kissing my temple before standing up. He hugged our parents, then our sisters and finally me. 

His whole body wrapped around me in a bone crushing hug, “See if it weren’t for you I wouldn’t be here right now.” 

“I told you so,” I sang smiling up at him, “but I’ve never been so proud of you Aus. I love you so much.” 

“You told me that last time,” he whispered smirking down at me while he pulled away from our hug and walked up to the stage. My smile only grew as I watched my brother walk up the stairs to receive his award. 

“Why is it every time something happens for either of those two, they always hug each other the longest, or always congratulate each other the most?” Breyana asked my mother. 

She simply smiled over at me then looked up to Auston, “It’s a twin thing dear, nobody’s going to be able to come in between those two.” She was right nobody was going to come in between me and Auston. 

Auston now stood on the stage accepting his award with a smile on his face. “Thank you, uh, first congrats Zach, Patrik on unbelievable years. I mean you guys are great player’s fun to watch.” 

My gaze snapped over to the other two NHL rookies before looking back to my brother. “Fun to compete against. Um, my family, my parents. Uh, thank you guys just for everything you’ve done for me just to get to this point I wouldn’t be here without you guys. Uh the Toronto Maple Leafs all my teammates, coaches, management, staff for all the help all year long. The city of Toronto, Leafs nation.” 

In the crowd there were uproars of cheers coming from the Maple Leafs fans. “You guys are the best fans in the league. And finally to my twin sister Y/n. Without you in this world I wouldn’t be anywhere, I’d be nothing. You push me to be better than you and to be my best I could possibly be. You’ve been there for me, and now you’re stuck with me for the rest of this crazy ride. So thank you.” 

His big brown eyes locked with my e/c one’s and I could see the tears forming at his waterline, a million dollar smile lighting the rest of his face up. Turning on his feet he followed the people on stage and walked off. 

Later a security guard came and found us, saying that Auston was asking for us. We all followed him, to take pictures with Auston and his award. He motioned for me to join him, which I did; standing next to the trophy we both had giant smiles on our faces. 

We took multiple, and then one with our whole family. Auston was holding me close to him. 

“Never apart,” he whispered into my ear as we sat back down in our seats. He was offering me a fist bump to go along with what he had just said. 

“Never apart,” I answered fist bumping him. 

[mitchbeck]

CANTLON: WOLF PACK WIN IN OT OVER SOUND TIGERS

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings HARTFORD, CT - Sean Day’s rising wrist shot eluded the glove of Bridgeport Sound Tigers goalie Christopher Gibson at 2:28 of overtime giving the Hartford Wolf Pack a 4-3 win to complete their first weekend of the season on a positive note before an announced crowd of 1,751. Day took a pass from Phil Di Giuseppe and curled back off the right-wing, found an open seam and let his shot rip. The puck caught the top, left-hand corner, for the victory. “Once the guy backed off, I was able to go down the middle and that’s an easy shot in this league. I thought I was aiming top shelf,” Day said with a laugh and a sheepish grin. "It was a pretty tight shot. I thought we played the game really well and to come out with a win, was huge.” For Day, it was a game of celebration playing his first two games and was his first actual contact hockey so far. He was a red (no-contact) jersey in training camp as he recovered from the off-season surgery to his left hip. “It's even better than last year because I started off getting sent down (to Maine). I’m starting to build up my confidence, that helps, and I’m finding a role.  I’m not fighting for (ice) time as many younger players do and the coaches have put a lot of trust in me and playing with more confidence because of that. Get a couple of points with these wins and a goal helps me a lot.” After a wild first period with five goals between the two teams, it was a defensive battle the rest of the way. The Sound Tigers capitalized on the only glitch for Hartford in the third period off a broken play in their own zone. Wethersfield native Colin McDonald captured the biscuit on a turnover and put the puck out front for ex-Pack captain Ryan Bourque who snapped the bouncing puck and found then back of the net for his first of the season. His enthusiasm for the goal was obvious as he pumped his fist as he likes scoring against Hartford. The goal tied the score at three. Adam Huska had two quality saves late in the second. The first came on Bourque’s right-wing shot as he got the puck with a right skate and a proper kick to the corner, but the Sound Tigers Cole Bardreau snared the rebound fired it right back. Huska made the save to keep the lead for Hartford. “We were outstanding taking the puck away, keeping the neutral zone and not allowing them to freewheel. When they did a get a chance Adam was right there to make the saves,” commented head coach Kris Knoblauch of his Slovak rookie netminder. The only other action of the period of significance was the regular season’s first fight as Tanner Fritz went after Mason Geersten after a clean hit. Geersten earned a clear decision in that scrap. The second period was a tight, defensive affair as both coaches figured five goals a period might not be the best idea and both clamped down their defense. “I like to play these games when it's close checking. They like to chip pucks in and bang bodies, and so I thought we did a good job on them. I thought we played well both nights. We have good skill, good goaltending, and we worked hard against them. Day made such a good play, it was a fun weekend,” remarked defenseman Ryan Lindgren. Lots of scoring broke out from the mid-point of the first period. At 4:20 Vinni Lettieri bagged his second goal of the campaign after receiving a pass from Steven Fogarty along the goal line and at the right side of the net. He got two whacks at the puck with the second going over the glove of Sound Tiger starting goalie Christopher Gibson. Then things got fun. The Sound Tigers tied the game at one on a penalty shot. Matt Loritio had a break-in and was harassed by Lindgren. The call was maybe a minor penalty for a slash, but a penalty shot? It seemed like a weak case for that. Lorito got the chances and got Huska down and lifted the puck past him for his second of the season at 11:41. The Wolf Pack regained the lead 2:07 later. Oliver Wahlstrom took Kieffer Bellows nifty short pass from center ice at the Wolf Pack blue line, burst down the left-wing side and sent a backhanded shot off the near post and it went in off the far post at 13:46. The Wolf Pack tied the game at two as Joey Keane scored his second goal of the young season deep in the right-wing corner and put a sharp angle shot on net that looked like Patrick Newell had deflected it, but it got past goalie Christopher Gibson at 15:30. A 16:29, Lindgren made a beautiful solo dash and got past Wahlstrom’s stick check at the blue line. Kindgren then made a good move on Sound Tigers defenseman Kyle Burroughs and went backhand to forehand and put it past Gibson to restore a 3-2 Wolf lead. “I didn’t know Lindy had it in him,“ Knoblauch said with a laugh. Lindgren earned the team heavyweight belt for that goal and another tough shot blocking man-on-man defensive play. “That was nice.“ Lindgren said, seemingly surprised at his own play. “It was nice to have that space and just took it to the net, so that felt pretty good.” The defenseman clearly have the green light to pursue offense. “We have a lot of guys who can jump up into the play and are very skilled on the backend. So you gotta find the right time to do it and that was a good time for me to jump up.” NOTES: The actual fans in the seats were no more than 300, and for a second night in a row, there was no heat on in the building. They should rename the building the icebox on Asylum Street. The announced 1,751 was the 14th worst crowd in Wolf Pack history. A very poor opening for attendance to start the season in Hartford. Wolf Pack Scratches: It comes as no surprise that Vitali Kravtsov was given the game off after being benched last night. Ville Meskanen was in for him. The other three scratches were the same as last night defenseman Jeff Taylor and Brandon Crawley and the other forward, Ryan Gropp. Sound Tiger Scratches: The team had 12 of them include Josh Ho-Sang, Steve Bernier, Ben Thomson. Erik Brown injured in the pre-season game at Trinity College against Hartford is still out with a left leg injury. Scott Eansor at age 23 retired from pro hockey earlier in the week playing his last game in the exhibition finale in at Webster Bank Arena. LINES: Steven Fogarty-Vinni Lettieri-Phil Di Giuseppe Danny O’Regan-Boo Nieves-Matt Beleskey Gabrial Fontaine-Filip Chytil-Patrick Newell Tim Gettinger-Nick Jones-Ville Meskanen Ryan Lindgren-Jeff LoVerde Sean Day-Darren Raddysh Joey Keane-Mason Geersten As a team, the Wolf Pack have taken 53 penalty shots in team history. The last one to score was Dan Catenacci on April 14, 2017. Their opponents have had 39 chances. Read the full article