yours truly

Reavo calling him baby

Zach Bogosian is another one who's said he'd go to bat for Mitch any day he "loves that kid" and "won't hear a bad word about him"

like yes collect your older men who still love and adore you after leafs times Mitchy, get it

Timeline of events:

after the 2023 playoffs when marner starts getting blamed for maple leafs playoff performance and getting a lot of online hate/media scrutiny and criticism from beat reporters he gets a smiley face tattoo to remind himself that hockey is fun

he and matthews spend a season doodling letters, hearts, stars, but mostly smiley faces on their gloves.

The criticism remains heavy the blame remains outsized marner discourse is generating all the clicks and is brought up every other game and article

Horrendous games 5 and 7 washout in the second round of the playoffs, booed every time he touches the puck, doxxed and threatened (his baby is not 2 weeks old)

Marner signs with vegas. Toronto is radio silent. No one reposts the official goodbye, no one posts ANYTHING, he still generates all the off-season news and all interviews with matthews are politely positive but generic. Ahead of the first preseason game, he tells the media they have 2 more weeks of marner questions before he's done.

Matthews plays his first preseason game. Since marner is no longer there for them to be the last 2 out on the ice practicing together in warmups he has extra time as the last on the ice.

So he makes a smiley face out of pucks on the face off dot.

Sitting in Mav’s back yard during a BBQ after the sun goes down and it gets a little breezy? “Here Jake, don’t be stupid, put this on. I can hear your teeth chattering from across the deck.” At a carnival at night, and Jake’s a little sunburned from a day at the beach? He’s got goosebumps on his goosebumps and can’t stop shivering, until Bradley drapes a big, soft hoodie around his shoulders, and its so warm from baking in his Bronco all day that Jake just sighs and melts into it.

So yeah, everybody just gets kind of used to seeing Jake wearing Bradley’s hoodies everywhere. His old college sports hoodies or Navy hoodies, all with BRADSHAW or ROOSTER written in block letters across his shoulders.

Maybe the sight drives Bradley a little bit crazy, even when they aren’t “together” together. Maybe seeing his name branding Jake as his own, seeing him a bit swamped in them because they’re slightly too big for him, starts a slow-burning smolder in his core that he doesn’t know exactly what to do with. Maybe his hands get sore from where they clench so hard to keep from reaching out to grab something that isn’t his (yet), even if its quite literally got his name on it. Maybe his eyes track that name bobbing and weaving in amongst the crowd, and he feels even hotter than he usually does, because that’s HIS name, HIS claim.

And maybe Jake can feel those eyes on him. Maybe he shivers just a little bit more noticeably when Roo is around, so Bradley will inevitably go and get a hoodie, and shoves it into his arms, because even chivalrous he’s got to be a little bit of a jackass, and now he’s got an excuse to wear that name on his body. Maybe it sends a thrill down his spine when people mistakenly call him “Bradshaw”.

Maybe it sends a thrill down Bradley’s spine when he hears that, too.

Maybe, when they’re all lying around together watching a movie, Jake sidles up to Bradley closer than he normally would “because you’re a freaking furnace and I’m cold, deal with it Bradshaw,” and Bradley “deals with it” by stealing an arm around his shoulders with a deep, put-upon sigh and the barest beginnings of a grin that he can’t seem to control.

And maybe the Daggers and the 86 boys roll their eyes (affectionately) at these two insufferable idiots who aren’t quite as subtle as they think they’re being.