psa for heated rivalry fic writers 2
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Honestly, y'all are so talented and the best! But let's talk about NHL locker rooms. They're not like high school locker rooms. No one slams the door of their locker. They don't lug their gear home.
The trick is to find your team's equipment managers on socials. Then you get to learn the good shit. Like that Kris Letang needs a lot of hair product:
In all seriousness, this is what the Pens call the Change Room, and what some teams call the Dry Stalls.
This is where you get out of your city clothes and into your base layers/warm up clothes and flip flops. Note, this is all here for you, you don't do your own laundry!
Then you move into the locker room, which confusingly has no lockers, just some specific shelves on which you'll find all your gear.
You're not sitting next to a goalie in the locker room, because goalies need giant stalls. Their gear is very wide. Also goalie is a gender. They need their own space.
Also this shit smells bad. Do not plan your romantic moments for an environment that requires industrial fans, unless, you know, you're into that.
Also, apparently this is something the Pens have and I mean I guess?? Seriously, these boys bring nothing to the rink.
When you're on the road, your equipment team lovingly recreates your special environment in the visitors room, right down to little mats on the floor and signs on the wall.
After a game, if there's a media availability, it happens IN the locker room. Not a press conference, no one has showered:
And then all that fetid gears goes in laundry carts, the players shower, change back into their ordinary clothes, and go home!
If you've made it this far and have a strong stomach, you can watch the former Pens equipment manager Dana delicately handle Sid's necrotic pads and jock that the Pens equipment staff have lovingly and continuously repaired every season for this freak (affectionate).
Go forth, write more fic.
