june 24 2024 - stanley cup final

if it weren’t for the combination of alcohol and adrenaline in your system, the pounding bass of the music blaring through the club probably would’ve hurt your ears. the ensuing headache would be a problem for tomorrow - tonight was for celebrating. you looked at the miniature plastic rat you had gripped in your hands, a souvenir you’d saved from the game, before you looked around the room.

your eyes scanned the neon lit crowd, and you separated from the other girls as your eyes landed on a familiar head of honey coloured curls.

you were bumped and hugged by the sweaty bodies of many of your friends as you walked across the miami nightclub, swiping a bottle of something expensive looking off the bar (it was on the leagues tab you hoped) on your way by until you stood in front of matthew.

“you fucking did it!” you yelled over the music, a drunken grin stretched over his face as he beamed up at you.

“we fucking did it!” he yelled back, his arms circling around your hips and pulling you into a hug, your body positioned between his legs as he sat on a chair - probably the first time he’d sat down all night. you and the rest of the panthers, as well as most of the wags and close friends, had been at the club for hours, celebrating the panthers winning the stanley cup.

he was sitting with a few of the guys, but he had tuned out their conversation the second he laid eyes on you walking over.

you and matthew had been best friends for most of your lives, and you had watched him move from calgary to florida, where he now thrived as one of the teams star players.

you’d barely seen matthew all night, letting him celebrate with his teammates while you enjoyed dancing and drinking with the other girls; you had become close with them through your affiliation with matthew and his teammate sam bennett, who you also knew from his time in calgary.

you were having almost as much fun as you imagined matthew was, finally watching him live out his dream after so many years.

“come dance with me,” you offered, pulling him by his hand with the one that wasn’t wrapped around the neck of the bottle.

“what did you find?” he asked. you held up the plastic rodent, touching it to the end of his nose as if it was kissing him.

“a rat-“

“no dumbass, that,” he laughed with a roll of his eyes, pointing to the alcohol.

“i have no idea - wanna try it?” you giggled, passing him the bottle. he removed the cap, taking a long swig from it before shrugging.

“didn’t think you were a vodka girl,” he teased, taking another sip, letting you know it couldn’t be that bad. you put the rat in the pocket of your jeans, tired of carrying it, and grabbed his arm again, your fingers wrapping around his bicep.

you pulled him away from his teammates, who didn’t seem to notice his departure, and into the mass of people dancing to the blaring music.

you danced together for a little while, slowly getting lost in the sea of people and further away from your friends.

“it’s supposed to rain tomorrow during the parade,” you said as you bounced side to side to the beat of whatever song was playing.

“it could fucking snow for all i care,” he laughed with a toothy smile. “nothing gonna stop the parade.”

“i’ll drink to that,” you agreed, and he lifted the bottle in his hand, tilting you chin up with his index finger and thumb. your eyes met his glossy ones as you let him pour the liquid into your mouth, before swallowing the liquid, the burning sensation almost unnoticeable at this point of the night.

you felt like you were floating, and before you could blink his lips were on yours. your feet moved backwards as he steered the two of you away from the crowd, and if you weren’t so wrapped up in the moment you would have been shocked that there was a remotely quiet corner of the club tonight. you were lucky he was keeping you stable with his hands on your hips or you surely would’ve tripped walking backwards this intoxicated - where he set the bottle down you weren’t sure and didn’t care.

your hands reached up and slid his hat off his head, placing it on your own before tangling your fingers in his curls, messing them up in the process.

you parted to catch your breath, the wave of dizziness in your head a reminder that you did in fact need oxygen. you blinked up at him, your face hot as you looked over his expression, perhaps for any sign of regret. he was freshly shaven, gone was the playoff beard that you secretly loved - although you hated how much older it made him look. without it he looked more like the boy you had grown up with; the boy dragged you too all his games and practices throughout highschool; who took you to prom when your date had dumped you at the last minute.

he smiled at you, adjusting his hat atop your head (like he wasn’t the one who had knocked it crooked).

“i’m so proud of you, matty,” you blurted, as if you didn’t tell him all the time.

he didn’t reply, but smiled and leaned down to kiss you again, and you pulled his body closer by the belt loops on his jeans. his fingertips dug into your hips, while your lips stumbled together drunkenly - the kiss was messy and rushed but it didn’t matter.

you broke apart at the sound of someone calling his name, and the realization that you were still in a public place full of people crashed over you like a tidal wave. oops.

“chucky, have you seen…. y/n,” carter asked, trailing of when he realized he had found you; and the situation he’d found you in.

before he could reply, matthew was dragged away by bennett and ekblad, a drink shoved in his hand before they pulled him back over to the party.

“what did you need?” you asked, suddenly feeling a lot less drunk as what had just happened sunk in.

“zoe was looking for you - she said girl emergency in the bathroom,” carter explained, scratching the back of his neck, a small smile on his face. “casey sent me to find you - they looked everywhere except the obvious place.”

with matthew.

“on it - thanks carter.” you walked off towards the ladies room before he could say anything more, pushing through the clusters of people on the dance floor until you found the rest of the girls.

“where have you been?” zoe asked as she grasped your hands in hers.

“guess,” nina laughed, pointing to the hat atop your head, a telling number 19 embroidered onto the side of it.

•

you groaned as the light streamed in through the curtains. you didn’t remember what time you’d gotten back home, in fact you didn’t remember much from last night.

well, there was a few things you couldn’t forget.

the florida panthers won the stanley cup.

and you’d sloppily made out with your best friend.

as you rolled over, trying to shield you eyes from the sunlight with your pillow, your phone began blaring the sound of your alarm.

your head pounded, but you couldn’t find it in yourself to be annoyed - it was parade day.

fighting off the exhaustion that begged you to stay in bed, you got up and took a quick shower, which helped to wake you up only slightly.

coffee and advil would be carrying you through the day you decided; and the joy of celebrating with your friends would help a bit surely.

your phone went off again, this time with a call from matthew, his picture popping up on the screen.

“hey stanley cup champion,” you answered, a smile on your face.

“i’ll never get sick of hearing that,” he replied. “where are you right now?”

“at home, where are you?” you asked, assuming correctly that he had never gone home last night.

“i’m still out with the guys, i don’t think i could sleep even if i tried,” he laughed. “i just wanted to check in since you disappeared last night. i’ll see you at the parade?” he asked.

“i wouldn’t miss it for the world,” you promised, and you meant it.

“i’ll catch you later.”

he hung up, and you dropped your phone on the bed, the lockscreen displaying a photo of matthew holding the stanley cup - you must have changed it last night. you smiled to yourself, before looking for something to wear to the parade, your eyes landing on matthew’s hat on your dresser.

•

matthew had been right, despite the literal rain on the parade, it had been a blast celebrating with the team and the fans. by evening, the partying had caught up to you, and you were starting to feel the exhaustion creeping over you.

you were sitting at a restaurant for dinner and drinks with some of the team and friends when you leaned your head on matthew’s shoulder.

“tired?” he asked softly, the other conversations almost drowning it out, and you nodded.

“come on, i’ll take you home.”

“no it’s okay, stay and celebrate, i’ll get an uber.”

“i’m ready to call it a night too, come on.”

the two of you slid out of the booth, and matthew said goodbye to a few people before leaving some cash on the table to cover both of your bills.

“thank you,” you said, grabbing his hand and walking out to his car. the drinking had slowed down enough by this point that matthew was okay to drive, and you weren’t awake enough to notice that you had passed the turn to go to your house until you felt the car stop in matthew’s driveway.

“come on sleepyhead,” he shook you gently and you blinked, getting your bearings as you recognized the familiar sight of his home.

no stranger to spending the night at each others houses, you didn’t bat an eye as you followed him inside, following him upstairs towards his room to steal clothes to wear to bed; another common occurrence.

“are we gonna talk about it?” he asked suddenly, and you paused as you dug through his dresser, finding your favourite t-shirt of his.

“you winning the cup?” you replied, not sure what else there was to say about it; it was all anyone had talked about for the last 36 hours or so; nor that you were complaining.

“the other thing,” he rolled his eyes playfully, though you couldn’t see him with your back turned.

“what other thing?” you knew damn well what he was talking about, but honestly with how much you’d both had to drink, if he didn’t remember the kiss, you wouldn’t have been surprised. maybe secretly you didn’t want to talk about it, because you didn’t know how he felt about it.

“you don’t remember?” he asked, sounding slightly hurt, and you turned to face him. you hated when he sounded upset like that.

“i remember matty. i wasn’t sure if you did, and honestly i don’t really know what to say about it,” you looked down at your feet.

“i’m sorry if i-“

“matthew, you don’t have to apologize. that’s not what i meant - “ you assured him.

“so you don’t regret it?” he said hesitantly, as if asking for clarification.

“i don’t regret it, i just…” you sat down on the end of his bed as you tried to wrap your head around things. you loved matthew, but things had never been more than platonic between you. at least you thought they had. maybe he felt more than that. maybe you did too. “do you regret it?”

“not in a million years,” he smiled with a chuckle “this doesn’t have to change anything unless you want it to.”

you thought about it again - the way he looked at you, the way his hands felt roaming your body, the feeling of his lips on yours. the way carter hadn’t looked at all surprised when he found the two of you making out.

“do you… want it to change anything?”

“are you asking if i want to kiss you again?” he asked, stepping closer so he was standing in front of you.

“i guess i am, yeah,” you decided. you had never felt nervous around matthew before, and you took a deep breath, realizing that you didn’t need to feel nervous around him now either.

“do you want-“

“you can’t answer my question with a question!” you laughed, pushing his arm gently.

“you answered mine with a question first!” he pushed you back, and you fell backwards onto the bed softly, both of you laughing as he jumped onto the bed next to you.

“i don’t want things to be weird between us,” you have a half answer, turning your head to the side to meet his eyes.

“do you really think anything could make things weird between us?” he said, his eyebrows scrunching together sceptically, a playful tone in his voice.

“no,” you smiled. he would always be your best friend, nothing could change that.

“good,” he nodded, before closing the gap between you and kissing you softly, a stark contrast to the frenzied kisses of the night before.

you kissed him back, your hand cradling his jaw softly, before separating. you smiled as you admired just how beautiful he was, your fingers tracing across the freckles along his cheekbones.

“i love you,” he whispered, the words heavier this time, like there was a new layer to them.

“i love you too, mister stanley cup champion.”

❤️🐀✨🤍

disclaimer: this is a work of fiction. while some aspects are based on real events, i have no affiliation with any of the people mentioned in this story

“romance is not dead, if you keep it just yours”

you had a habit of getting yourself into complicated situations, but as you sat with your family in the crowd, you decided you would never be able to outdo yourself with this one.

only moments were left in game 7 of the stanley cup final between the edmonton oilers and the florida panthers, the latter ahead by just one goal as the window of opportunity to change that grew smaller and smaller for the oilers.

your older brother, connor was the captain of the edmonton team, and you hated to think of how much it would hurt him to lose this game, and have to go home without the stanley cup; the thing he had dreamed of for as long as you could remember. edmonton was a good team, no doubt about it, but they were running out of time. you felt your moms grip on your hand tighten even more than it already was, her fingers wrapped around yours like a vice, and your breath caught in your throat as the seconds ticked away on the score clock.

you loved your brother, and would be overjoyed if he led his team to win the cup, but there was a small part of you that was rooting for florida as well. a part of your heart that belonged to someone here in sunrise.

the crowd was on their feet, the building roaring with cheers and applause as you watched the players scramble for the puck against the boards, unable to take your eyes off your brother until the sound of the buzzer snapped you out of it.

it was over.

the panthers were the stanley cup champions.

you didn’t know how to feel; the heartbreak and devastation radiated off of your family and connor’s fiancé lauren. combined with the volume of the fans in the arena, you found it hard to breathe. your eyes met connor’s as he slowly made his way off the ice, and your heart sank for him; this had meant the world to him and you knew it. as he and the rest of the oilers players slowly made their way down the tunnel in defeat, your eyes landed on a different team captain. your fingers fiddled absentmindedly with the charm on your bracelet, in particular the heart with the number 16 engraved on it; a gift from your boyfriend.

the panthers players celebrated their victory, and you watched as aleksander barkov became the first finnish captain to hoist the stanley cup. as the panthers each took turns hoisting the silver trophy until they’d all had a turn, you realized you were crying; but although you were sad for your brother, they were tears of joy.

“you can go sweetie, it’s okay,” your moms voice snapped you out of it, a slight tremble in her tone as you gave her the tightest hug you could muster, before sneaking out of the private box you all had been seated in and making your way to ice level. after a few shortcuts and showing a lot of arena staff your id so they would let you in, you had made it to where the rest of the families were waiting to join the team on the ice to celebrate.

you got a few confused looks sent your way from some of the other wives and girlfriends, and your stomach did a flip. it was a weird feeling, like you were an outsider invading a space that wasn’t meant for you; reminding you that not everyone knew who you were. correction, they knew you were connor mcdavids sister, not that you were aleksander barkovs girlfriend.

you had met sasha a few years ago at one of the many nhl events you’d attended with your brother, and you had found yourself immediately charmed by the panthers captain. you had never met a man so talented yet so humble, and it made a lasting impression. more encounters over the years led to you to of you keeping in touch and growing to be close friends, eventually getting together, though opting to keep your relationship private for a multitude of reasons, your brother being one of them.

it’s not that your relationship was a shameful secret, you just both were content with keeping it out of the public eye, and didn’t want the attention the media would bring to both of you for it.

it had even been nearly 8 months of the two of you dating (partly due to sasha’s busy schedule) before you told anyone in your family that you were together.

connor probably would have taken the news that you were dating a florida panther a lot worse if barkov wasn’t so respected within the league, and overall just a great guy on and off the ice.

“you’ve been dating someone for how long and didn’t tell me?” he had replied when you told him, and while you could tell he was upset, he thankfully didn’t sound as angry as you had anticipated.

“connor-“

“and a panther, you traitor,” he teased, but he cracked a smile and you felt a wave of relief.

“i wanted to tell you, i really did.” you hated keeping secrets from your family, and you hoped they’d have similar reactions when you told them; not unhappy with your choice but just suprised you’d kept it hidden for so long.

“i know you did, and it will take some getting used to, for sure.” you nodded in response. “but i’m happy for you, he’s a great guy.” connor smiled, and you hugged him.

“thank you for not freaking out about this.”

“did you think i would?” connor asked.

“i wasn’t sure - i could understand if you did,” you admitted.

“i can tell he makes you happy - you sort of light up when you talk about him. that’s what matters,” he smiled. “and it’s kind of impressive that the media hasn’t caught you guys out together or anything. you do have a pretty famous brother- hey!” he laughed as you punched his arm playfully.

there had definitely been times that the media (mostly gossip blogs) had speculated that sasha was seeing someone, and there had even been a few pictures caught and posted over the course of your relationship, but nothing that you could be identified in. the headline ‘panthers captain spotted with mystery woman’ had crossed your feed once or twice, but nothing concrete had ever been published. you and aleksander had discussed from the start that you would both prefer to keep things quiet as not to stir up drama, and you were mostly successful.

“yeah, we’ve been pretty lucky,” you sighed. there was something special about having something so personal and special just between you and sasha - and you were grateful you’d been able to keep it just your own for so long.

“we’re just private people, that’s all. even some of the other panthers didn’t know for the longest time,” you laughed as you remembered some of their reactions when they’d finally found out about you and sasha; tkachuk especially, the star winger being both suprised and happy for his captain when he found out.

“you know i love you no matter what right?” connor asked, and you smiled, giving him another hug.

“i know. i love you too, con.”

that had been a year ago, and telling the rest of your family had gone similarly well, any hurt your mother felt from not being told sooner overpowered by her happiness for you and sasha, and your father also approved.

despite the few uncertain glances, you were greeted with a smile by some of the wags you had become close with. you mostly kept to yourself, not taking part in a lot of the wag activities, which you sometimes regretted but mostly didn’t mind. you heard a few hushed whispers, overhearing your last name mentioned in confusion as ellie, tkachuks girlfriend coming over to give you a hug.

“hey,” she smiled as your arms wrapped around her in response. she was your closest friend amongst them, as sasha and matthew were such good friends.

“hey, oh my god,” you exclaimed, laughing in excitement as she squeezed you tightly. “they did it!” you finally said, and while you knew your family wanted a different outcome, right now your heart was here; in florida.

“they did it!” she repeated as a few of the other girls joined in the hug. “are you coming out there with us?” she asked, and you took a deep breath.

“yeah, i am.”

you and sasha had discussed this already, and he assured you that he wanted you out there with him if they won the cup.

“i want to share this moment with you,” he had said when the subject came up one day. “you are the most important to me, and if people find out then that is when they find out.”

“there’s no going back after that, once people know-“ you worried he might regret giving up the privacy you’d worked so hard to keep for the near 2 years of your relationship.

“i don’t care if they know. what we have is still special and you should be there for such a special moment.”

you and the other family members got the signal that you could come out into the ice, and your heart hammered against your ribcage as the anxiety crept up on you. the roar of the crowd was defeaning, cheering and applause echoing off every surface of the arena, and for a moment you thought you were going to pass out.

but it all melted away the moment you saw aleksander, a grin stretched wide across his face as his eyes landed on you.

the captain skated over to you, his tall frame exaggerated by his skates as he towered over you and offered his hands to steady you on the ice, which was still slippery in heels despite the carpet that had been rolled out on top.

his eyes sparkled with the brightness of all the stars as he embraced you, and you couldn’t hold back the tears as your arms wrapped around him.

“you did it,” was all you could say, though you didn’t know if he could hear you over the sound of everyone around you celebrating. “i’m so proud of you!” you said next to his ear, and his arms tightened around you.

“sasha, come get a photo,” someone called, and he led you hand in hand to stand in front of a backdrop for photos with the cup.

“come on,” sasha tilted his head, gesturing for you to help him hold up the cup, and you did, though he held most of the weight of the trophy.

your eyes found your parents in the crowd, and you couldn’t help but realize they were watching the wrong child hoist the cup, and you dreaded how much that would hurt your brother.

you heard some of the panthers cheering and your gaze found them looking onward at their captain, and smiling as they saw you by his side.

“kiss her!” chucky yelled, earning a laugh from some of the guys and even a shy chuckle from aleksander.

the two of you handed the cup back, and his hands turned your chin towards him, and you looked up at his beautiful smiling face.

“well, kiss her,” you teased, and he blushed a shade of light pink, but leaned down and connected his lips to yours.

on any other day, this would be big news. but somehow you felt like this wouldn’t be the biggest panthers headline in the papers tomorrow.