#weaving webs

Like, Will does not act like he fucks with Mis and frankly Mis doesn’t act like he fucks with Will. And Will was already not inclined to really make it easy for Misa right away, given that the Sharks were drafting a different future 2C. Obviously, it ended up being for the best because Will loves playing on Mack’s line but was he kind of ticked off because everyone just expected that shift, that they were all like well with a 2OA of course you’d rather play on Mack’s wing than compete for the 2C spot? Probably. So he takes it out on Misa, who he doesn’t even think is actually that good, actually. And then he met Misa and also just generally didn’t fuck with him.

Going all the way back to the draft a year ago where Will did the NHL Draft backstage vid where Will is actually on good behavior when Misa walks in. He’s asking not pointed questions being genuine and like clearly feeling him out, but then it's so clear that he is just deeply unimpressed. I mean, he was barely holding back an eye roll at one point and was not as amused by Misa's suit jacket lining being him winning the ohl final and "just a picture of myself that I liked" as Zeev was, who thought that was hysterical.

It’s always Will saying “all the young guys” or Sam also saying “the four young guys,” never naming names, which kinda feels deliberate given it’s supposed to be the same people except they’re deadass never together ever outside of group functions and even then they are #nottogether. (Literally every full group photo from an event and Will and Mack are on the complete opposite end of the entire team from Dickie and Misa).

And Misa doesn’t like Will either. Second overall, future 2C, but will never be second best boy on the Sharks because Mack and everyone else fucking adores Will. Toff that one time saying Will is the little brother he never had, like even Misa’s hockey foster dad adores this kid who's been sneering at him for no reason since June. Mean girl Will vs teen douchebag Misa—it’s unstoppable force meets immovable object. Misa thinks he’s better than Will as the teen douchebag boy ego does, and Will thinks he’s better than Misa because he’s got an ego of his own. Both think the other is overrated.

And obv Mack and Sam have their sides in this but not for any personal reasons, Mack likes Misa just fine and Sam likes Will just fine, they’re just backing up their guy, they have chosen their sides and accepted their fates. Like imagine Will showing up to cat and toff's house with fresh zucchini bread or some shit carefully wrapped in christina marleau's nice plastic wrap complete with a tasteful ribbon and also a note that specifically says "for cat & toff, love you both!" just to be passive aggressive, Mack trailing in after him hoping to god Misa is out for the day bc he is nawtttt in the mood to be in between that to melt Will's ice towards Misa.

Also, Mack kinda gets a kick out of it too. Usually HE'S the one who has to be handled and managed and someone else (aiden or will) has to smooth things over after Mack ruffles someone's feathers unintentionally. So Mack is absolutely thrilled that HE gets to be the one like “ahh dont mind him.” for Will because he's NEVER the guy that people like more on a personal level and he didn't even have to work for this one because Will is being mean!!!! So of course Misa likes Mack more and it's double the fun because Mack LOVES when will gets mean he loves that he makes all these mean asides but only for mack and its a joke just for the 2 of them.

Also, because Mack fucking loves Will’s mean streak, half the time actually it's Sam doing all the middle man action keeping the situation light with his great sense of humor and ability to distract Misa while Mack looks at Will all adoringly, as he does.

— @spec-tater-tot

Except, apparently, there was something to be done about it because all of the sudden Will Smith is in Halifax, skating with Crosby and MacKinnon in front of all those scouts from team canada that are annoyed at connor for not going to worlds. It doesn’t even make sense, will is american, proudly plays for team usa, and he didn’t have a good enough rookie season to make that much of an impression on any of the elite players at camp, let alone crosby himself. The only possible reason he would be there is that mack invited him, and if he was in a position to bring someone why wouldn’t he bring connor? Instead connor is back in vancouver, training every day and trying not to think about how the hawks aren’t as good as everyone said they’d be with connor dragging them back up, and he sacrificed representing canada to focus on offseason training because he wants desperately to be who everyone said he would be, he wants to do that for the hawks, even if he has no help. And even though the sharks are technically worse, mack certainly hasn’t been, and now he’s clearly being watched for the olympics and he has will, fresh off a gold medal win for team usa, making him look good on the ice in front of everyone that matters, and connor doesn’t have any of that.

Will, who has so many important team wins, he has a gold medal with Team USA from U18 Worlds, World Juniors, and the Men’s World Championship. He has a Hockey East Conference Title he was named MOP in the Hockey East Championship and MVP of the U18 championship, but he didn’t go first overall, and he’s not the youngest hobey baker winner, and he didn’t win tim taylor either

But Mack, who is the youngest winner of the Hobey Baker, who did win the Tim Taylor even though Will out scored him that season, who did go first overall and was the youngest NHL player to represent Canada at the olympics, has never won with his team, not like will has. They competed at all the same levels, except for the olympics, but Mack’s never won a gold medal for Canada, not with U18, not at World Juniors, not at the World Championship, and not at the olympics. He has a bronze medal from U18 and a silver medal from the Olympics, but he’s never really won it all with his team, not like Will has.

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Re: The invite to Halifax was a golden goose, a once in a lifetime shot to solidify himself as the future, and I wouldn’t expect him to do anything to even risk screwing that up. Except, he did risk it. No matter how you slice it, bringing Will was kind of insane. We know that Crosby himself didn’t have a whole lot of notice on Will coming, and I don’t remember the exact interview where it was discussed bc Will in Halifax hasn’t actually been officially talked about a lot, but my best recollection of it is that it was mostly coordinated through everyone’s agents and the wording of it kind of implied that it wasn’t a polite request on Mack’s part, that he had just been like “Oh by the way Will Smith is coming with me.” Like, it wasn’t even a question, he just gave them a few days notice about it. (...) It showcases a certain level of audacity for Mack to bring Will like that, it could have made him look entitled or demanding. But he wanted Will to be there so he brought him, which is fascinating because it means that wanting Will there mattered more to him than making a perfect impression on everyone. FASCINATING in so many levels. Like, can you imagine Dada's reaction to this?(???!!!!!!) because it was certainly a risk for all the reasons you mentioned, specially by how fucking young he is/was, and I would never try to spin it as anything other than insane. Like, it gets to a point where it gets boring to precede every conversation with "not to tinhat" (and all of its versions), but like, what is the logical explanation for how wild they behave? I honestly don't have one, other than he feels strongly and acts accordingly to his feelings (whatever they may be) and his bratty/selfish ways (which again I LOVE). And something else, that I found so juice about what you shared is the whole "it was mostly coordinated through everyone’s agents", like I see a lot of that same "selfish" mentality that Mack has in Will, in the way you can clearly see that he wants to advance and move up, he left BC when it was almost a certainty that Mack was headed to SJ, he wasn't going to, just like Mack did with Team Canada, not show his candidacy to be part of what the team's future was going to be built around. I have no idea how this went, but how did he make the transition to Mack's wing? Did this all come from his own mind? His team? Both? Do we know? What we do know is that, just like with Halifax, he showed up. Just like he showed up with his Red Bull can and jacket in that first shot of him in that joint video that came just on the cusp of Macklin's becoming more mainstream because of his Baby Yoda moment in the Olympic Games. I LOVE that they have that in common. How is it that the saying goes? freakxfreak? Sorry for the long follow-up! And thank you for entertaining me <3

omg NEVER apologize for the long follow-up anon! I love getting yapping with people in my inbox lol.