With the recent events and just all the horrible material, from the stupid murder evidence kit mystery box, the Alex Annihilation video with the creepy old guy and poor young boy, and then the attack of poor Jonathan Kitness, it was just getting to be too much. So I am choosing to sit on the bench tonight and take a breather.

I make my way up to the box, via the player and staff elevator. I have on a fancy black suit with a blue-themed necktie. (Of course, I can't wear casual clothes now. We have to dress up nicely for professional sports!) I straighten the necktie in place as the doors to the elevator open up to the more private upper 200 suite level.

I walk with another two scratches to our box. In the back of my head, I am curious as to if the dickhead who was picking on us and who had hacked my computer would be here. I enter the box and walk down to the railing to gaze down at the players warming up.

At once, I see Jonni jostling with another feisty winger, Matthew Huntington by the boards, warming up his physicality. Fabien is puck-handling around Tyler, who is cracking his neck and shaking out his body. Colton Stephens-Thompson is at the net, dishing pucks out to everyone.

I spot Piper MaCauley-Lawson, Jonni's girlfriend, standing behind the boards with a sign that reads, 'Puukottaa niitä takaisin kanssa "chirps", Jonni'. Her flaming reddish-ginger hair stands out as it shimmers under the arena lights. (No doubt her sign is something to do with Jonni's chirping abilities.)

My eyes scan upward to the JumboTron, which is displaying a game graphic for tonight's game: Syracuse Storm vs Utica Backstabbers. In the graphic, lightning flashes, followed by a digitized wave before the two teams logos float into the screen. Then lightning flashes again, zapping the Backstabbers logo.

I turn around and sit down in one of the seats. I pull my cell phone out to take a picture of my view for the game and then tap my way to Instagram to post the picture.

The warmups wind down below and people skate off. Jonni remains out, however, chirping a few of the opposing players and taking his sweet time. A little routine tradition that he'd do for gamedays.

He skates back and takes a snipe at the empty net, tossing glances in the way of the last player on the ice for the Backstabbers.

He shouts something across the ice to Jonni, who chuckles and scoops up a puck into the blade of his stick.

I watch Jonni turn and shoot the puck from his end, nailing the opposing empty net. He lets off a loud laugh, as the opposing player slams his stick on the ice and skates hard for the bench. He races off down the tunnel in fury, while Jonni finally heads to the bench and our tunnel. Satisfied now, he steps off the ice and fist bumps fans as he heads for the locker room.

"Jonni," I mutter as my phone lights up with likes, comments and reposts of my newest story.

A voice comes over the microphone for the arena, "That was the warmups for your Syracuse Storm. Puck drop is in 17 minutes. As we wait, the staff here would like to remind everyone that there is no smoking and that pucks may fly into the stands at any moment during the game. Beware of pucks and we are all one team here. Be the surge in tonight's storm."

There is the sound of a heavy cascade of rain, followed by rumbles of thunder as two Tesla coils produce a blue electric energy to resemble lightning.

I silence my phone as the JumboTron begins to play a pump up video.

Soon, the video ends and then the seats around the arena fill up. The pregame ritual kicks up with another video that introduces the team, including myself, the scratches are revealed as well with the team skating back out to epic instrumentals and then the national anthem is sung.

Our starters are the aforementioned Triplets line with Tyler, Fabien and the young Russian, Vitaly Rykov.

The puck is dropped and the game is on!!

I watch as Fabien is tied up at the faceoff dot. Vitaly manages to scoop up the puck and dash in deep to the attacking zone. Tyler shoves the guy off of his linemate, while the French-Canadian centerman instantly scrambles back up to his skates. They join the tricky Russian, who is skating around the goal, dekeing out players left and right and buying time for them to join in. 

Alex Johnson, one of the defensemen on the ice, gets open at the point by the blue line. Vitaly gets it to him and he lets off a slap shot, which is easily caught by the goalie. The whistle blows killing the play and the arena blasts a fun dance song as the JumboTron shows a few segments of the crowd.

Before long the puck is dropped once more with play resuming. Jonni jumps over the boards and targets a Backstabber named Leroy. He crunches him against the boards with a solid, clean body check, receiving a thunderous cheer from the audience.

Leroy shakes the hit off, slamming his stick down on the ice in frustration as Jonni leads a play into the attacking zone, flanked by his linemates: the mighty Colton Stephens-Thompson and the big body in Matthew Huntington.

I watch as Jonni dishes the puck to Colton, who spins around a defenseman, avoiding their pokecheck to steal the puck away from him. Colton then slaps a nice backhander toward the corner of the net as he wraps around.

Unfortunately the puck doesn't go in, stopped under the goalie's pads.

Colton halts behind the net, shaking his head, before one of the Backstabber players charges at him and shoves him backward. Instantly, Jonni jumps in and grabs the guy around the neck, pulling him backward.

The refs blow the whistle and skate over to the scuffle occurring on the ice by the visitor's net. They begin to break it apart and I glance at the Tron to see Jonni laughing and jawing with the Backstabber player that had shoved Colton.

"Easy, Jonni," I mutter to myself.

Jonni backs off and heads for the bench for a line change. The fourth line steps out and the game continues on. I watch as Jonni unstraps his helmet and passes it to one of the coaches behind him. He also appears to be telling them something. Knowing Jonni and having overheard a conversation before, I'm guessing he's wanting to know when and if he can go after the Backstabber's player.

As a reply, I see the coach hand him his helmet back and mouth, "no."

The Triplets Line takes the ice. Fabien dekes in and out and around players, creating a nice zone time, before he is smashed into the boards by an opposing player. His helmet pops off and he dramatically attempts to sell the hit, sinking to the ice with a distressful howl. He lands on his gloves and knees and acts hurt.

At the same time as Fabien's hit, Tyler slaps a shot at the net, having recovered the puck with a nice pokecheck. The Backstabber halts and spins around, holding his arms out to both sides.

"THAT'S FUCKING EMBELLISHMENT! BULLSHIT!" the mics seem to pick up from the ice. "LITTLE PRINCESS DIVER LEBEAU-BOULET!!"

The ref escorts the player to the penalty box, where he proceeds to throw a nice furious tantrum: slamming his stick over his leg and throwing a towel at the door, as he barks more at the officials on the ice.

I see one of the refs come over to check Fabien for blood, before shaking his head and skating off. The JumboTron manages to also catch Fabien, as he removes his glove and flirtatiously waves and bats his eyelashes at the player sitting in the box. Then he skates to the bench as the powerplay unit jumps on.

The announcer's voice suddenly booms out with, "Make some noise, Storm fans. It's a PowerPlay!!"

Tyler pats Fabien on the thigh as they sit down on the bench. I watch as Spencer, Matthew, Jonni, Lukas and Vitaly take to the ice for the first unit. Leroy is back out as well, starring Jonni down.

The two of them jostle at the dot as the puck is dropped for the powerplay. Matthew loses the draw and falls to the ice, but he gets his stick in the right position to win the puck back to the point, where Spencer is. Spencer then cycles it over to Lukas, who winds up for a shot.

The puck rebounds out to Vitaly, who throws himself literally into a shot, sending the puck sailing just past the goalie's skate blade and into the open net. The horn goes off and the Russian forward shoots up, throwing his hands into the air as he sits on his knees.

"He shoots, he scores!" rings out from the announcer, igniting the crowd with even more excitement.

The horn dissolves into the Syracuse Storm's goal song, "Immortals" by Fall Out Boy. He is swarmed by the others on the ice in celebration. I wish I could be there and hear him...but I watch as he gets to his skates and heads to the bench for fist bumps. He skates around and looks up to see the replay of his goal as the song continues in the background.

Eventually things wind down as the opposing player is released from the box.

They reset at center ice with the Storm sending out: Jonni, Alex Johnson, Lukas, Cody and Colton. The puck drops and Jonni is hit dangerously by a low hip check in open ice by Leroy. However, he keeps on his feet and locks on the guy, hacking him on the back of the leg. Leroy staggers in place but he is beaten to the puck by Jonni.

Jonni scrambles to get out of the way of Leroy's incoming hit, dishing the puck to Colton. Colton gets it up to Alex Johnson, who goes 'd-to-d' to Lukas. Lukas dekes out a defender forward and slaps a shot at the net. It rebounds out to an awaiting Jonni, who has slipped free from the entangling mess with Leroy.

Jonni shoots and...

SCORES!!

"He shoots, he scores!!" the announcer's voice shouts out in unison with the goal horn. Jonni's goal song commences: 'Enforcer' by Jim Johnston.

"HA! SUCK IT, LEROY!!" I hear Jonni's loud cry boom out as the crowd erupts again.

Spencer, Fabien, Tyler, Jonni and I all have our own personal goal songs. Each player actually has the option to pick a song of their own should they wish, otherwise the main song 'Immortals' would be used.

I watch Jonni skate to the bench, energetically fist bumping with a 'woooo!' noise. He halts to watch the replay of his goal, getting a slap on the pads from Spencer.

New players take the ice for the faceoff and the game continues on with the Storm up 2-0 in the first period. They manage to hold off some pressure from the Backstabbers, who threaten with a solid chance.

Jonni hops over the boards, as well as Leroy. They match up at the dot once more. After a few jostles and the puck drops, Leroy drops the gloves. It is instantly followed up by Jonni shedding his own. They lift up their fists, ready to go.

I saw this one coming.

Jonni launches out, grabbing Leroy's jersey and then he swings his right fist out first, connecting with the Backstabber's nose. Leroy swings at him now, misses wide and Jonni lands another blow. They grab one another tightly, tying up and trying to get the upper hand, but now only dancing in an angry hug type of look.

Suddenly Leroy swings out and manages to tackle Jonni to the ice, where they wrestle a bit as the refs skate over to pull them apart and dish out the penalties. They are led to their boxes; Leroy still jawing with Jonni all the way.

4-on-4 hockey time for a bit!

The penalties are announced and then I blink as one of the shots of the crowd on the JumboTron shows a black hooded figure standing at the top of one of the 100 level sections. It is brief, but enough for me to know that this person isn't supposed to be here.

The music cuts and the puck drops again as I scan the arena for the guy. I find Piper in section 117, sitting near the ice, behind the boards.

Suddenly, the lights randomly dim and the play is blown dead as the Storm is buzzing around the attacking zone creating pressure. A red light kicks on, bathing the ice in red. Then an evil laughter echoes around the place from the sound system.

The JumboTron flashes blue and then black.

I jump up to my feet, startled, confused and worried.

The crowd gossips below with wonder. Then the screen flashes back on, showing Piper, who is talking with one of her friends, oblivious to the camera time.

There is more wicked laughter, before the lights cut back on and the JumboTron flashes back to game mode, showing the stunned Jonni on the bench.

He shouts something like "get the fucking camera off of me!" Before the JumboTron's camera launches to the gameday graphic. The refs gather on the ice to discuss what should happen and what the hell that was.

But I have had enough! I storm out of the press box, heading for the elevator.

As I step inside, my phone goes off. Apparently the hacker thinks that I am done having it on silent. I pull it out and open the message up.

It is a snapshot of Piper from the game. I see it is a shot of her from the JumboTron, her distinctive red hair glistens against her pale white skin. Her face is turned towards one side, but there is no denying it is her. She has her hand up, holding her cell phone, taking a selfie with the brunette sitting next to her. She is smiling, unaware of the creep exposing her to toy with the boys.   

Underneath is a caption that reads, 'She's even more attractive in a jersey. Very tomboyish. I could just kidnap her and cut her hair to make her manly...but that's too much effort. Why are you scratched anyway little Radim...am I really getting to ya?'

I angrily text back, 'Don't you dare think about it. Jonni is not the one to poke and mess with. Leave her alone!'

'There's no fun in that now. I'll hit my pal up. He loves torturing women. Enjoy the game pretty boy! — HH'

The doors open to the elevator and I walk out and glance around the 100 level corridor. I'm not thinking, because there are fans around who know exactly who I am! But I'm too distracted and deep into my thoughts. I have to find this guy before he does something to Jonni's girlfriend!

I spot a hooded person a few feet away, heading around the north corner of the rink. I rush forward, intent on getting him. But a swarm of teenage girls, dressed in short shorts and tops that are not suitable for a cold ice rink obviously, dart out of literally nowhere, ambushing me in my tracks.

I watch as the man disappears into the crowd.

One of the girls screams near my ear and hugs me.

"GET OFF OF ME!! I HAVE TO STOP HIM!!" I shout out, pulling to get free from them.

"He's so much better looking in a suit!" another girl shrieks.

"I told you!" yet another one snaps back.

"Yeah, right. So fuckin' hot!" the first girl screams near my ear again.

"I MEAN IT, GET OFF OF ME!!" I snarl, yanking myself free. I manage to stumble my way a few feet forward. Where are you? I scan the hallways, hoping to catch a glimpse of the man. But there is nothing.

"Dammit!!" I shout out and storm down one of the tunnel entrances.

Turns out, I picked section 117. Piper is about four steps down, heading up toward me. Fear, shock and bewilderment is apparent on her face. "What the hell was that, Radim?" she asks me, one hand clutching tightly onto the hand-bar in the middle of the steps. "Some lady just told me I was on the JumboTron...during the blackout..."

I just stare at her, unable to find words.

"Why would I be on the JumboTron then? Radim?!"

My eyes slowly make way to the ice, where I find myself looking at Spencer. The Syracuse captain is standing by the boards, looking up at where I am with Piper. He turns to glance in the direction of the bench, where Jonni is furiously working to break his stick over the railing. Fabien and Tyler are holding one another and then glance at Spencer.

I can see that Lukas and Brady are trying to console and comfort the pissed off forward. No one messes with his off the ice life...and 'HH' just crossed that line. Suddenly the game didn't matter. No one knew what had caused the blackout and the arena would be at risk of another similar event occurring without something happening. So, it would have to be rescheduled for safety precautions.

The refs knew this.

The coaches knew this.

And we, the players, knew this.

Hannibal Hacker was in our arena, threatening us and it was getting deeply personal now!