December 16, 2016

I'm just beginning to suspect that each team in the NHL has an Yzerchuk...a magical gift bestowed upon them. Well, except for Jimmy Vesey and his Rangers, it seems. I have yet to confirm or meet the Rangers' one and given Vesey's obsession with trying to take Yzerchuk whether he knows Yzerchuk won't work for him or not, I'm questioning a lot of things. That dude just won't leave me alone!

I thought Brendan Gallagher hitting on me with hatred was bad...what is it with some NHL players obsessing over me. I'm a young dude, and yes, given the HIGH number of fangirls I have, I realize that I have certain 'good looks' so to say, but I'm not gay! The only player I can consider being gay is that Tyler Seguin...in Dallas...

Anyway, I'm getting off track here, we're in Vancouver now, visiting the Canucks. I'm not sure why our record so far is so identical with last year's or how Montreal's is similar, but here we are at the same point.

(Brayden grabs my computer and types:) At the Brayden Point!

The #PointPuns and references to my teammate never get old - note the sarcasm, fresh and plentiful. I just shoved my teammate away, but he's sticking around, staring at me. It's like he's waiting to pounce, like a kitty cat!

Fun fact Lightning fans, Pointer DOES have a cat named Cleo and he's actually the sweetest thing. 

Okay, let's get down to business, have any of my diary reader's seen the Ace Ventura movies? If so, do you remember the one with the Dolphin mascot getting stolen and then later one of the players? If not, forget it. If so, this is gonna sound similar, cause Vesey had a new plan to try to get to me...

Shocking.

"So wait? We're gonna be without Kuch, Pally, Cally and Stammer tonight?" I shout at Cooper. "And you want me to--?"

"Yes, settle down. I'm testing your leadership, young man!" Cooper responds.

I smack my forehead. I'm not ready for this pressure! My main focus is to first score and get back into the consistency.

"Hey, Vladdy, just do the same thing against Calgary, only repeat it now in a consistent manner and score," Cooper says, putting an arm around my shoulder. "Trust me, I know what I am doing and I have faith that you got the leadership skills necessary for this."

"Okay, so you want me to focus on scoring, leading AND keeping a damn eye out for that insane Vesey dude?" I snap. "I can't -- do that..."

"You'll be fine. Gotta make you look good for Vegas--I mean our future!" Cooper states, before he walks out of the room, leaving me in a stunned silence.

WHAT!?

Just then, TJ, Pally and Kuch dart - no signs of injury on the latter two. TJ skids to a halt before me and opens his mouth, when a very unfriendly voice says, "Namestnikov, where is he?!"

I blink as TJ flinches and the Triplets all scurry to either side of me. I find myself looking at a very angry-looking Vancouver Canuck duo. The Sedins. "What did Kuch do now?" I sigh, before a hand grabs me by the collar of my shirt and pulls me forward.

"We KNOW you took him?!" one of the twins sneers. Hell, I don't know them apart.

"I didn't take anyone...who is HE?" I demand. Seriously...check your facts before you barge in. I bite my tongue and don't say that though.

"Sedin! Vancouver's Killer Whale! Knowing you have that Yzerchuk...you should have Sedin, cause you want to use him against us!"

I shove the dude back, getting myself free and brush myself off as I snap at them, "First of all, why would I steal your stupid Killer Whale, when I have Yzerchuk to use? And second of all, I have no idea who Sedin the Killer Whale is? Is he like Shamu? Why are you blaming me?" I put my hands on my hips and cock my eyebrow at them.

"We just assumed--" the one who'd grabbed me by jersey begins.

"Of course you did! Okay, what happened that you think that I did. Go ahead," I say.

"We found this ransom note pasted to his tank," the other twin states as he pulls the note out and passes it to me.

TJ, Kuch and Pally all lean toward me as I unfold the note and read it. Oh, this is good and reads Jimmy Vesey all over it. He says, 'Dearest Canucks, I, Vladislav Namestnikov, have 'whalenapped' Sedin and will be coming for your precious team next.' Oh, Vesey, come on man.

"Yeah, this is Jimmy Vesey, not me." I pass the note back. "I'll help you both look for him, but I'm warning you, Vesey is one crazy bastard right now!"

So I help out the two Canuck twin brothers locate this whale, who turns out to be fine and actually just taken to the zoo...weird. Yeah, Vesey put little effort into this plan...or maybe he gave up.

Try transporting Shamu somewhere private? In Vancouver, I should add. Yeah, so anyway, I found Sedin and met him and even introduced him to Yzerchuk. Okay, Sedin stole Yzerchuk from my hands and I had to dive into the pool and tackle the whale.

Don't take my hockey stick!!

But yeah, this one was a short adventure because Vesey discovered that he bit off more than he could chew. See, he coulda just kidnapped someone...maybe the pressure of holding me hostage for only a few minutes is getting to him?

Well...I couldn't be more wrong...

Shame on me for opening my mouth...

As we come off the loss to Vancouver, I realize something very bad as we are all leaving to head to the next adventure...where's Pally and Kuch? And that's when I get a text message from an unknown number.