February 9th, 2016

The Tampa Bay Lightning's plane touches down in Montreal. Vladdy spins around in his seat to find everyone awakening from a nap. Unfortunately sleep had eluded the uptight Russian blondie, who gets to his feet and exits the plane, following the Triplets. He steps out into the chilly Canadian air and gulps nervously as he spots the familiar Montreal landscape.

"It'll be okay, Vladdy. No one's gonna harm you this time and Yzerchuk is safe," the comforting voice of Steven Stamkos whispers into his ear. "There's nothing for you to worry out. I promise you that."

Vladdy nods and starts down the stairs. "It's not really that. It's just, everytime we come here, I'm so nervous and then I take the ice and just think 'down with the Canadiens'...I like playing Montreal, Stammer...but I don't like to think about them."

"Then don't, Vladdy," Steven replies, putting a hand on Vladdy's shoulder.

"I'm worried about the Triplets, Stammer," Vladdy hisses.

"Don't worry about us, we'll be fine," Ondrej remarks.

"That's what all the heroes say before stuff happens, Pally," Vladdy whines. "Tampa can't afford to lose the Triplets again. You've gotta stay safe!"

"Stop dramatizing everything, Vladdy, we'll be fine. Now let's get to the rink and practice!" Steven remarks.

They grab their stuff and make it to the creepy, ominous-looking Bell Centre. As they all get out, Steven remains beside Vladdy with Ryan Callahan at his side. Tyler Johnson, Ondrej Palat, Nikita Kucherov and Alex Killorn walk together. The other Bolts follow them. They file into the arena, passing by the Montreal players.

Vladdy gulps as he spots Brendan Gallagher. Steven puts a hand comfortingly on his shoulder. Gallagher spots him and smirks.

"Daddy's not always gonna be there to protect you, Vladdy! It's a shame really..." Gallagher sneers.

"Don't you have a team meeting to get to Gally?" Steven growls.

"No, Stammer," Gallagher responds.

Suddenly Markov, Emelin and a few other Habs appear. "Well, well, well, if it isn't our dear Lightning Bolt friends," Markov greets, tauntingly. "Luckily - or unluckily - for you we were able to repeal the cute little suspension you tried to hand us. As it turns out we didn't actually get the opportunity to fully hurt you."

"A mistake we won't make twice," Emelin adds on, reaching out to touch Ondrej's chin.

The Czech player swats his hand away and frowns. "You can't scare us!"

"Well, we already made the little blondie nervous, look at him cower from us," Gallagher snarls and reaches out toward Vladdy, who leans back, biting his lip.

Steven smacks Gallagher's hand away. "Knock it off Gally!"

Gallagher pulls his hand back, nursing it. "Touchy, touchy Stammer, I wasn't going to hurt him yet. Just remember this, Steven Stamkos, on the ice you two aren't together, so the blondie needs to grow a pair and take Round 2 with me. Tootles!"

Gallagher turns on his heels and walks away, the rest of the Canadiens following and giving the Lightning players dirty looks as they exit. Steven remains glaring at them, until the door closes.

The captain slowly turns to the group, noticing Ondrej rubbing his chin with disgust and muttering something like, 'Great, now I have Montreal filth on me!'. "Don't let them get in your heads boys, we need all the help from Yzerchuk we can get and no distractions as well! Now, let's get out there, practice and get ready to take those sniveling bastards down once and for all!"

Vladdy nods and gradually smiles, feeling a lot more at ease. During the practice he forgets about Montreal and focuses on warming up and getting into his game mode. Then before long the time for puck drop comes.

The puck drops, as the Tampa players chosen to start off the game line up across from the chosen Montreal players. They all glare at one another. Valtteri Filppula stands across from Torrey Mitchell, who scowls at him. Tomas Plekanec and Lars Eller flank him, with Alex Killorn and Cedric Paquette on either side of Filppula.

"So I hear it's the little blondie's 100th game tonight?" Plekanec snarls at Killorn.

"Yeah, impressive, huh?" Killorn boasts. "And he didn't even need to cheat to get there."

Plekanec leans into Killorn and growls, "Is that a challenge Killer?"

"You can take it as one or not. It's up to you, let's play hockey," Killorn replies as the puck drops and Filppula loses the draw.

Plekanec and Killorn separate briefly as they each take to going after the puck and not one another. They pass by the bench, where Brendan Gallagher proudly sits smirking devilishly. He glances over at the Lightning bench and spots Vladdy. The young blond man glances over and spots him, his blue eyes brightening up in shock.

Gallagher lifts his hand and tauntingly waves at Vladdy, who taps Steven. The captain snaps his head to the side and gives Gallagher a stern glare. The Canadien shrugs and hops over the boards onto the ice. Vladdy looks at Steven, who turns back to him and pats him on the arm.

"There is no need to be worried, Vladdy. We have them right where we want them," Steven says.

"Why is he back though? I thought Yzerman and Andreychuk said he was in a Mental Hospital?"

"I was released cutie," Gallagher taunts as he skates toward the bench, where the action is. He mimicks working to get the puck out as he looks up and winks at Vladdy. "Couldn't stay away from you though. I know you wanna drop the gloves against me sweetie. Why don't you jump over the boards and come and get me?"

Vladdy blinks in shock. "Really? I'm not stupid Gally. And quit calling me "cutie" and "sweetie", it's degrading, especially coming from you."

Steven throws his hand out to restrain his teammate. "He's getting under your skin, ignore him."

Gallagher blows a kiss to Vladdy and then digs his stick in for real and gets the puck out. "Wow, how hard was that ladies?"

Vladdy facepalms and groans. "Stammer, why is he playing? Surely Coop knew..." He spins around and looks at his head coach, "Hey Coop, why is Gallagher playing?"

"Well, Vladdy, I honestly had no idea, just ignore him and play your game. I have faith that you'll be fine. And the refs will have a close eye on him. Remember, may Yzerchuk be with you!" Cooper replies, before he returns his attention to the ice.

Vladdy nods and turns back to see Gallagher hit Hedman and laugh like a madman. He lifts his stick up and gets to his feet. "Alright Yzerchuk, let's do this!" He glances to the few Bolts fans in the arena. "I know you're here, somewhere. But you're safe." He hops the boards onto the ice, but freezes in place and hops back over at a sharp yell from the head coach.

On the ice, Credric Paquette gets in a fight with one of the newer Montreal faces, Nathan Beaulieu. They have their brawl and then are sent to the box with five for fighting. Vladdy smiles as he sees his teammate drop the Hab and head to the box. And it makes him even more calm.

The play carries on with Vladdy finally taking the ice and going against the familiar foe in Andrei Markov. He manages to hold his ground, until there is another bad line change that occurs. The player coming off, Brian Boyle halts in place and then backpedals toward the goal once more. "Shit!" He shouts as Gallagher takes aim at the net and scores.

"Yzerchuk, no!" Vladdy gasps.

Gallagher cheers and looks toward Vladdy, mouthing, "What ya gonna do now little blondie?"

Vladdy narrows his eyes. It is time to put the bastard in his place. It is time to act! It is up to him. All of a sudden anger sparks inside of him and the desire for blood is coursing through his veins and body. He screams and takes the ice after Cooper sends him out with Ondrej Palat and Tyler Johnson.

Vladdy lines up across from Torrey Mitchell and wins the puck from him at the dot. He then drives hard, ignoring the constant chirping from Gallagher. The best way to beat him is to score. So, he takes a shot on goal but it is stopped by the goalie. Out of the corner of his eye he sees Ondrej Palat hit a Montreal player.

"Hey Vladislava, what kind of shot was that? WIMPY!!" Gallagher taunts from the bench. "Hey coach, let me go and pick on the little girl, please?!"

Vladdy shakes his head and purposefully skates close to Ondrej and TJ, who pat him on the back as they return to the bench.

The period continues on with the Habs pouring on more shots on goal and Andrei Markov going after an irritated Nikita Kucherov, hitting him with a borderline dirty hit. Nikita shouts something angrily in Russian at him and then grumbles as he heads to the bench where he sits down and covers his face, instantly shrinking back into a timid child act. "Why everyone after me? I no hurt no one! Stammer!!"

Steven looks over and sighs. "Kuch, quit whining like a two year old, how old are you?"

Nikita looks up and awkwardly smiles as he says, "8...? No, 6!"

"Ha! Funny, Kuch," Steven says.

Vladdy, who is sitting beside Nikita, turns to his Russian friend and whispers, "It's okay, if you want I'll cross-check Markov for ya?"

Nikita uncovers his face and brightens up. "Okay, Vladdy!"

"How'd you do that?" Steven asks. "Normally whenever I try to talk to him and calm him down he just gets worse!"

"Stammer, you forget, I speak Russian. No, no, you just gotta be calm with Kuch." He gets up and hops over the boards onto the ice. He happily skates to the faceoffs and his smile vanishes as he spots Gallagher grinning at him.

"Well, well, well, look what we have here..." the Montreal Canadien snickers. "It's the little blondie girly!"

"Gally, I swear, keep your hands to yourself or so help me, I'll make you!" Vladdy growls, reluctantly skating over to his spot.

"Just remember...I'm as insane as you make me, Lightning Bolt. And Namesy, you make me insane."

The puck drops and Vladdy lunges forward into Gallagher, snarling, "First of all, don't call me Namesy. Second of all, you are insane and third of all, I hate your face so piss off and leave me and my team alone!"

"You can't speak, I have the goal. We're winning, Namesy!"

Vladdy rolls his eyes and tears away from the pesky Canadien. There was no sense in arguing with him. He peels away, heading toward where the puck is. He joins in the action, helping to generate a little offense before heading back to the bench.

About halfway through the period, with most of the shots on goal coming from Montreal, Vladdy suddenly spins to Steven, "Where's Carle?"

"We suspended him remember?" Steven replies, not taking his eyes off the action. There are a few moments of silence, before he finally turns and raises an eyebrow curiously. "Why do you ask?"

"Because I'm pretty sure...that's him!" Vladdy says and points toward the opposite side of the ice, toward the crowd.

Steven gasps at once as Carle smirks and waves at them wearing a Gallagher jersey on. At his sides are Jonathan Drouin and Marty St. Louis. The captain of the Lightning whirls to his head coach and lets him know and Cooper just shrugs.

Vladdy looks around, hoping to see Evelyna and Dani in the crowd. Knowing they will be a good sight to see, given they have possession of Yzerchuk the Lightning Bolt Stick. But he doesn't see them.

And soon the period ticks to an end with an Anton Stralman shot. The shots - and goals - are in favor of the Montreal Canadiens. Though a small offensive surge by the Lightning happens at the end, as they begin to focus and filter out the chirping and the cheating and the borderline hits and calls from the refs and players.

Before long both teams return to the ice. Brendan Gallagher looks over at the Lightning bench to see the restless group ignoring him and his team. He is filled with an instant distaste and spins to his coach.

"Coach, let me go out there please. I can handle this. I need to get at them!" Gallagher insists. "I won't go overboard, I promise. But it'll be nice to bait 'em! Ensnare them in my trap!" He snickers but then realizes it and stops, biting his lip, still smirking insanely.

Victor Hedman skates by. "Just give it up Gally. Sit down and quit trying to seek revenge. Yzerman will have your ass back in that Mental Hospital in NO time!"

Gallagher blinks and whirls around to look at the brave defenseman. "You know nothing, Hedman! I could say I have your precious Yzerchuk right now and you'd still know NOTHING."

Lars Eller faces off with Valtteri Filppula in the background. Victor eventually turns away and skates off with a shrug and sigh. The Habs win the faceoff but PK Subban gives it up and Hedman gets it to Filppula, who shoots and scores.

"SUCK IT GALLY! Who's scoring now?" Victor screams as he skates over to his bench, passing the Habs', where an infuriated Gallagher stands glaring at him. "Just take a chill pill there little pest. Bad guys never win so just be nice and shut up!"

Gallagher snarls at Victor, who continues toward his bench, fist bumping his teammates. "I'll teach you to shut up."

Tomas Plekanec looks over at his teammate. "Sit down Gally, I got this. I'll make 'em pay." He gets up and takes to the ice as Vladdy once again skates on. The blond kid rolls his eyes and sighs heavily.

"Go ahead, chirp and get it all out," Vladdy mutters.

Plekanec chirps him and they both lower into position. Plekanec kicks Vladdy's leg out and wins the faceoff. Vladdy gasps and scrambles to his feet. The play goes back and forth, with a ton of hits and various shots on goal. At one point Gallagher coughs up the puck to the Lightning, who get a shot on goal and almost score.

During this time, Vladdy, half distracted, continues to search the crowd. He wants to know Yzerchuk is safe, but he doesn't see the Lightning stick or his friends. He'll try to text them during the second intermission.

Tyler Johnson, Ondrej Palat and Nikita Kucherov take the ice, after being reunited by the orders of Jon Cooper. Vladdy smiles as the trio lines up, facing Brendan Gallagher, Tomas Plekanec and Alex Galchenyuk. Galchenyuk talks to Ondrej, who shakes his head. TJ glares at Plekanec and Gallagher picks on Nikita, who struggles to control himself.

The puck drops and Plekanec wins against TJ, who falls to the ice. Vladdy's smile vanishes as he spots TJ struggle to get up, grimacing in pain. Blood is smeared under his nose. He wipes it away in a frustrated huff and skates toward the small black disc. He blocks a shot attempt, before Gallagher finds it and gets it. The Hab takes aim and after a few antagonizing heartbeats, Gallagher gets it to Plekanec, who lights the lamp.

"NOOOO!!!!" Vladdy screams from the bench, jumping to his feet.

The Canadiens celebrate, while the Triplets Line returns to the bench. Ondrej and Nikita pat TJ, who shakes his head and grumbles, "Bloody cheaters...high-sticking...blood..." They enter the bench and TJ is instantly tended to. They wipe away the dried blood as he tells Cooper about what happened. The coach of the Lightning then calls a ref over and demands that he open his eyes.

But it is about to get a whole lot worse...