Chapter 10

The Hockey Song: Stompin' Tom Connors

"Oh the good ole hockey game

is the best game you can name.

And the best game you can name,

is the good ole hockey game."

Hockey and Flack. My two favorite things. If you don't like Stompin' Tom, just think of other artists that have covered this song. This is for all the Canadians reading this, especially any east coasters. All I have to say is : GO DEVILS! (sorry Leafs fans. And much much sorry to any Rangers and Islanders fans I may have alienated).

"You're going to have to explain this to me before it starts." Alexis said, as she, Samantha and Stella took up three of six seats in a row of twelve in the gold section at Madison Square Gardens. The sell out crowd was filling into their seats and an excited buzz was filling the massive arena.

The Rangers had made it into the play-offs and were playing the much hated Buffalo Sabres for a chance to advance to the Eastern Conference final in hopes of making it all the way to the Stanley Cup finals. Flack had scored tickets in the sweet seats from a guy in public relations he'd helped out of a tight spot a couple of weeks back. Enough seats for three couples. Flack and Sam (who had managed to convince Adam to baby sit after bribing him with free food and access to an X-Box 360 and money to rent as many games as his little heart desired), Danny and Stella (Mac had to work late, nothing new, and Danny didn't want to go alone) and Hawkes and Alexis. Alexis had never watched a hockey game on t.v. let alone attend one, and she was amazed at how seriously the fans took it all. Decked out in expensive team jerseys and their faces painted in Rangers red, white and blue. Some even wearing crazy coloured wigs and carrying homemade signs supporting their favrite player. Whoever this Jaromir Jagr guy was, he certainly was popular.

Samantha looked at her friend as if she'd just sprouted another head. She and Alexis had gotten close over the past two months they'd worked together. Mac liked their results as a twosome so much, nine times out of ten he had them working their magic together. She certainly found it easier getting to know the girl from Chicago than it had been getting to know Lindsay, who at times was emotionally closed off and distant and never seemed to be too interested in being someone's friend unless she could get something out of it. The girl had way too baggage and let everyone know about it. Alexis was funny and easy going and had a heart of gold. And she'd really done a number on Hawkes. No one had ever seen him as happy as he'd been since that first time he laid eyes on her in that bodega stock room.

But for someone from Chicago to not know hockey? Appalling.

"What's there to explain?" Sam asked. "It's a hockey game. Two teams trying to put as many pucks in the other team's net as possible in three periods, twenty minutes each."

"But what are all those lines for? Blue ones, red ones..."

"If your team mates tries to pass you the puck and you go over the line before the puck does, , its called offside." Sam explained, pointing the different lines out. "If you shoot the puck from your end and it goes over two lines and all the way to the other teams end and they touch it, that's called icing and the puck goes back to your end for the face off."

"Off side, icing, face offs..." Alexis was scribbling everything down with a pen and pad of paper she kept in her purse.

"Are you seriously taking notes?" Sam asked. "Oh my god, you are! Notes on hockey? You'll just retain all the info in your head and use it at a later date. Trust me. Its not that complicated."

"Unless you get into time outs and penalities," Stella said.

"Stel," Sam warned. "Don't confuse the poor girl anymore than she already is."

"Time outs and penalities? What the..."

"Teams can take time outs to stragetize and penalties are bad things. High sticking, slashing. Just basically kicking the crap out of someone. That kind of thing."

"Basically what Sam does at work on a regular basis." Stella laughed and Sam tossed a piece of popcorn at her.

"Where's the beer?" Stella wondered and looked up the stands to see if their dates were on the way yet. "I need beer. i crave alcohol."

"You know, Stel," Sam said teasingly. "The department has counsellors who can hep you shed such evil vices."

"Listen here, little one, I will kick your ass up and down this arena." Stella joked back.

Sam stuck her tongue out at her.

The guys returned with the beer for the six of them. As Flack sat down beside his wife, he looked over at the notebook in Alexis' hand and looked at his wife with an eyebrow arched.

"I'm giving a hockey tutorial," Sam explained. "She's an NHL virgin."

"That's about all that's virgin around here," Danny chuckled and received a slug in the arm from Stella.

"How does a girl from Chicago not know anything about hockey?" Flack asked, sipping his beer. "The city is home to one of the original six."

"The what?" Alexis asked.

"Original six." Sam replied. "League started in 1920 with ten teams but the depression wiped them all out financial, except for the New York Americans, now the Islanders. They went down the shitter when World War II hit and armies wiped out every roster of most their players. Left the NHL with the original six. New York Rangers, Toronto Maple Leafs, Detroit Red Wings, Montreal Canadians, Boston Bruins and the Chicago Blackhawks."

"That's my girl." Flack said in praise.

"No woman should know that much about hockey."Alexis said in complete awe.

"Its why I married her." Flack concluded, and wrapped his arm around her shoulders and kissed the side of her head sweetly. "I could still watch my Rangers and get laid all in one night."

Sam slapped his stomach playfully.

"You're a lucky bastard, Flack." Danny said, shaking his head.

"Here I was thinking it was my sense of humour and girl next door looks and my feminine wiles." Sam said and kissed her husband's cheek.

"It was your feminine something, all right." he said and cast a glance at her chest.

Sam stuck two fingers in his beer and flicked it in hs face.

"I will never remember all this." Alexis sighed, staring at her book.

"Don't worry, sweetie," Hawkes said and pecked her cheek. "Just remember we're here to have fun."

"And," Flack added, wiping beer from his face with the front of his shirt. "That hockey is the greatest game on earth."