Player’s Tribune—Everybody Wants to Rule the World By Danny Marston
It could be this season, it could be a future season, but ultimately that’s the goal. Win the Championship. Long term, short term. Giving everything to the cause, or tanking in hopes of drafting high to take a longer route. It’s the goal behind the goals. Win. Be the best. Hoist the Cup.
If you’d asked me at the beginning of the season how St. Louis would fare in the Playoffs, I’d have given you some canned optimistic answer. Mostly, I was trying to figure out which way was up in the beginning of the season. The Playoffs were so far away that I was able to focus on buying my gear, training hard, and getting comfortable with my teammates. I didn’t unpack the last of my stuff until we were halfway through the season. The Christmas tree in the apartment I share with Trey [Nets] and Blake [Faux] was up before I cleared my last box. Most of it was just being busy. Between taking classes toward my degree online, practices, and games, it’s been a busy season. I’d be lying, though, if I said that there wasn’t a small part of me that worried that I would be told to pack my stuff as soon as I threw the last box away. I got cut from my only Junior A team that way, to make space for another player with a longer development history, and it almost made me give up on hockey entirely. So, yeah, in the beginning of the season, I just wanted to belong. The Playoffs were a distant concern.
Danny Marston on SMJHL S51 Signing Day
Ask me in the middle of the season, when we were on a five-game losing streak and dwelling in the very basement of the league by three games, and I’d have been hard-pressed to say that we’d make it at all. There was a moment in that game right in the middle, against Lethbridge, where I just felt so tired. Toward the end of the game, thirteen into the third. I came in and the Lions were in our zone. We were trying a ton of stuff to just break up the play, and there was a shot that I blocked. I caught it right in the side where the pad doesn’t cover, and I swear it rattled my ribcage. Rebound came off of me, I went down to the ice, and Cody took it around the net before the whistle to poke in his hat trick. Physically, I was okay, but I just felt so tired. That part of me that never unpacks the last box was telling me to get ready for the call. I didn’t want to go. I remember sitting there, thinking it was done, that I’d be lucky if I made it back onto a college team. Fish [Hernadivic] just checked my shoulder and told me I’d done ‘real good in the circle, but we weren’t done yet’. We bounced back a little, but that game and the next two weren’t our games. It was tough to stay optimistic about our chances for making the Playoffs.
The thing is, though, it was never difficult to keep working. In fact, it was easy to keep playing, training, and developing with my team. It was easy to get up in the morning in spite of our spot in the standings because everybody else in the room knew it was temporary. I think in retrospect, getting shut out in Anaheim was the shove that we needed to get everything in gear. It was our make or break point, and we made that into a four-game winning streak on the other end. A small lesson in faith, I guess, or maybe it’s stubborn resolve. I’m not quite sure.
All of that said, we’re in the Playoffs. We finished sixth on the season, and now we wait for our official tournament seeding. We played hard in the last ten games and went six-to-four. In the last five games, we played Carolina, Anchorage (twice), Kelowna, and Lethbridge. Three-to-two against those teams all in a row like that isn’t a bad result. We played tight against good teams, and that’s what the Playoffs are about. Mitsu, Ronlain, Fish, Flash, and Jay have pulled us hard into contention. Elizabeth, back in goal, and has had a couple of stand-on-her-head games lately. On my line, we finally managed to get Borys some points. He’s a tough guy, works really hard to keep the other teams off of me and Meg [Tron], so that was pretty sweet. The team has come together, and we never really gave up. I am the player that I am because of my team. Say what you want, I don't want to be anywhere else just yet.
Marston scored his first home game goal against Anchorage on his 22nd Birthday.
‘So what do you think will happen?’ you might be wondering. As far as I know and can be concerned, there is one thing that will absolutely happen. The St. Louis Scarecrows will play the best hockey that we are capable of playing in the name of our players, our organization, our town, and our fans. We will leave everything we have out on the ice, and when the Zamboni drives off after the game, the result will be what it will be. For better, for worse. I want to win, but I know that we have to fight for it. Then again, find me a player at this level that isn’t aware of that. I’ll wait.
‘What are you doing to prepare?’ The same thing everyone is doing, Pinky. Training hard, in between bouts of relaxation. I kind of hate it. Not the relaxing, or the working. The constant oscillation between extremes. Being able to finish up my classwork and play video games has been nice. Trying to watch all of the Marvel movies in order with Blake and Trey has been an experience. But doing three days of that, and then going to the rink and skating until my legs are about to fall off for the next three days isn’t my idea of a good time. Also, if the radio station could please just play the classic Christmas songs instead of the bad covers and weird songs, that’d be great. Nobody needs to play five different versions of “Santa Baby” in four hours, and if we all forget that “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” is a thing, I think the world will be better off. Or, alternatively, Trey could get an Aux cable for his car.
‘But who’s gonna win?’ Look, I don’t have a crystal ball; I don’t even have a magic eight ball. My sister’s been trying to get me to believe in horoscopes for the last five years, and every one of them has been wrong. I’m pretty sure tarot cards don’t cover hockey championships, and “Harry Potter” has tarnished any positive view that I might’ve held of trying to read tea leaves. Point is, I can’t tell you the results. I can only promise that I will do my best and hope that it won’t be an empty one.
It’s a small world, our realm of hockey. Heroes get remembered, legends never die, and everybody wants to rule the world.
_Blitz_![[Image: NSpf37l.png]](https://i.imgur.com/NSpf37l.png)
![[Image: DiGTAk4.png]](https://i.imgur.com/DiGTAk4.png)
![[Image: vzXuM7Y.png]](https://i.imgur.com/vzXuM7Y.png)
![[Image: UH0Xubl.png]](https://i.imgur.com/UH0Xubl.png)
![[Image: olivercastillon.gif]](https://sig.grumpybumpers.com/host/olivercastillon.gif)
![[Image: sfOMki5.png]](https://i.imgur.com/sfOMki5.png)
