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***boom*** · 05-18-2024, 07:19 PM

[1401 words, ready for grading]

OOC note: This was going to be the S76 chapter on its own, but this part ended up being longer than I anticipated so the second part of it had to get split off into its own chapter, which is still to be written.

Fresh off winning the SMJHL MVP award, Anastasia Söderström was preparing for her second season with the Detroit Falcons. The team had lost a lot of players to graduating to the SHL after the last season, so it was expected to be somewhat of a rebuilding year for the Falcons. Ana was still staying with her billet family since she wasn't yet of age, but other than that not too much was changing. Her first major-league training camp with Calgary was coming up and while she wouldn't be playing with the big club next year, she'd be getting to work with the Dragons' goalie coach and to learn from another excellent player in Rebecca Montagne, plus getting to make more connections with her future teammates.

Ana's plane touched down and she pulled out her phone to contact the car the team was getting to pick her up from the airport. She'd been to Calgary before for the rookie camp for new draftees, but this was the first time the whole team and prospects would be in one place and she'd get to meet everyone. It would be a lot of new people to meet in a very short time, but it was something she was getting used to with being on the Falcons and World Junior teams and she was getting more comfortable by the day. Her goalie gear wasn't too difficult to find on the carousel, since it was the biggest bag there, but having not played for the Dragons yet it was fairly easy for her to blend into the crowd, just as she was going for.

The next day, the camp began in earnest, and Ana got her first glimpse into the Dragons dressing room. Detroit's room had been more elaborate than anything she had seen growing up, but Calgary's room was even bigger and fancier than that. Trainers popped in and out of the room, sharpening skates and getting sticks organized. Ana found the stall with a #35 Söderström jersey hanging in it and took a second to marvel at the sight of it. In a few seasons, this would be her reality every day, but she could at least indulge in her dreams for the next week. The dressing room was a crowded spot with players and prospects getting ready for the first on-ice session, so Ana just kept to herself and went through her usual routines of getting suited up. She wasn't superstitious, but undergoing the same steps before every game and practice helped get her mind set on her craft.

The next week was more intense than Ana had experienced at any point during her young career. With an up-and-coming team, all the players and prospects were incredibly driven to show their best stuff to try and make the team, and she was among them. There were on-ice sessions, a lot of fitness testing, and team bonding exercises. While there weren't any other Swedes in the Dragons system, there certainly wasn't a shortage of Scandinavian players with Tom Pedersen, the Solberg twins, Kaarlo Koivunen, Fredrik Gronlund, and Anna Skovgaard, so there was at least enough linguistic commonality for the players to relate to each other. Even though all the drills were exhausting, Ana left Calgary at the end of the week feeling satisfied and hopeful about the day she'd be a Dragon for real.

Back home in Detroit, everyone congregated again for the start of the SMJHL season. The Falcons had their own training camp, and Ana was energized by her experience in Calgary looking ahead to the future, but now it was time to focus on the team she was on currently, who were introducing several new rookies to the team. It was a bit of an adjustment to go back to working with her regular goalie coach after having trained with the Dragons staff for the past week, but she did her best to combine the advice in a way that meshed with what she knew to be her strengths.

Ana had even indulged a little and gotten a new mask for this year, which she hoped would help with her head movement and vision, and gotten a local artist to help bring the design to life. The mask featured bird wings on either side of the top to represent the Falcons, her number 35 on the chin as other goalies often did, and drawings of kids playing hockey on a frozen lake on the sides, just like she had done herself when she was a little girl. On the inside, she'd gotten a little more individual with a little infinity sticker on the inside of the chin. She thought about that article she'd written for the Player's Tribune during her rookie season where she'd written the letters to her parents. She hadn't been outright doing media at that point, but it had felt good to be able to open up about herself. Maybe one day she'd open up to the world about being autistic, and maybe if she ever figured out her orientation she'd come out about that too. Ana still hadn't quite nailed things down about herself since being a travelling hockey player pretty much precluded any attempt to date or experiment, but she was pretty sure that being into women was at least part of it. Her online best friend Grace had recently gotten into a new relationship with a teammate on her high school team, so Ana was somewhat sure that she could at least tell when people's orientations were compatible, but nothing seemed any closer to reality. Maybe once she'd actually settled down in Calgary after going up to the big leagues, she'd be able to try and actually meet someone.

The routine with the Falcons training camp was much the same as it had been in the big leagues, but the new players were a lot more starry-eyed and Ana did her best to help them get used to the daily life of playing professional sports for the first time. By the end of the camp, she had the feel of the puck on her pads and the rust had more or less cleared off from the months away. "Something you want to see me about?" Ana asked when the manager beckoned her into the office after the last day of camp had wrapped up.

"Have a seat. Don't worry, it's good news," the manager assured.

"What is it about?" the goalie asked inquisitively.

The Falcons manager smiled. "We'd like to offer you - informally - an alternate captain position if you want it. Goalies technically aren't allowed to wear a letter on their jersey, hence why this is unofficial, but we really like how you've been so helpful with the rookies this week and it's going to be a rebuilding year so they'll be looking to you for guidance. Tomlander and Simo are the other letter-wearing players."

"I'd be happy to!" Ana grinned shyly. "The older players were so kind to me when I was new to North America, so I'd love to pay that forward myself."

"Any other questions?" asked the manager.

The goalie had one. "Not exactly. I'm really thankful that the team didn't make me do the press in my first year while I got my legs under me, and I know I'll be expected to do it this year, but I just wanted to say that I'm feeling comfortable with and looking forward to taking on that responsibility."

The two shook hands and Ana picked up her goalie bag to head for home. The added responsibilities of wearing a letter and dealing with the press for the team would be something to deal with, along with the heightened expectations that naturally came with having won the MVP at such a young age, but she was finally getting back to the way she knew she could play after the nightmare of March. She'd had enough time to know that these responsibilities would be placed upon her this season, and with that time the goalie was confident she could approach the challenge boldly rather than shrinking away from it.

Aephino · 05-19-2024, 08:56 AM

i'm glad it's canon that the GM knew goalies weren't officially allowed to be captain........ definitely

Falcons

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