Finland 5 - 0 USA

[oanja]

Bronze medal for the men's team. Whee~ :D I'm still grinning like a loon here.

This just keeps happening. Everyone counts us out and says our hockey is boring and we have no talent or what ever. But who keeps getting medals in almost every Olympics in the past 20 years or so. But seriously fuck the hockey media,

Anyway, kind of got sidetracked from this post for a few hours. (was on the phone with arilyn9) so I forgot what else I wanted to say. :D

I still want Selänne to win a cup this year, but that was a great last national team appearance for him (and Timonen and maybe some others as well)

Now I pretty much wish Sweden will win tomorrow, just to see the delicious excuses the hockey media will come up with. I'm also sure it would triple the amount of people who suddenly have no interest in NHL players playing in the Olympics. (also because I like Erik Karlsson way too much and I want him to get all the goals and win... but let's not talk about that)

Comments

[biggersandwich.livejournal.com]

Congrats! \o/ Your team was very happy and it was delightful! (I didn't get to see the whole game, but I caught the end because it was on in the break room at work. Never say Canada doesn't live up to stereotype. ;))

While I agree that the amount of hand-wringing and tragic wailing if Sweden wins tomorrow would be hilarious, I think that it would just make the Canadians at least more determined than ever to go back in four years? Unless someone else gets injured next game, but I do hope no one does!

[oanja.livejournal.com]

Yes, they are always super excited to medal. :D (well when they win. That one Olympic year when they got silver was the worst. Every other player was just openly crying on the ice. So so bad for my heart)

Well, we'll never now know. There's a big party going on in there right now, isn't there? :D

[biggersandwich.livejournal.com]

The silver medalists are definitely heart-breaking. I'm just not competitive enough to watch that many people be that sad. :(

In where? Sochi, or where I am? Because I have heard that downtown Toronto's been pretty bad, but I haven't left the house all day. ;) Though I am annoyed that the timing of the closing ceremonies/flights from Sochi precludes too much partying as a team because those were the best stories from last Olympics. Also I require fourteen thousand different kinds of celebratory porn for all the medalling teams and you are ruining it for me, reality!

[oanja.livejournal.com]

It is terrible, because they just have to hang around and wait for their medals. Poor players.

In Toronto and I'm guessing in other parts of Canada as well.

Well they could all just have an orgy in the plane? I don't know which way would be better; everyone having to do what the gold medalists say or if everyone comforts the guys who didn't get anything.

They have to be drinking at least... I don't want to think that they all just take sleeping pills and rest for the flight over, even though I guess that would be the sensible thing.

[biggersandwich.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes, definitely, Canada is going a bit nuts everywhere, I just happen to be in Toronto.

Plane orgies are so awkward though because it's just NHLPA flights, not divided up by team! I guess with enough alcohol, the Swedish team can probably remember that they won silver, and that's not too awful, I believe the US team did have their own wild party last Olympics too. So irl, I suspect partying will happen. But there's only so crazy you can go on a plane and no privacy, unless you want to have the hilarious mental image of everyone lining up to go bang in the bathroom. I mean, there's orgy fic to be written for sure! But I also want the stories of all the people who slip away from the big party to go celebrate together because I am greedy like that. :D

[oanja.livejournal.com]

Hockey celebration parties seem the best. I wanna go to one some day. I'm sad I couldn't go in 2011 when Finland won the world championships... now that was a party. :D (yes, we actually care about those here in Europe)

But that's why it would be the best! So many possibilities for rare pairings and crack fic. :D idk if it's just the last four nationalities on this flight and everyone else went on the earlier one, but still. So many possibilities in an orgy fic. (idk if they also flew family members and I don't want to include coaching staff etc, but I'll handwave that stuff away)

And it would be fun, if couples tried to be sneaky and wanted to get to the mile high club, only to realize a lot of other people had the same idea, so there are awkward lines to the bathroom. That would also be great.

But I get wanting the kind of stories people wrote about the Canadian olympics, and there were already some stories where the same sort of thing was written for Sotchi...

Personally I'm still waiting for Crosby/Weber fic, but I guess it's not happening. *pout*

[biggersandwich.livejournal.com]

I think I am a bit shy for that, haha. So many people! I did want to watch the game with some friends, but for various reasons it didn't work out this time around. :/

I think the US and Finland left yesterday/early this morning and it's just Sweden and Canada on this flight? I definitely agree on the joys of international crack ships! But that's what I mean, if everyone was still in town until tonight, it would be easier to imagine people sneaking into one another's parties unnoticed and that kind of thing? It's not that the plane fics wouldn't be great, it's just that there are a lot more options if they're not on a plane, and I feel like you kind of need that if you want to explore all the ships? Two or three stories about plane bathroom blowjobs are excellent, sixteen...it's hard for them not to be a little similar, even with different relationship dynamics involved?

I'm hoping lots of people started fic during the Olympics and it'll trickle out over the next few months or so? I definitely started at least four about the games/break (because I have no sense of proportion and am bad at finishing things) myself, but none of them are anywhere near postable yet. (One is even Crosby/Weber, kind of! (With Matt Duchene, because reasons.))

[oanja.livejournal.com]

But if it's like a carneval type of thing with people partying in the streets it seems different. Kind of like going to concert or something. Watching games with friends would be fun, as long as everyone cheers for the same team and has the same way of watching. Like personally sometimes if a thing is really important to me I don't like other people seeing me react to it... haha kind of weird I know.

Is that really how it went? I just got the impression from the wild writer russo that granlund and parise are leaving sotchi today... dunno though. I mean I haven't seen any photos of team finland players at the closing ceremony so you might be right. :)

Hope you are right and people just haven't had time to finish stuff. I know crosby duchene is kind of a thing because of summer training, so it makes more sense than not. :D what other stuff are you working on? If you don't mind me asking?

I'm writing this on my phone, so if this makes even less sense than normal, I apologise. :')

[biggersandwich.livejournal.com]

Ah, I think I'm the opposite, I find reacting in a crowd is weird because there are so many people around me and I don't know what they're thinking, but with friends I can pick? And yes, it would definitely have to be friends who do things in the same sort of way. It gets increasingly difficult for me to watch games with people who don't do rpf, haha.

I know there was some issue because Teemu was supposed to carry the Finnish flag, but by the time they'd announced it, he was already on a plane. I was under the impression that the whole NA-based part of the team was with him, but I might be wrong.

I hope so! I think also lots of people are superstitious about writing medal results that haven't happened yet, so they've been holding off on celebration fic until it's all over. About the Olympics, I am also writing Sid/PK at the Olympics, Beau Bennett/James Neal(/absent Paul Martin) Olympics break sulking, and Stamkos/Del Zotto Olympics break h/c....huh, I kind of thought I had more. Probably because my mental picture is including fics I don't actually have any words about, but have told several people I want. Because that's useful when I don't even know if I'll finish these four. ;) About everything else...oh god, I have too many wips (which I super love talking about, btw, I'm just trying not to list like 20 things at you). /o\

[oanja.livejournal.com]

So you won't go to Maple Leafs square (or whatever it's called) and watch the game there is the Leafs make it to the playoffs again? :) But yeah I totally understand that, it would be weird to watch with someone who has no idea. You'd have to watch your comments and reactions and stuff.

Huh, that is kind of unfair imo. Like why couldn't they all go to the ceremony. What was the difference between the planes, a few hours. =( But does that also mean there were more than two flights, because I know other players flew back to the states days ago already (Nino for the Wild for example)

True enough about the superstitions (and I was a bit annoyed about the fic that came out before the games started or when they were still going because all of them had USA-Canada in the final and I was super sensitive to that... :D) Hee you're doing a lot of rare pairs, that cool. How does that Beau Bennett/James Neal(/absent Paul Martin) go? I'll ask about that one because at least I'm familiar with the Neal/Martin pairing. :D I'm kind of sad about the lack of fic about the guys who went to like Cabo or somewhere on their Olympic break... there were enough photos and things floating around.

Also feel free to tell me about all your fic ideas and wips. Talking about fics is the best! ^_^

[biggersandwich.livejournal.com]

Oh god, my idea of a nightmare. Especially when I would really not be that disappointed if they lost, and then the mob would set upon me. ;)

I think there were a whole bunch of flights because the NHL more or less insisted that people leave the second they got eliminated, as part of their general whining about the Olympics ruining their season.

Ahahaha, I know that feel, I am writing longfic that covers all of this season with some people and we had to make some Olympics decisions in October or thereabouts, and now it annoys me that our outcome is wrong (it was primarily chosen for narrative reasons), but also EVERYTHING we wrote has pretty much been wrong, so it does seem easier to just leave it and label it as all written well ahead of reality whenever we finally manage to finish it.

Haha, it's not very plotful, it's mostly fic where Beau and James go somewhere warm to sulk about not making the Olympics/missing Paul while he's at the Olympics and having a lot of sex while hockey that they refuse to admit they're watching plays in the background. Also they claim not to be watching the games, but keep texting Paul astonishingly specific advice. And then I guess it gets woeful because he was injured, but I haven't gotten there in the writing.

Talking about fics is wonderful! I just have too many, haha, and also sometimes "in progress" is kind of a euphemism for "words exist and are going exactly nowhere." >.> Also I ship a lot of rare pairs, so I'm never sure what other people are interested in hearing about, which is totally fair because there are too many options in this fandom, really. You should also feel free to tell me about yours, if you like. :D

[oanja.livejournal.com]

Haha~ I wouldn't be surprised if it actually happened... Do you watch any of the Steve Dangle vids on Youtube? he made one during the playoffs filming at the square and it was kind of awesome to see. Like people are really serious about hockey in Toronto. :D

Urgh, stupid NHL owners. :( I guess I just expected it to be the same coming and going, but people just flying back as soon as they were done on some random flight makes sense I guess. (they really were big spoilsports though for not letting the players go to the closing ceremony.)

Ooh, what is it like to write fic with other people? I've always been curious about that. How do you divide the labor and that sort of thing. Or did you plan the fic in advance together? But yeah writing about hockey is a lot easier after the fact, when we actually know what happened, but making predictions and writing about those is fun too, right?

So it's established relationship? Did James and Paul get together first or did it begin as the threesome? But it sounds cute, although I guess it would take a sadder turn when Paul got hurt. (poor guy, there seemed to be a lot more injuries than is normal for international tournaments and I never saw how they happened. Like what happened to Paul's hand, or to Tavares's knee(?))

There really are so many possible pairings and most of them we don't even know about unless we follow that particular team. (omg I feel like I just asked this, but which team was your number one? I'm so sorry, sometimes my memory sucks so bad) And rare pairs are fine! After all I wrote 50,000 words for a pairing that literally nobody else has posted fic about... :'D So you know, I'd be willing to be converted to rare pairs, if they have cute stories behind them, or just cool headcanons.

I just posted an entry yesterday on the state of my wips, but yeah, I'm mostly still stuck thinking and writing about my a/b/o universe. ^_^; And then I have the Kessels swap bodies fic, which I'm trying to work on (except I haven't since I wrote the first 4000 words of it...)

[biggersandwich.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I've seen some pics, and it definitely gets pretty nuts here! (I don't watch his vids, but I do listen to his podcast...which has just discovered the fanfic about him. He's surprisingly

Such spoilsports. An extra day does make a difference in terms of jetlag, but given how players play through that all the time anyway on roadtrips, plus the fact that surely the last thing you want to do with players who've been playing for two weeks is send them through the same tune-up practices as the guys who had two weeks off...

I like writing with other people a lot! Usually I write back and forth in email: I write a bit, the other person writes a bit, etc. within a plotline that we've discussed to some degree beforehand, and often with pauses if something comes up that we haven't discussed. I think I like predictions more when I can post before reality contradicts me? But this fic just went on and on and kept growing new sections, so we weren't able to post before the Olympics, even though we wrote all that part long ago.

Yeah, established relationship. I hadn't really thought about how it came about, haha, which is the advantage of established relationships. I guess...it's not actually a sequel to the Beau/James I wrote, but the ship kind of comes from the fact that I got halfway through writing that and realised it would be really easy to go for the threesome, even if that wasn't my original intention (and I never went through with it, obviously)? I don't think I'm going to get super into the angst possibilities of his injury, just cuddles, because I like fluff. (The injury list was just appalling. Mostly bad luck, I think, though the only one I saw happen was Tavares' knee, but still, they need to try harder to prevent these things.)

Oh, well, my teams question is complicated? I guess the one I've ended up following most closely on a hockey basis is probably the Hurricanes. And I do ship some things for them! Particularly the triad of Ryan Murray/Jeff Skinner/Elias Lindholm who canonically live together, never leave each other's sides, and are so close that the broadcast team makes jokes during games about Jeff sleeping on a cot in Elias and Ryan's (canonical) hotel room. Plus Ryan and Jeff have known each other since Jr so there's all that fun history there to play with. Also Eric Staal and Sasha Semin, because Eric gave so many interviews last year about how dreamy playing with Sasha is. But most of my wips are actually for players on other teams, because I am easily distracted. Some of the teams, like the Oilers, I quasi-follow, some of them, like the Isles, I don't even know how I ended up writing fic, except that the narratives are kind of adorable?

Yeah, sometimes you just have to put things away for a while. I have so many things that I haven't touched in ages, but don't want to give up on.

[oanja.livejournal.com]

Oh the way they read the fic gives me the worst second hand embarrassment. I have to skip those bits. But he's being a good sport about it, which is cool.

Yep yep.

That sounds like fun. Do you have similar style of writing? Like are you going to have to edit a lot before posting it or is it cohesive as is? It's cool you've built a long story together like that, even if getting Jossed sucks.

Ah, that makes sense. I guess it was just the automatic question, because about 95% of fic deals with the whole: how do they end up together part and not the established relationship part. :) And fluff and cuddles is definitely the way to go most of the times and especially here.

Ooh, now I actually feel like maybe we haven't talked about this before? or maybe my memory sucks even more than I thought. The Curricanes are a team I like to keep my eye on too, they are a lot of fun, even though something always seems to happen lately to make them lose. (poor guys) I'm super happy that they now have age appropriate shipping options for Jeff, those three are super adorable together! (I could never get into Jeff/E.Staal or J.Staal. Dunno why but big age gaps squick me out) I ship E.Staal and Sasha with the passion of the sun. :D and it's super sad there isn't fic about them.

Also this is totally random, but could you possibly beta read this 900 word ficlet I wrote about the Wild babies? I thought to ask, because you kind of volunteered to look at the Kessel fic, so... um? ^_^; wow this never get's less awkward, I always feel so pushy asking. Feel free to say no, I won't take it personally. :)

[biggersandwich.livejournal.com]

I can't skip those bits, it's like a trainwreck to me, I just have to watch... Which is bizarre, because I have the worst secondhand embarrassment issues! But he is an awfully good sport, and I appreciate that mostly they troll him about being a terrible boyfriend and not about the gay. (Also, I don't know where the rest of that paragraph in my comment disappeared to. Oops.)

I think our styles have been meshing surprisingly well. There's editing to be done, but I don't think it's because it's really obvious who wrote what bit. I think sometimes it even balances things out a little more: when I wrote that Gagner/Tavares fic with mistfarer, we quickly realised that I tend to underwrite emotions and make jokes about them, and she's a bit more overt, and it kind of balanced out to the emotions being actually noticeable, but also sufficiently irreverent?

Haha, definitely! It was a very reasonable question, just funny to me because I realised that I hadn't thought about it at all and just gone from "yes, but what if they were in a triad?"

Maybe not? It's possible we only talked about how I live in Toronto, but am not a Leafs fan. The Hurricanes are super tragic, but their broadcast team somehow makes it charming? Elias' giant crush on Jeff is my most favourite thing! I wish there was more EStaal/Sasha, though it is a bit hard to write. I find Sasha's characterisation difficult to get a handle on.

Not pushy at all! I love betaing! I don't know a ton about the Wild, except via fic, but if that's fine with you, send it along. You have my email, I think. :)

[oanja.livejournal.com]

Yeah I wondered about the sentence ending in the middle, but I guessed what was supposed to be there. :D I just can't do it, I had to listen to a part of one fanfic session, while I was walking home and had the podcast on my iPod and it's a bother to try skip things. It was soooo terrible. Especially because the fic isn't very good and you can really tell that because they are reading it out loud. (I'm sure it's bad!fic or crack fic on purpose, but I don't think the guys realize that. Or at least that's how I've interpreted it, like I said, I haven't actually listened to a whole luvyoudangler bit, or tried to read the original fic on tumblr)

That sounds so cool, especially that you have meshed so well together. It's always so cool to hear about stuff like this. (I've been wondering about these kinds of collaborations since I was a kid and realized some books were written by more than one person.)

That is a very valid starting point! :D I'm 100% behind it.

Or maybe we did back when we first friended each other and I just forgot already. Did we do it at the friending meme? That seems like all my hockey peeps came from. :D They just have really bad luck with injuries and when they do get injuries they never seem to be able to overcome them. And having your goalie miss a lot of games really isn't easily fixed. I've only seen gifs and then that interview with the tree of them at that cafe? That was just super great for me (was is Ryan who was trying to play it cool the whole time, while Jeff and Elias were just adorable failboats. It was so so good)

Sasha is really difficult, because he had that weird relationship with the media while he was playing for the Caps and because he still doesn't really talk English that well, so we know so little of his 'canon' self. He's just super interesting to me and I want to know more and read other people's takes on him. ...and you know, read about him and E.Staal making out. :D

I sent the ficlet to you and seriously thank you so much. *hugs*

[biggersandwich.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think the luvudangler people are trolling, especially as they started writing even more once they started putting it on the podcast. But it is really funny when Steve&c. get all wide-eyed shock because oh my god, this is so explicit, I can't say that! At which point I had to go check the tumblr out of curiosity, and lol, no, it's really not. I've written WAY more ridiculous porn than that in fic I considered to be barely porny at all.

Haha, I usually find it ends up happening because I'm trying to convince someone to write a thing, and they're trying the same thing on me, and then at some point we realise that we've outlined kind of a lot of it? I don't know how people can do it by dividing up the work more formally.

It's possible? I forget what I said at the friending meme, haha. The Canes have just had terrible injury issues these last two years, I don't even know how it's happened. That long interview is just a delight. The other things to watch are these (http://anonym.to/?http://video.hurricanes.nhl.com/videocenter/console?id=481206&catid=684) pieces (http://anonym.to/?http://video.hurricanes.nhl.com/videocenter/console?id=451968&catid=684) about Jeff and Ryan, and Elias (http://anonym.to/?http://instagram.com/lindholmelias) and Ryan's (http://anonym.to/?http://instagram.com/ryanmurphy24) instagrams. Other than that, most of my info is via Tripp Tracy shipping them hell out of them during all broadcasts.

Yeah, Sasha really doesn't want to talk to the media, so it's hard to get a handle on him, even if there are so many tantalisingly good photos of him goofing around. But EStaal has so many feelings, some of which he texts to Tripp Tracy apparently??? So I need the fic!

You're most welcome. I should be done soon. :D

[oanja.livejournal.com]

Haha~ idk the whole thing makes me feel super embarrassed. I guess I'm still missing the time when there actually was a fourth wall. ^_^; And then there's of course the problem that the fic is of the wrong ship. It should obviously just be ot3 about the three of them and not this Jeffler person. :D

Well that's even cooler, that it's so organic.

Terrible luck *nod nod* Ooh thanks for the links I'll have to investigate. But yeah the broadcasting team seems a lot more emotionally invested in the players than a lot of other ones I've listened to. It's cute.

Yes, definitely. I always get excited even when he used to pop up in Ovie fic as his sidekick or whatever... Getting kind of desperate for fic about him. :D I haven't heard about these texts can you tell me more?

[biggersandwich.livejournal.com]

I think I'd feel worse if it was a whole fandom they were encountering rather than some young people trolling them. But the fact that everyone involved is playing a joke on everything else makes it less awful? I say, while cringing uncontrollably as I listen. ;)

There's lots of old Sasha fic, but sadly it's almost all kind of unreadable, unless you're super into old slash tropes and first person fic (I am a picky bitch, oops.)

Tripp has talked a couple times about Eric telling him how great Sasha is and before his first Caps game as a Hurricane, Eric, Cam and someone else all apparently texted Tripp to inform him that they meant to win it for Sasha to show Troy Brouwer that he was wrong for saying that Sasha was a bad teammate. (They...did not win it. But then, they were pretty bad last year, so it's not surprising. Also, Tripp still hasn't forgiven Brouwer, which is hilarious because he's the kind of friendly soul who can compliment the other team's fifth goal against the Canes without sounding bitter in the slightest. But being mean to Sasha is apparently one step too far.) I find it baffling, but also great that they tell Tripp these things, and I have a real soft spot for how angrily defensive the Canes all are about Sasha being good at hockey and doing his best.

[oanja.livejournal.com]

Yes, I'm pretty worried about Erik Karlsson having a tumblr now... like please don't find fic. (at least there isn't much of anything written about the Senators so maybe we're safe???) But yeah, their attitude about the whole thing is great and also by the tweets Steve retweets it seems that the listeners are also taking it in their stride.

Oh dear, I don't think I've read any of those. ^_^; Or if I have, I've erased them from my mind... (I'm really picky about the fic I read too. Unless it's a trope or a pairing that's so rare that I'm willing to lower my standards out of desperation.)

Hee~ this is the best part about the whole trade, how it kind of seems that Sasha finally found a place where people appreciate him for who he is and for the kind of hockey he plays. It's such a great starting place for fic too, and I'm still kind of baffled nobody seems willing/interested to write about this. *pout* (I noticed he scored against Buffalo, too bad they still lost... such a Canes thing to do, sort of. ^_^;)

[biggersandwich.livejournal.com]

It's probably easier for Steve to deal with as a fan too, he's at least a little more used to the weirdness of fandom from the inside, even if dude-fandom is totally different. I can't decide if it's better or worse that there isn't a lot of fic about Karlsson because the tiny amount means that it's virtually all impressively filthy, which is particularly unsettling if it's about you, whereas it's harder to mock 100k of Kane/Toews for anything except being long, when you don't want to read it in the first place. Not that I don't think the best case scenario is EK totally ignoring all that stuff!

They're mostly on 2mins4slashing...which I don't exactly recommend. I appreciate the variety of pairings available there, but it's mostly older fic, and it can be kind of dated. (I do enjoy browsing their player tags to find the most batshit possible pairings, but that's probably kind of a mean game. >.> (Kovalchuk/Getzlaf/Gagner, winner and still champion. ;))

It's so hard to write without seeming like you're being self-indulgently dramatic! But no, he really did have a horrible time in Washington because there were serious problems in that organisation, and Carolina has embraced him and would shank a dude for him, and EStaal wants to tell everyone that playing with him is amazing and dreamy and the best ever.

[oanja.livejournal.com]

Yes, and idk if we can even say he's famous, so in some ways he's more of 'one of us' but yeah. Best case scenario is Erik Karlsson staying blissfully ignorant on this matter.

Wow that is one random pairing. I'm pretty bad at reading pairing where I know nothing about the people. Usually I need at least like a primer or something. Otherwise it feels like I'm reading original character fic, which for whatever reason, isn't really my cup of tea.

I wish there was a comprehensive primer or post about his time in the Caps, because I need to know the why's and the how's. Like seriously what happened there? I've read some random articles about how he was 'enigmatic' and too Russian and not clutch enough and too streaky and whatever. It's just so interesting to me and I'm sad I wasn't into NHL hockey earlier so I would have some more context. But yes, I approve of Canes adopting Semin into their fold and especially EStaal singing his praises. It's excellent for me. :D

[biggersandwich.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Steve's honestly more of a BNF than an actual famous person.

I like longfic about characters I don't know, but it's hard to get really into short ones, though I'm awfully easy to convince with just a few canon details. Actual batshit pairings are an exception though. It's not so much that I wanted to read the (extremely short and terrible) Gagner/Kovalchuk/Getzlaf, despite my love of Gagner, I just enjoy the fact that someone decided that would be a good idea.

I think no one really knows what happened? There were just always all these super weird rumours, and then as soon as Carolina signed him he said a couple things about the Caps being really dysfunctional, and it's hard to say that they aren't, but obviously they admit nothing and their current players aren't going to say anything, except that some of them have demanded trades and they keep losing... But it's all obscured by the hockey media having a bizarre bias against streaks, as though that's not exactly how random chance always works, and Russians, particularly quiet ones who don't actually want to say things in accented English that you laugh at, thanks ever so. But Sasha has been rescued! Which makes me happy. :D

[oanja.livejournal.com]

(haha lj actually collapsed this thread, I can't even remember when that happened to me last. Wow I miss LJ sometimes)

That actually makes so much sense! He really is a BNF especially in the Leafs fandom. :D

Yes, it's a lot easier to get into new characters in long fics, but then again I'm really bad at reading short fic even about people I know... (I actually get annoyed when people post drabbles or fic that's barely over 500 words. I'm such an asshole) Oh you're a Gagner fan! How do you feel about the trade rumors? Where would you want him to get traded? (I think everyone who get's away from the Oilers should count themselves lucky... I really hope Yakupov can escape the team)

But it must have started somewhere? Like they can't have felt like this about him from the beginning surely? Like things must have gotten worse incrementally? I actually hadn't heard about this thing where the caps are generally dysfunctional. Interesting. Do you think it's better now with the new coach, or is it just something even deeper in the team? There just seems to be this super weird thing about Russians in general in the NHL. It's super gross. But yes, at least Sasha seems happy now, hopefully the team/press there won't turn on him later.

[biggersandwich.livejournal.com]

(I miss lj a lot! Not that I'm not bad at remembering to post though, haha.)

Yeah, and speaking of lj, that was something lj was really good for because I'm much happier with 500 words of something written by someone I know or at least already follow than 500 words of something in the tag on AO3. You need at least 1k to really say something, or at least I do, though I am a wordy fuck.

I am of mixed mind about the Gagner trade rumours. Edm does not love him and has screwed him over and fucked around with his development so much that it would probably be better for him if he left. On the other hand, selfishly, I don't want him to go because I don't need another team to try and follow, and what if he went somewhere boring? My ideal situation would be him traded to the Isles because I'm basically already inches from falling for them and I ship him a lot with John Tavares because they're childhood friends (and also spent all of last summer together, no, really, I'm just saying) and I'm totally okay with wanting real life to make my fanfiction easier to write. :D

I think his Russianness was already a mark against him by the time he showed up there, and then there was some controversy because he had to go do his military service in Russia and you know how the NHL gets all pissy when its athletes dare to have other legal commitments. And then the Caps never actually won the Cup (because, of course, that's so easy), and Sasha was blamed along with Ovi because they were friends and clearly ruining everything with Russianness together. But the Caps also seem dysfunctional on an organisational level. I don't know if Oates is helping, but there seem to have been a lot of problems with coaches putting a lot of blame on random players and not being good at communicating how to improve or if improvement efforts were successful. (But, take all my Caps comments with a grain of salt: I don't follow them terribly closely, and I've only been into hockey for a couple years.) I'm hopeful about Carolina! I don't think I've ever seen their media turn on a player, and barely ever be anything other than supportive, and I think their general niceness is only enhanced by how protective they feel about him.

[oanja.livejournal.com]

(well, you're not the only one. It's a common problem these days. :))

This is true, and posting short stuff on your own journal, or even on tumblr is fine, because in some ways it's private. But on ao3 it's there, taking space in the pairing/fandom tag. So, so annoying to me. I'm super wordy too, I really admire the people who can somehow make actual plot or character development happen in a couple thousand words.

Haha~ understandable to want him to stay in that case. :D But at least now it would be believable to write fic where he's traded to the Isles. Even if it doesn't end up happening in reality. Ships of childhood friends are the best. Isn't Gagner also friends with Kane? How do they know each other?

Yeah, that's what I've gathered about the situation too. It's weird that if there are such bad problems with the team that Ovie and Backstrom wanted to sign long term deals with them. (I just looked at capgeek and they are almost literally the only players with long term deals... wow)

That's good to hear about the Hurricanes. It must help that the whole state and city isn't a 'real' hockey market, so there's less pressure for the media to stir up shit and the fanbase isn't as batshit insane than in other places.

[biggersandwich.livejournal.com]

Maybe less private than more clearly for your own benefit? I mean, not that I don't think people should get to post whatever they like to ao3, but ao3 is so good for posting in a very public kind of way, I always feel like it should be for more public fic?

The problem is, who on earth do the Isles send back? Though, MacT is kind of a dubious GM, so possibly Andrew MacDonald, because at least he plays D, even if he's not great? :P Gagner was on Jr team for a year with Kane and they were called the Glimmer Twins for reasons that have yet to be explained to me. But he's known Johnny since he was 10 and they spent hours skating together every day when they were babies and they keep having feelings about it in interviews and they skated together on that same rink when they happened to have a few overlapping days in TO last winter and took pics and it's super good for me in all the ways. (I am not very big on Kane, tbh. Overexposure, perhaps? But that's just me.)

I'm not sure the problems were as apparent when they signed those deals? And I do think Ovi really wants to prove that he can lead that team to a championship...it's just hard when they keep surrounding him with less good players and a fucked up team culture.

Yeah, I think having no real expectations keeps things pretty chill, and even though they have fans, there are always going to be other, bigger, sports in the area that get most of the attention/vitriol (according to people I know from NC, anyway.)

[oanja.livejournal.com]

yeah, and personally I've just never seen the point of 100 word drabbles. So it's you're mileage may vary sort of thing. ^_^;

Haha, Oilers management is a mess, I'm sure they could make something work. :D That's a weird nickname to give them... I had heard that they used to play a lot together as kids (JT and Gagner, I mean) it's super cute. (I'm not big on any Hawks tbh, but you kind of have to keep an eye on them just because they are so big in the fandom.)

But you kind of have to wonder about Ovie and Backs too, I mean they have a impact on the team culture too. Like being leaders in their team etc. You can't blame all of it on the coaches or higher ups. idk the whole thing seems really weird the more I think about it. Like I don't watch any Caps games, so I can't really say anything about what's wrong with the team. It's just a cool story to me... x)

Yep, that's what I've heard/read too.

[biggersandwich.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I feel you about the Hawks, I'm just overly defensive about Sam showing up in Kane fic as a plot device, haha.

That is a good point, it's just hard to say? Like, obviously Ovi and Sasha were/are excellent friends and continue to spend lots of time together? And Laich and Green defend the shit out of them at all opportunities. On the other hand, Brouwer was less impressed, so it's totally possible that part of the issue is cliques, and probably the impression of cliques too, because there are actually enough Russian players that they probably do speak Russian some of the time, which I could see certain kinds of Canadian/USian players having trouble with, even though it's totally reasonable.

[oanja.livejournal.com]

I read some of the fic, because there isn't enough other stuff, but generally I can't stand the Hawks fawning going on (still bitter about last year's playoffs... which might influence my opinion a bit.)

I think a lot of Blues fans can share your pain. :D

The clique thing makes a lot of sense to me. I mean it seems like a thing that happens more often than you'd think and can cause real problems.

I posted the fic and mentioned you as my beta with the name you have on DW and twitter, I hope that was okay? I forgot to ask about it before posting... *facepalm*

[biggersandwich.livejournal.com]

I guess I just kind of assume that these are all adults who can deal with cliques? Really, no one should ever expect to be equally close pals with 20-odd other people, it's entirely possible to be well aware that dudes A and B are besties without feeling like this ruins the harmony of the group, though I suppose that it would be harder if there were other problems in the room.

Absolutely fine, not something you need to ask about at all. :) I wouldn't care if you used this name either, but I'm opusculasedfera pretty much everywhere else, so it's probably marginally more recognisable.

[oanja.livejournal.com]

Yeah and it says something about the situation, that the cliques become a problem in the first place (if there were cliques of course) and something that can't be resolved.

(I just keep thinking about what allegedly happened in Montreal when Saku Koivu was the captain there and the room kind of split into two, Saku's camp and then the other camps for some other dude and I've read that's the biggest reason why they traded/didn't resign Koivu, even though he'd been the captain there forever.)

Yay thank you. :) Like I was wondering if you wanted to take a look at the Kessel bodyswap fic I'm writing? Like I don't need a beta yet (as it's not finished obviously) but it would be nice to get a new set of eyes on it. I'm still feeling kind of iffy about writing it, with the way fandom feels about including female hockey players in slash fic etc...

[biggersandwich.livejournal.com]

You're right, it's definitely the kind of thing that can happen anywhere, even with the nicest people.

Sure, if you think it would be useful to you. :) I think fandom wants more AKessel fic! It's awkward if she's only a plot device, but if she gets to learn and stuff too and the primary plot device is magical bodyswap, that's different? Plus, she's Phil's sister, so at least she has motivation to care about Phil's problems, which is I think the usual complaint people have about female players randomly popping up in fic about NHLers.

[oanja.livejournal.com]

I guess sometimes people just don't get along and with a team sports etc, they have to spend so much time together in high pressure situations. idk...

Yeah I don't want her to be just a plot device or anything like that, but let me know if I'm doing her injustice. >_>

[last01standing.livejournal.com]

*grumbles about the game* Watched to the bitter end but it's not much fun to see your boys fall apart. Hoping the NHL treats my team more kindly than the olympics did.

I'm with you though, I'd like to see the Swedes take out Canada. They've certainly looked like the class of the tournament thus far.

[oanja.livejournal.com]

The Caps, right? It was so terrible, what happened to Backs. Poor baby. Idk how this will end, I mean is he even getting a medal now?

Guess Canada was the better team after all. Sweden did have the easier matchups in the earlier games, so maybe I should have know how it was going to end, but... :D

[messy-kisses.livejournal.com]

Yay!

Tartteeko tässä nyt muuta sanoa? :D

[oanja.livejournal.com]

No eipä oikeestaan. :D