It’s easy to fall back into the routine he’s known for the past two seasons and nothing too remarkable happens for a few weeks. His grandma comes by to visit and Dennis is devastated when she leaves, because she was cooking all their food. Blake doesn’t mind cooking if it’s nothing too fancy, but Dennis has managed to burn a variety of things, including pasta and milk, so Blake won’t hold it against him if he stays out of the kitchen.
Elliot scores his second career hat trick and Blake sends him a text to congratulate him.
Blake goes on a 6-game win streak and Elliot sends him a text to congratulate him.
Elliot gets invited to the All Star Game and Blake sends him a text to congratulate him.
Other than that, they don’t really hear from each other, not until both the Knights’ goalies get injured, one after the other, and suddenly Blake’s in Manhattan, on NHL ice, with his NHL team hurling pucks at him, and no one other than Elliot Cowell and his NHL team on the other side of the center line.
Blake has never played a regular season game that wasn’t on home ice. Hell, Blake has never played a regular season game that mattered as much as this one. Not with the Knights. He goes through his warmup routine and tries to settle down. Because this is just a game like any other. And he’ll do what he can. And it doesn’t matter at all who’s coming at him on the ice, doesn’t matter if it’s Elliot. All Blake has to do is make saves.
And he does, for a while. He keeps the door shut until the second period, at the end of which they’re tied at one. Could be worse.
He tunes out the crowd as best as he can during the third, tries not to listen to what they’re chanting at him and his teammates, but things start to get chippy on the ice soon, guys pushing and shoving each other, trying to draw penalties and the whistle goes and goes.
Elliot comes for him on a breakaway late in the third, and shit, he’s so fast, there’s no way for anyone to catch up, no matter how hard they try, and somehow, through some sort of miracle, Blake gets his stick on it and it deflects up into the netting. The others catch up when the whistle has already gone and there’s some more pushing and shoving and yelling behind Blake’s net.
Blake doesn’t want to get too involved, but Elliot is at the sidelines, holding on to one of Blake’s teammates, and Blake can’t help himself, he has to poke Elliot in the back of the neck with his stick. Very gently. Just a little tickle. Elliot spins around, eyes narrowed, ready to pounce, but only until he realizes that Blake is the culprit. Blake gets a masterful eye-roll in return.
Elliot is distracted soon enough, giving the refs an earful when they start escorting guys from both teams to the penalty boxes, because the Ravens have apparently never done anything wrong in their lives. They end up playing 4-on-4, but the clock runs down with the game still tied.
The Knights lose it in OT, but Blake is still sent off the ice with his teammates patting his back.
The Ravens give him third star of the game for his 37 saves.
When he’s asked why he was bugging Elliot, Blake says, “I was saying hello to an old friend. We used to play together.”
saying hello my ass, Elliot texts him a few hours later.
Blake doesn’t reply, only smiles about it and pulls the sheets up to his chin and goes to sleep.
He’s staying at Mattie’s house, so he knows when Mattie is ready to come back. Blake is happy for him when it turns out to be a quick recovery, loses another game and then wins two with the team in the meantime, then he gets pulled aside after practice one day.
“Blake,” Coach says and he’s making a face that Blake has never seen before, which probably means it’s not a good one.
“You’re sending me down?” Blake guesses. He doesn’t get it. Koivu had to have surgery and is on IR, so even with Mattie back in the lineup, they’re going to need a backup. He was playing well.
“You’ve been great for us,” Coach says, “but we need you to play more games, and you’re not going to play those here with Mattie back in the lineup.”
Okay, maybe he does get it. He needs experience and if they send him down, there’s a chance that he’ll get to start for the Raiders more than he ever did before. The Raiders are going to the playoffs for sure. Dennis got his first hatty while Blake was in Newark, although that was sadly also the only game they won, being in a bit of a goaltending pickle with both of their regular goalies on the NHL team.
So Blake packs his bags and drives back to the place he shares with Dennis, with a bag full of food from Mattie on the backseat and pictures that Mattie’s kids drew for him, of him in goal, and of him and the dogs, and of him with the whole family. Blake was experiencing a few emotions too many when one of Mattie’s tiny kids came up to him and said, “I drew you a picture of Shadow, because you always pet him and you’ll probably miss him, so you can take this and look at him
