Chapter Text
The theme music fades away. The men behind the desk, paid to talk, begin to do so.
"Hi, I'm Ron Chatterly."
"And I'm Jimmy McDermott, and this is NHL This Week. Ed, you know there's just one thing on everybody's minds about this week's action coming up - Wednesday night the Las Vegas Aces are going to meet the Providence Falconers on the ice."
"You're so right, Jimmy. Kent Parson and Jack Zimmermann on opposite sides - we've been waiting for this moment for six months, since Zimmermann signed with the Falconers."
"Except some of us have been waiting for it for six years, when it became clear there was no way Parson and Zimmermann were going to go to the same team in the draft. We asked them for their thoughts."
They cut away to pre-recorded video. A blond man in his mid-twenties, helpfully captioned "Kent Parson - Captain, Las Vegas Aces".
"Jack always inspired me to be a better player, when we were on the same line years ago. I hope he still does from across the ice. But on the other hand, this has to be just one more game. We're just here to play hockey, you can't bring personal feelings onto the ice."
Another cut, to a dark-haired man also in his mid-twenties, helpfully captioned "Jack Zimmermann - Providence Falconers". He speaks with a bit of a French-Canadian accent.
"Playing beside Kent, he always made me a better player, and he was my best friend off the ice. But we're not the first pair who were best friends in juniors to end up on opposite sides of a faceoff circle, eh? This game isn't about me and him, it's about the Falconers and the Aces. We're going to play our best game, everyone on both teams is, and the best team is going to win."
They cut back to Ron and Jimmy. Ron begins talking again. "So you can see Parson and Zimmermann are downplaying the significance of this game, but it's got to be weighing on their minds. They were the best pair to come out of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League in the past decade. Maybe ever... but as you know, they went their separate ways after the 2009 draft, with Parson becoming a dominant player in the NHL and Zimmermann taking some time off and eventually going into the NCAA. This is going to be the first real test of whether that was a wise decision on Zimmermann's part, when the hockey world is finally going to get to make a direct comparison between the two of them."
Jimmy agrees. "It's going to be really interesting to see how these two men fare on the ice against each other. In other games to keep an eye on this week, Colorado is going up against.."
Jack Zimmermann, Providence Falconers, presses the button on the remote that turns the television off. He chooses not to react to the observation that his hand is shaking as he does it, instead thinking, "at least we both had the same thought about what to say to the media." He sets the remote down, instead, and boots up his laptop for his nightly Skype with Eric.