Work Text:
Tuukka was playing with his young daughter after dinner when his phone went off.
"Are you free?" Price had sent.
"Yeah, I can talk now," Tuukka messaged back. "Hey, Jasmiina!" He called.
"Yeah?" Jasmiina asked as she walked into the room.
"I have a call I need to take," Tuukka said as he handed his daughter to his girlfriend, "Daddy will be right back okay?" He told his daughter as he kissed her on the head.
--
"Hey guys what's up?" Tuukka asked after he opened the Skype Chat on his laptop.
"Nothing much just relaxing," Fleury said, "Did you get that baby gate up?"
"Yeah," Tuukka said, "We got it up shortly before my girlfriend and daughter came home. And thankfully my brother just wanted new skates and sticks. So it wasn't something crazy."
"Your brother plays hockey too?" Fleury asked.
"Yeah," Tuukka said, "He plays here in Finland. He played for the Predators' organization for a while."
"Is he a goalie?" Crawford asked.
"No, he's a forward," Tuukka said, "He didn't want to follow in my footsteps. He didn't want to live my shadow."
"So Tuukka, we were wondering if there's some kind of issue between you and the Bruins organization." Price asked.
"What do you mean?" Tuukka asked, "Why would there be an issue?"
"Are you on Twitter?" Price asked.
"No."
"Is your girlfriend on twitter?" Price asked.
"I honestly have no idea," Tuukka said, "I don't think so."
"Here, I'll give you my login information," Price said, "When you logon search your name."
"Do I want to know why?" Tuukka asked as he signed into Carey Price's Twitter.
"Your name has come up in a lot of...interesting trade rumors." Price said.
"What the fuck!?" Tuukka exclaimed as he read through the numerous tweets.
"Yeah," Price said.
"Me to Edmonton?" Tuukka exclaimed, "Are these people out of their fucking minds? I have a fucking no-move clause that I have no intention of waiving!"
"Me to Toronto for Kessel!?" Tuukka exclaimed, "What the fuck!? Toronto traded me without ever giving me a chance. And someone thinks I would want to go back!?"
“Kessel ended up coming to the Penguins,” Fleury said, “But we had to get rid of a lot of players to make room for him.”
"Oh this one is nice: "RASK TO [WESTERN CONFERENCE TEAMS] FOR [DOUBLE DIGIT PICK]!" Tuukka read aloud, “Yeah, no.”
"It gets worse," Price said.
"Me for Andrew Ference? Me for Ryan Nugent-Hopkins?" Tuukka asked, "There's no way in hell I'm going to Edmonton."
"I heard that one on TSN," Crawford said, "I thought that was weird. Considering that your GM said you were absolutely NOT on the trade block. One of the hosts said something like: "Boston just might be crazy enough to go for a trade like that." Which I find hard to believe."
"I'm finding these wicked amusing," Tuukka said, "Me to the Flyers for Ray Emery and Andrew MacDonald? I honestly think if Sweeney called me to ask me to waive my no-move, I would have just laughed.”
“I wouldn’t blame you for doing that,” Fleury said.
“I mean there's no way I'm going to Edmonton. I felt sick to my stomach the last two times I played there which usually isn’t a good omen," Tuukka said. “I'm sure as hell not going back to Toronto. They didn't give me a chance and traded me not even a year after being drafted."
"You were drafted by Toronto?" Crawford asked.
"Yeah in 2005," Tuukka said, "First round. I was twenty-first overall."
"Really?" Price said, "I was drafted fifth overall that year. I think I would have remembered seeing you there. I tried to talk to all the goalies drafted."
"I wasn't able to attend the draft." Tuukka said, "So I was still in Finland. And I was still in Finland when I got traded. I wasn't too happy at the time but I'm pretty content now. Especially considering Toronto's record. And being the second Finnish born goalie to lift the Cup was nice. Even if I was just the backup and didn't see any ice time."
"So you're not leaving Boston?" Fleury asked.
"Oh fuck no!" Tuukka said, "If I have my way I won't leave Boston."
"Good," Price said, "Games against the Bruins won't be any fun if you're not opposite me."
"Speak for yourself," Tuukka said, "My teammates play their worst against Montreal. And I’m forced to take the fall for them."
"My team played like shit against Buffalo last season," Price said, "And several of my teammates had been traded from Buffalo. And don't get me started on how they played against the Lightning."
"We played like shit against the Flyers," Fleury said, "They tried to blame me. They even tried to blame me for the game they started our backup in."
"I got blamed for my team's issue with Montreal." Tuukka said, "I think the only game I didn't get blamed for was the one game I purposefully lost against Edmonton. And if I gave up more than two goals regardless of whether we won or lost, I would have to deal with stupid "Are you in a slump?" questions."
"I got blamed for everything," Crawford said, "And I helped lead my team to a Stanley Cup victory, twice."
"I don't really get blamed for much," Price said.
"Lucky." The other three goalies said in unison.
"It's like people aren't happy unless we're posting shutouts every night." Tuukka said, "Which is fucking impossible. I'd personally like to see these critics try to do what we do. I'm pretty sure they'd shut right up."
"What can we do about it?" Crawford said, "People are always going to find reasons to bitch about the goalie."
"We just keep playing our game," Tuukka responded as he logged out of Price's Twitter and deleted the text with login information, "Thanks for bringing the rumors to my attention."
"No problem," Price said, "You didn't post anything weird to my twitter did you?"
"I thought about it but decided not to." Tuukka said. “You trusted me enough to give me your password so I didn't post anything."
"Okay good," Price said, "You're more mature than PK Subban that's for sure.”
"Oh I bet," Tuukka said, "If he's anything like his younger brother."
"He's worse than Malcolm," Price said, "Trust me he's much worse than Malcolm. PK got a hold of my phone once and I had to delete about six “SUBBAN IS THE BOMB!” tweets with selfies attached.”
"Oh boy," Tuukka said, “Yeah, I’m not one to post stuff like that on someone else’s social media page.”
"Thanks for clearing things up for us," Fleury said, "Things were crazy enough as it was this offseason. I didn’t want to see you get traded from Boston. You do so much for that team."
"Tell me about it," Tuukka said. "Well have a good day, I'm gonna finish my evening off with a beer. I need one after reading those rumors."
"Don't overdo it," Crawford advised.
"You're not one to talk," Tuukka said, "I think I only have one beer left anyway. Oh and Price, congrats on all your awards. I just found out you won a few days ago. News from the NHL is on a bit of a delay here in Finland."
"Thanks Tuukks," Price said, "We can call you Tuukks right?"
"Go ahead," Tuukka said, "Everyone else calls me Tuukks, including reporters."
"Have a good day."
"Have a good evening Tuukka." Fleury and Crawford said.
Once the chat was over, Tuukka went back to playing with his young daughter while the other three goalies planned out their day.