dekedangle_rpfanon | #24 – Not Sure If Serious or Playing Dumba

#24 – Not Sure If Serious or Playing Dumba

This is the twenty-fourth post of Deke Dangle RPF Anon, a community for all your ice hockey anon meme needs.

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...while secretly getting it on with Samson Reinhart? Yes please.

/not even a Sabres fan but deke made me ship it

I don't think he's eligible to play for the US anymore

I strongly suspect that San Jose aren't giving them much access. There's way less Sharks material compared to the other three.

You know, his story has an awful lot of angst potential, and I can't remember ever seeing any fic deal with it, even though I've read a fair amount of fic that he's appeared in.

Yeah, it'd be interesting to see that explored, though I'm not sure there's a way to do it without it being super-depressing. I mean, most of the Jack Johnson fics about him being bankrupt also have some degree of depression/suicidality, and I'm not sure I'd want to see that for Bennett.

I think it'd be interesting to explore too. Most fics about younger players derailed by injuries tend to gloss over attempts to come back and that's Bennett's whole story, pretty much. What we do have are mostly AUs where the young former player has already moved on. The angst there is usually about their careers being over, not about how tough the attempts to return were - if any are even mentioned in the stories.

Hockey even has its weird thing where playing through injuries (especially through the playoffs) is a norm and even lionized. I'm specifically thinking of Gregory Campbell's broken leg and Backes coming back in the same series as the Seabrook hit. Players delay surgeries until after the season a lot of the time, too. You just don't see that a lot in other sports. Coming back from injury and illness is basically what winning the Masterton is all about, too.

I love the fic that dealt with him getting scratched and falling out of favor with the coaches last year, but that was kind of between injuries so I agree. I want a sequel that deals with this stage.

It was especially depressing this year because he was arguably the Penguins' best forward earlier in the year. He was definitely their best winger under Johnston. Beaunino aside, he was excellent with Sid and really started to spark him before he got injured. He's a first round talent and yet here he is, in hockey limbo, and his career is probably over or on its way.

Or he signs with the Devils next season after going unqualified and plays 82 games, goes 20-40-60 and everyone calls Shero a genius. That's when I stab myself in the ribcage.

Delaying treatment until after the season is really common in figure skating too. After Worlds there's the same admitting to injuries as after playoffs in hockey, it's always kind of terrifying what they've been performing with. Maybe it's an ice sports thing?

Which fic was that?

Do you think there's a chance another team signs him?

I'd read a take on it where his injury-proneness is actually related to the fact that he's secretly a superhero and he keeps getting hurt fighting bad guys (and possibly falling off rooftops) and covering it up with hockey injuries. Or, conversely, that he has the suckiest mutant power ever that means he gets hurt constantly. Maybe via preventing injuries to other people in his general vicinity, but then the Pens are so cursed when it comes to injuries that everything just goes haywire. Or, you know, it could just be that the team keeps saying he's "injured" so they can whisk him away to their alien master's tentacle breeding facility.

Okay, those are not a totally serious treatment of it, but I kind of like the take-this-kind-of-depressing-situation-and-add-an-out-there-element-to-it angle. Because while the more realistic angle would be really interesting (especially fic that had him interacting with another player who had similar injury woes and ended up retiring), it just makes me sad.

I mean, wasn't he on a one-year league min 'show me' contract? I think he might get another from another team or a pro try out, but I don't think the Pens are gonna resign him for sure.

There's a particular macho culture around playing through pain that's specific to hockey, but in pretty much every sport where you're liable to get injured, you have people playing through injury on a regular basis. Was going to comment about figure skating, too, but I don't think it's by any means unique to those sports, even if in some sports it gets taken to extremes more than others (and I think there are often sport-related reasons that account quite well for differences in how injury is handled -- for example, differences between team and individual sports, season schedule, etc.).

I'm always for dressing up RL hockey stuff with fantastical elements, so yeah, that could be fun. Although I feel like it'd be less fun if it was written after RL!Beau had already failed to sign anywhere and was effectively retired. There's a pretty short window there before it'd just be too sad.

A Save Situation, Beau/Borts
http://archiveofourown.org/works/3658800

It's a funnier take on it than a fully angsty one, but I like that. Beau is really dry and harsh on himself and there's some good stuff about his fear of being the next Tangradi.

Bit ironic now too because she uses Pouliot as the favored foil to Beau and now he's basically in the same scratched boat just without all the injuries. Another first rounder :/

ayrt

Oh right, I remember really liking that one. I'd forgotten it had that element in it.

AYRT

Yeah, that's very true. I'd really like for him to get signed by someone after this season and for his injury woes to somehow magically disappear, but I don't think that's super likely. Hopefully in the meantime he can get some playing time in in the playoffs and not injure himself celebrating a goal or walking to the dressing room or just sitting somewhere quietly and existing...

DA
Agreed - it'd be cute and funny and whimsical ... if he isn't effectively retired. I'd love to see him with like, a baseball minor leaguer who's in the same situation. (Though I checked on a minor leaguer who I thought was in the Pirates system, and looks like he's not even playing for an MLB affiliated club anymore. Wow.)

I was asking about other teams, not the Pens. I feel like the Pens don't need to take on his risk anymore, but I don't know enough about him or his injuries to say whether he is worth other teams who don't have the Pens forward depth taking him on. Are his injuries recurring or mostly unrelated?

The play through the pain thing is one of my least favorite aspects of hockey culture, but now I want fic where Weijun Sui wins the heart of an NHL player by telling him how she won silver at Worlds despite needing surgery on both ankles.

Yes, I was answering about his situation and contract more generally. I don't think he'll be resigned, thus he might get signed on another similar deal or through a pro-tryout.

AFAIK, his injuries are both recurring and unrelated - undisclosed upper body (shoulder and wrist, possibly?) and things like the mumps last year.

ayrt

Omg, 100% would read <3

But yeah, I laugh and roll my eyes a little when some fans go on about how hockey is the best sport because players are so ~manly and gritty because they play through injuries, even ones requiring surgery!! Meanwhile, figure skaters do the same on the regular, but at a younger age doing things that put way more stress on their bodies. And speaking of injury comeback stories, Tatiana Totmiana winning Olympic gold after being dropped on her head will always be a favorite.

When he was out for large parts of last year it was a knee thing, though. He just seems to have trouble with all his major joints.

sa

Not to say that I approve of skating through serious injuries for figure skaters, either! It's terrible to play through injury, but understandable why people do it -- but valorizing that as a fan is silly :/

Down for *all* of this.

(I still want Dominik Hasek marrying Reinhart and Eichel after all the quasi-courtship material deke's been collecting for our entertainment.)

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#24 – Not Sure If Serious or Playing Dumba

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