As Bob settled into the goal crease, wearing an unfamiliar Buffalo Sabres helmet atop his battered head, he noticed a tallish player with the name
"PYATT" on the back of his jersey lining up for the faceoff.
"TAYLOR! TAYLOR PYATT! IS THAT YOU?!?"
"Yup."
"BUT I THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD!"
"Nope."
With that mystery gone by the wayside, Bob got his mind back into the game. He was a veritable brick wall through the first period, turning aside shot
after shot from the opponents. Thanks to an incredible break-away, unassisted, short-handed, falling-down, one-handed swipe of a goal by Taylor Pyatt, the Sabres took a 1-0 lead into the dressing room. Once in the dressing room, though, things got a little strange.
"Hey, you! Bob Essensa!" It was Erik Rasmussen. Bob had heard the rumours about Rasmussen, and he was not in the mood to have such an encounter, at least not on his first evening with the team.
"Uhh, I've got to call my parents." Bob pulled out his cell phone, randomly dialing numbers to create a diversion.
"But I just want to talk, Bob! I JUST WANT TO TALK!" Erik started to cry like a little girl, and Bob felt bad.
"Oh, I'm sorry." He put away the cell phone and tried to console Rasmussen.
"Dude, what are you doing?!?" Taylor came up and smacked Bob on the back on the head. "Stay away from this homo!"
Just then, Lindy Ruff came in the locker room and told to team to get back out onto the ice for the second period. Bob breathed a deep sigh of relief.
Disaster averted.
Bob had some difficulty concentrating during the second period, which is understandable considering Erik Rasmussen was winking at him during every
defensive zone faceoff. Markus Naslund managed to get a weak backhand into the top corner behind Bob, and the score was tied up at 1. Bob hated his former teammates, the Canucks, and wanted nothing more than to shut them out. After Naslund got that puck behind him, Bob simply snapped.
With a mighty hack from Essensa's goalie stick, Naslund crumpled to the ice in pain. Essensa took off his blocker pad and began pummeling Naslund about the
head with it. No Canucks came to Markus's defense. Bob assumed it was because he had intimidated them so, but in reality, they all wanted to see the puck-hog
beaten to a pulp. They all did, as it was, except for Dan Cloutier.
The Canuck goaltender who had replaced Essensa when he left for the Sabres was seeing any chance at goal support spill out onto the ice along with Markus
Naslund's bodily fluids. Cloutier tore off his helmet and skated to the opposite end of the ice as quickly as he could.
Chapter 11 - Fight With Dan Cloutier