Jennifer
shows up to the next morning’s practice only to find that it’s open to the
public. A young woman introduces herself.
“I’m Chelsea, groupie extraordinaire”
(32).
As
I’ve mentioned, I’ve been to a fair number of Coyotes practices and I’ve seen
the other regulars. I even saw some who I thought were, frankly, a little
obsessed (yes, more than me). And I don’t think any of them would introduce
themselves that way. Chelsea is one of a group of four who not only come to
every practice (every public one and even some that aren’t, apparently) but
also follow the team. After this day’s practice, they’re driving to Montreal to
see that night’s game.
Jennifer
wonders how these women have jobs that allow them to tailor their schedules
around the team. Flurry and I wondered that about other people we saw at
practices. (We were graduate students.)
And that wasn’t even for people who went to away games. She also notices that
the women don’t dress like puck bunnies (dressed to get noticed) but were in
appropriate hockey rink clothes. She speaks with Chelsea for a while, then asks
if she can send her cameraman (Bryce) along with the women to Montreal for
footage and they say yes.
I
really hope Chelsea has a car that fits more than five. Because sure, there’d
‘only’ be five of them, plus luggage and camera equipment, but that’s a 7 and a
½ hour drive, without stops, from Philadelphia to Montreal. That sounds awfully
squishy.
Jennifer
loses some of her enthusiasm for Axel and the team when she learns they have
groupies.
Did he have female fans who shadowed
his movements? The idea rankled (32).
The
idea should more than rankle because that’s called stalking, if all those
movements are shadowed.
The
fans “squeal” as some players skate their way and grin at them. I’ve also never
seen that happen at practice. Then when the team leaves the ice, they “thronged
the tunnels” for a chance at getting high fives.
This
really reads like the team is practicing not at a practice facility but at
their arena. Or, more to the point, like the author hasn’t seen the difference.
Once again, you wouldn’t need a tunnel (which protects the players from the
fans) if you’re at a practice facility. That said, the only practices I’ve been
to have been the Coyotes’, so it’s possible that the setup is different
elsewhere. I know that the Canucks, for example, don’t have open practices
(except one that you have to pay for and which does happen at their actual
arena.) Most teams do have open practices, at their practice facilities,
though.
(It’s
also weird to me that whole team is leaving the ice at once, the way they do
after games. During Coyotes’ practices, they left in ones and twos over a
period of time. Some would need more time with one of the specific coaches or
just wanted more time to drill.)
The
other oddity is that apparently the ticket sales aren’t great for the
Philadelphia Phantoms (there’s talk with the groupies about boosting ticket
sales from the documentary series.) There are NHL teams that need sales
boosted—the Coyotes are one of them (but far from the only one!) But
Philadelphia? Really? I just don’t understand it. This is another thing that
reads more like an AHL or ECHL team rather than NHL.
The
scene ends for Jennifer when she sees that Chelsea-the-super-fan has Axel’s
player number tattooed on her wrist. It’s played like a “dunh-dunh-dunnnnhhhh”
reveal but I don’t understand why. The more groupie-like someone is, the less
likely they’d be to actually attract someone’s serious attention, in my
opinion. And it’s not like Chelsea needed Axel’s permission to get the tattoo.
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