#amatts is born a week early au

[sergeifyodorov]

amatts is born a week early AU, part one: so what happens to machuk anyway?

#amatts is born a week early au #elias pettersson #brock boeser #auston matthews #travis konecny #patrik laine

[mad-komet]

idk enough about hockey to do anything serious with the idea but if auston matthews was born a week earlier, then of course the 2015 draft has an extra guy. and you know what that means. #16 -> #17 and #28 -> #29

now what we know about Mathew Barzal is 2017-18 was a really good season for him, and of course since he is now a Winnipeg Jet, he would also be on a pretty deep playoff team. Maybe he even makes them so much better that Winnipeg wins the Pres. Trophy instead of Nashville. Maybe if the playoffs were seeded just a liiiiitle differently, the VGK WPG conference final could have gone in their favor

as for the SCF I could not really say. I mean it's the capitals. it's Ovi.

anyway is Matthew Barzal doomed to lose in the conference finals in every timeline? but imagine he was stuck in Manitoba and wasn't drafted to the same team as his friend. What would he even be like without Tito? Would he have another bestie? Would his hockey actually be better? Who knows...

#one consequence of am34 being born a week earlier is barzal/beauvillier never happens #the isles get kyle connor instead #and beauvillier goes to columbus #x #amatts is born a week early au

[sergeifyodorov]

if auston had been born just a few days earlier would we be talking about the big 5 instead of the big 4 the way we normally do when talking about the 2015 draft (sorry noah hanifin its the big 5 to me personally but as a collective we tend to big 4 it up)

would he have slotted in at 2nd overall, narrowly not going home to the yotes and bumping everyone else down a slot as it originally played out or does it somehow change other things. was mitchy, cosmically, always going to be a leaf or does stromer take his place, and mitchy ends up in carolina. how long does jack last in arizona. how long does auston last in buffalo. do they eat stromer alive in toronto without a soulmate liney/teammate to bounce them into the playoffs their rookie year or do william nylander and dylan strome actually have untapped reserves of chemistry we will never know about. is willy actually mitchy's center since he was drafted as one in 2014. does jt still become a leaf. is clayton keller still the captain of the yotes. does jack make it to vegas, or is it auston who wins that cup. the mcdavid matthews prospect rivalry would be mceichel but on steroids (sorry jack no offense). could we survive canada's east v west mcstrome hour. would any of us make it out of here alive

...

#asks #give me 2-3 business weeks and i'll recreate the entire nhl from scratch in a hypothetical Auston Matthews Is Born A Week Early au. #but for now. let's think about this. let's calm down and think a little bit. #mitch marner and jeff skinner would get along on the hurricanes <- voice of a man who is shocked he just said that #amatts is born a week early au

[sergeifyodorov]

the alternate universe jeff and mitch yaoi goes crazy. mitch going 4th instead of 5th stopped us from getting giggly handsy cane to cane interviews and bench videos. who is their poor center and can we crowdfund the technology to enter other universes and get that guy a long vacation, or perhaps some noise cancelling headphones

i mean SO crazy like... jeff is like five or six years older than mitch but they have the same dancey skating and Inner Light... a pair of undersized wingers who are both bubbly and silly and like they'd be ALL over each other. jeff (freshly 24 when mitch makes the nhl at 19) would take him in and be all "yeah noooo i'm definitely this guy's SURROGATE PARENT" and mitch would go :3 and be sitting on his lap within the month. and jeff would immediately give up the "surrogate parent" thing like you can't be saying that gay baby. they'd be equal parts "clowns of the league" and "oh fuck not those two again" <- defencemen saying that.

anyway it goes great until they end up doing strome-for-marner in the offseason of 2021

#asks #amatts is born a week early au #mitch marner #jeff skinner #MITCH HAS 2 BECOME A LEAF... guys it's so for real here. written in the stars.

[sergeifyodorov]

it is funny to me how we have been talking about davo more than auston is his own i am the inciting incident au and davo's fate doesn't even change that much at all in this universe. sorry tony youre still my best girl

SORRY TONY YOU'RE STILL MY BEST GIRL... the best girl in question a) still ends up scoring 4 in his debut, b) still loses that debut, c) is named captain of the sabres way before he should be, d) ends up about as good goalwise but much less defensively responsible, e) gets bitchy, gets mean, gets toxic, f) never makes the playoffs in buffalo, g) fucks rasmus dahlin, h) ends up in a shohei-ohtani-style plane-tracking frenzy situation when he finally and boldly declares he is not returning to buffalo, i) ends up choosing toronto (instead of arizona) for the exact opposite reason that john tavares did, and j) after all of that, falls in love with the kid he met in the elevator at world juniors, because no matter where he is he always will.

#asks #auston matthews #amatts is born a week early au #also in this universe jeff skinner gets traded to vancouver instead. they don't make the playoffs either.

[sergeifyodorov]

also furiously imagining what happens to the jets now bc like. they were seriously derailed by the mistreatment of pat laine -> his development was also really tanked by that and he went from possibly one of the best pure snipers in the game (pavel bure style) to like. adam fantilli's deadbeat but lovable older brother -> furthermore the jets in general during the beginning years of the wheeler captaincy Hated Each Other (buff and ekane feud) and I think in order to make it better we need to make it worse (tear it all down. kill them!) all that to say. jets end up breaking the canadian cup curse. conn smythe winner? cale m--

#amatts is born a week early au

[sergeifyodorov]

we havent preemie amatts aued in a while and i was reminded because dylan’s middle name is william apparently. just another sign of their leaf4leaf connection in the multiverse. au!willy be nice when you take this man’s virginity

HEY WHAT i was just looking at the dylstrome wikipage and noticing this too... this terrible twosome (patrik laine i still love you) truely gets up to some Freak Nonsense... willy like. "haha. let's see each other sometime" [doing the uniquely william skill of Implying Something, Or Possibly Nothing, But Probably Something] and dylan (wants to cut to the chase) like. so are you gonna fuck me or not. and the answer isn't or not

#asks #amatts is born a week early au

[sergeifyodorov]

Analyzing this hypothetical 2015 draft and the new teams that everyone ends up one either ends in one of two instinctual reactions: Yeah, Okay or What The Fuck. For example: Thomas Chabot ends up on the Red WIngs instead of the Sens. Yeah, Okay. Brock Boeser becomes a Philadelphia Flyer. What The Fuck.

you g e t it!!! brock boeser would certainly have A Time hanging with whoever on the flyers gets picked in 2017 LMAO (possibly still nolpat?) i think the draft order is avs-[???]-stars-jets-[???]... one of those two slots is flyers, the other is devils.... actually i think making nolpat a devil and ep40 a flyer is too good to resist. ksjdsfkdhfksjdfs

#asks #amatts is born a week early au

[sergeifyodorov]

I love that the one thing that will never be changed by Auston being born a week early is Connor going to Edmonton. Everyone else might’ve ended up somewhere else, but Connor was always going to Edmonton, was always going to follow Gretzky’s path to the graveyard of first overalls.

agreed with Both of you... connor's just kind of Still There. like auston is not-making-the-playoffs and mitch is joining the Twink Army in carolina and dylan and willy and patrik are experiencing true Leafs Horrors and jack is [REDACTED] but connor is. well. you know. god's least favourite son. loves u but not enough to save u. some kind of eternal destiny ig

#asks #also the Awkward Exes With Dylan thing is probably even worse now that DYLAN is the leaf and not mitch #(mitch who is still kind of a painful thought but Much easier to look at head-on) #connor mcdavid #amatts is born a week early au

[sergeifyodorov]

would the nhl ever make mention of the leafs oilers beef during an asg with enough players from each team there to make it notable?

they ABSOLUTELY would... william from carolina there and auston patty dylan morgan all there against mcdrai ... austons like I Have No Dog In This Fight but. sorry mate. you do have a dog in this fight. you're in this fight now. there's a captain picking thing again and mcdrai gets to pick first and like there's a hot mic moment where they super duper are about to pick willy nylander and it's (almost) The Scandal Of The Century (they end up picking like sidcros or kucherov or smthg) and then dylan and morgan (sorry auston. no seniority. dylan's the captain now) pick willy first :] meanwhile natemac (deep in I Don't Care, I'm Winning mode) ends up taking auston LOL

#asks #amatts is born a week early au

[sergeifyodorov]

i miss the preemie tony world leafs kid line we should talk about them again

no no you're right it's been so long let's TALK about this... let's discuss...

ok so the young mr laine is the one who breaks out first (william nilliam, bless his heart, takes a while to get to where he is, and dylan takes a couple seasons from marlie -> full time leaf) so he is named as a ROOKIE ALL-STAR and it is. just. blatantly terrible. you know, patrik's always been kind of awkward and shy and now he's alone in LA. i mean, LA is very nice, so it's not all bad. tuukka rask is there, a finn, another finn, that's cool. aren't a whole lot of finns on the leafs. nazem kadri points this out when patty gets the call

and auston matthews is there. which is also fine, you know, a little awkward. they're not draftmates in this universe so it's not Like That per se but auston played that year in switzerland and came back and now he and laine are fighting for the calder. people say he's really good (and those people are right) but patty's a leaf so there's way more pressure on him. you know. why can't you be auston.

which is worse because auston's kind of aloof and a little bit bitchy and this is auston's natural nervous response but patrik doesn't know that so he just kind of Doesn't Like Him... it's not a simmering resentment or anything. it's a vague dislike. auston actually really likes patty, he's friendly and they're both into fashion and sweet snipes !!

anyway auston (because he's Auston) is at pretty much every asg in the interim, repping the sabres, and laine's out with injury for a handful and there's a year where he's off his stride and dylan and freddie both go instead... but they see each other a couple times. gotta be cordial. auston's always hanging out with those two guys from arizona who are always having some kind of loud dramatic conversation they want everyone else to be involved in but patty genuinely thinks nothing of this (because he autopilots through the ASG like 90% of the time)... he wins a couple shooting competitions and spends the money on his dog. and THENNNNNN auston becomes a leaf. and auston gets picked for all-star, and So Does Patty. and they are chosen to partner together for some dumbass shenanigans (the social media admin is very nice about patty being bad at reciting lines. he humours her by trying a little bit) in some kind of dual breakaway challenge type deal where they're supposed to be having a friendly competition about the quality of their shot.

it goes terribly, btw, and neither of em actually get their shot in. but dylan twists his ankle on vacation and is out for about a week right after that and auston and patty go on a shooting heater as linemates, so everyone jokes about the All-Star Bit doing a body well. and they bond over fucking hating that. amen

#asks #amatts is born a week early au #auston matthews #patrik laine #bonding over being shy weirdos with great career sh%... yheah

[sergeifyodorov]

Wait does amatts go second and edge out Jack or does he go third and live out a hometown son fun house mirror version of Dylan strome in toronto

Hmm I mean in hindsight the choice is obvious given their history as players (Amatts the best goalscorer in the modern era Jeichel merely "solid 1C") but as prospects it's actually much closer.

Auston:

Younger (by 10 months)(I'll give AU! Auston a birthday of September 14, 1997, just to make it more concrete for all of us)

USNTDP U18 scoring record by fifteen points over Kane (117 points in ~60 games?)

2015 U18 Worlds MVP (different from World Juniors, where he had 3 (?) points in 5 games)

Jack:

Hobey Baker as a freshman...

Just from pure results (on mobile and because of the DY gap there aren't many real scout reporting comparisons) Jeichel was probably a better prospect. Auston being picked third would go to ARIZONA, which is certainly an interesting idea, but with the age gap -- and of course the fact that teams are human and drafting isn't exact -- AND the fact that this is ultimately a story I'm making up for fun and the fun of having Aus screw everything up in Buffalo to me outweighs the slightly enhanced realism of making him go 3OA, I think AM34 is deemed better/more potential/a worthier franchise piece than Jack.

#asks #amatts is born a week early au #auston matthews #jack eichel

[sergeifyodorov]

everyone should vote stromer and willy into the asg so there’s a chance of them being in a picture together so we can have visual fuel for the preemie tony au world

THIS IS WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT BABY LET'S FUCKING GOOOOOOO

#asks #amatts is born a week early au

[sergeifyodorov]

i just realized...... bubble divisions leafs oilers play each other one million times!? forget the battle of alberta or the battle of ontario--

the battle of albertario (no one calls it that)

#asks #amatts is born a week early au #someone on either a leafs or oilers team is going to die (not actually) #but this absolutely furious feud causes real life political tenshions a little bit bc during covid #we all have nothing to do but beef w each other or smthg

[sergeifyodorov]

do they ask dylan about it during media availability like they asked max talbot about sid's comment back in the day..... what does dylan say.....

exact quote: i respect him. i respect him as a player and as a team-- a former teammate of mine, obviously. great player, you know, obviously, great guy, but. um. you know, i think -- i think that every game is important in this league, and if the ones against him take more grit to win, then so be it.

#asks #dylan strome #amatts is born a week early au #the classic hockey interview trope of Saying Nothing!!

[sergeifyodorov]

if mo punched their GOALIE ? we would get a LINE BRAWL

i think this is like... specifically an Event tbh. like... okay, it's 2018. january, some western league guy their age is a calder favourite. oilers and leafs playing each other for the first time this season, mcdavid's won his first hart. willy does one of his classic Willy Rushes and stops right next to mike smith, a notoriously foul-tempered bastard -- in our universe, mike smith won't become an oiler for another few years. in this one, they trade for him now. it is one of their better decisions (that, as oiler decisions often are, will become worse later.)

smith hisses something at willy that makes him clench his jaw and skate away. he is composed. he is trying to be composed.

you see, up until now, the oilers and leafs have been civil. not very civil, but civil -- an extra slashing or roughing call a game, an extra couple of chirps, an uptick in hits, but it's two games a year so people don't notice. but the players do. and the players all know why.

(or, a select few of them know why. ryan nugent-hopkins asks to take faceoffs against stromer whenever he can. connor cannot tell him how much this both helps and hurts.)

the leafs get a power play soon, nothing too spectacular. offensive zone trip, not malicious, they just happen. bit of a dive from naz, but that's kind of his specialty. the power play is different, though, the leafs' clean, almost too-perfect setup made a mess by the oilers' pkers, and the leafs play harder and harder until all nine skaters and smith end up in the crease. mike gives willy a shove, a gentle movement out of the crease

(--slightly less than gentle, but this is hockey--)

and morgan, who will not abide, just snaps. goes for him. he's been patient, he thinks, in the split second between his glove coming off his hand and his hand connecting with smith's unmasked, unprotected cheek. he's waited to see if the guys will let this calm down on their own, but it is left to rot and there is nothing we can do but turn the log over and expose what is underneath.

the line brawl lasts twenty minutes. morgan is suspended, clay keller loses a fang. there's an image, almost famous, of leon, the sole face turned towards the camera as oilers and leafs alike surround the net, with his lip split and a perfect, blood-red stream bisecting his chin, dripping onto his jersey. there is another smear of blood on his forehead. it is obviously not his.

#asks #amatts is born a week early au