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appalamutte · 1 year

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drafted up a rough nhl bitty idea over the summer that i’ve worked on here and there, and honestly i can’t stop thinking about the fictional baltimore team i created for that fic

Luca DiPietro, a Baltimore native, filed an application for starting a franchise in the city when rumors were floating around that Buffalo was in the process of obtaining its own. He’d been a long-time lover of the sport, growing up skating with neighborhood kids and taking his own family up to New York to see the Rangers every once in a while. It was a dream to have a team right there in the city, though, and DiPietro fought with the NHL for months for them to agree to tack a third expansion team on with Buffalo and Vancouver.

In the end, it paid off. 1970 saw the addition of three new teams: the Buffalo Sabres, the Vancouver Canucks, and the Baltimore Nationals, raising the total count of teams from twelve to fifteen.

The Nationals quickly grew in popularity in the area. No longer did fans have to travel to Philadelphia to see a game. Tickets all but sold out for the first-ever home opener in the 1970-1971 season, and they continued to sell out all throughout the season and onward. The team wasn’t good or anything, barely more than a bunch of rookies, but they were spirited and passionate and young.

In the 1971-1972 season, the Nationals handed a massive upset over the Canadiens—the previous Stanley Cup Champions—in the first round of playoffs, shocking the league all over. The stadium was bleeding black and gold (team colors based on George Calvert’s family crest, who was the founder of the Maryland colony), and even though the Nationals were kicked out by the Rangers in the next round, the city celebrated for weeks. It was one of the first times an expansion team delivered such a massive and unexpected victory, especially in the playoffs. The momentum of that win carried well into the next season, leading the Nationals once again to the second round of playoffs.

In 1974, the NHL expanded into Washington, D.C. with the Washington Capitals, which immediately started turning heads. Talk went around about a rivalry forming, given the two cities’ close proximity and the fact the Nationals fanbase was effectively halved and given to the Capitals.

Though nothing came about (then). The teams actually liked each other, at least in terms of sports and fandoms. When the Capitals first traveled up to Baltimore and played the Nationals, the stadium was a bright mix of black and gold and red and white and blue. Both sides cheered when the other side scored, because both teams had fans on both sides.

Then the name change was forced in 1975. The league argued that it was confusing to have the Capitals and the Nationals so close together, and despite Baltimore having the name first, it only made sense for Washington to keep the patriotic name.

So over the summer, Baltimore had to rebrand. They were changed from the Nationals to the Harbors, they changed their colors to black, red, and white, their head coach at the time retired and so they had to change coaches. It all left a sour taste in Baltimore’s mouth, especially when the team recorded one of their worst seasons in 1975-1976, second only to their inaugural 1970-1971 season.

Some speculate this is where the Baltimore/Washington rivalry began. Others speculate it was when Washington beat Baltimore in every single game they played against one another in 1976-1977. A few say it started when Washington fans virtually destroyed the lobby of the arena after Baltimore knocked them out of the playoffs in 1979.

It started somehow and it grew to be the most brutal rivalry in the entire league, arguably out of all the major four leagues on the continent. It was deep seeded and vicious. It was stronger than the Canadiens/Maple Leafs rivalry, the Pens/Flyers rivalry, the Rangers/Islanders rivalry.

Where Capitals/Harbors games used to be friendly and collective, they were now hostile and rough. Players fought easily, more often, the ice was chippy, the fans were combative and dirty. In 1985, a man wearing a Harbors jersey in Washington was pushed around by a group of Capitals fans, ending in a fight that left two arrested and three with injuries bad enough to be hospitalized for the night. In 1987, a couple of Harbors fans harassed a family wearing Capitals jerseys to the point that the franchise was sued for not having proper security, as the family felt their lives were in danger for the entirety of the first period (they ended up leaving during intermission).

In 1991, the league had to step in and threaten both franchises of being disbanded if they couldn’t control the fans. No one knew how to do so, so it ended up that between 1991-1995, the teams didn’t play each other unless they were in neutral territory (usually Philadelphia).

The rivalry did eventually die down throughout the 90s, though even to this day games are stiff and tense.

In 1997, the Harbors had their third and final name change due to a change of ownership. Luca DiPietro had to sell the franchise to a businessman from out west because his health was deteriorating and he wasn’t sure how much longer he had. For a few months, it was unsure whether or not the Harbors were to even stay in Baltimore at all; however, the new owner—a tech entrepreneur from Seattle—relocated to Maryland and changed the franchise to the Baltimore Crabbers, in honor of Maryland’s history in crabbing.

Fans were hesitant and vocal about their disappointment, though in 1999 Baltimore won it’s first ever Stanley Cup in franchise history, beating the Dallas Stars in game six, and suddenly everyone thought the new brand and name was lucky.

Especially when the Crabbers won the Cup again in 2000, and 2004. Out of nowhere and in the matter of five seasons, the team went from a bottom 16 team to a solid playoffs contestant and serious contender for the cup. This was in no part only thanks to the new leadership, but also to the roster’s multiple heavy hitters: Anthony Bagshaw, a center from Mississauga who averaged roughly 55 goals a season at his prime; Gordey Sokolov, a winger from St. Petersburg, Russia who scored more PPG than anyone else in the league in both 1999 and 2000; Matthew Quinn, a goalie from Rochester who still holds the record for most shutouts in franchise history to this day; and Henri Bourassa, a defenseman from Quebec City who won the James Norris Memorial Trophy four years straight from 2001-2004.

The four were close, but that wasn’t always the case.

Quinn was the first on the roster in 1994 and had only one season as a rookie before the starting goalie retired due to injury. He was immediately promoted to starting goalie, even when Baltimore secured a trade for Minnesota’s starting goalie, because his SV% was beyond-good (better than Minneosta’s) and his young age was only a bonus. He floundered though, missing saves left and right, letting pucks seemingly slide right in. This was all only exasperated when Bagshaw joined the team that same season.

Quinn and Bagshaw both played in the OHL and were rivals. Like, they hated each other. Both on rivaling teams in the OHL, both at the top of their respective teams. When the two were on the ice together it was noticeable—tangible, even—that there was bad blood between them. Bagshaw hated Quinn because Quinn was a pain in the ass to score on, and Quinn hated Bagshaw because when he was able to score, he was such a “goddamn arrogant fucking asshole” about it.

It was a cruel trick of fate the two ended up on the same team. (Not me shipping my own original characters when they don’t even end up together in canon my mind.)

Their bad blood was noticeable even on NHL ice, even when they were on the same team. They worked out their differences though, mainly due to the veterans forcing them to room together on roadies all season long and sit beside each other every single time the team ate out. Eventually, they became friends, maybe even best friends, realizing that both were good players and the hatred didn’t make sense when they weren’t competing against one another anymore. They continued to room together the season after that, and after that. Quinn introduced Bagshaw to his future-wife when they were playing in Buffalo (she was a childhood friend of Quinn’s), and Bagshaw was the one who practically took care of Quinn when he broke his shoulder and missed out on half of the 2002-2003 season.

Then Sokolov came along in 1996, drafted straight from Russia, and instantly there was on-ice chemistry between him and Bagshaw. Their line just clicked in a rare way and they were able to be the best-performing line in the entire league within two seasons. No matter who the other winger was, Bagshaw and Sokolov would dominate the ice and the puck together. Coupled that with Quinn’s goaltending and the Crabbers were a force to be reckoned with.

Bourassa joined the team in 1998 from the QMJHL. He was a quiet kid with a meek personality, tall and broad and taking up space against his will, though when he was on the ice he was a mastermind of receiving turnovers and shifting play out of their defensive zone. He was also a hell of a checker and, funnily enough, hated fighting despite his critical body hits. Bagshaw immediately took him under his wing, therefore pulling Bourassa into the group with Quinn and Sokolov (against his will again, though he never regretted it once he got to know them).

They were dubbed by fans—and later, the media—as the Fantastic Four (corny, I know). They were inseparable and unstoppable, always together on and off the ice, leading Baltimore to the cup all three times and being the faces of the franchise for the eleven years they were together. They were in each other’s weddings, celebrated holidays together, took a trip to Hawaii together with their families in the 2005 off season. They were even up there as one of the longest-tenured quartet of players for a single franchise, all until Sokolov was unexpectedly traded to the Kings in 2009.

With that, everything changed. After Sokolov, Bourassa—the youngest of the four—suffered a career-ending injury to his knee in a playoff game against New Jersey in 2012 and retired that summer. Bagshaw played his final season in 2014-2015, retiring to pursue a career in broadcasting. Quinn was the first to join the team and the last to leave it, retiring just a season later due to his age and wanting to finally have time with his family. Sokolov retired right after the 2017-2018 season, marking the complete end to their era.

It was a heartbreaking time for Crabber fans, seeing the greats move on, though that didn’t change much for the team. The Crabbers were still up there as one of the elites, maybe not serious contenders for the cup but still solid playoff teams.

Luca DiPietro, the starter of it all, died in 2000, and the following year the Crabbers started construction on a brand new arena in his honor. It sits right off the Baltimore Harbor and is named after him—the Luca DiPietro Dome, dubbed by fans as the “DiPi-Dome” and sometimes also as “Harbor View.”

The Crabbers progressed all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2017, the year right after Quinn retired (and the season right before Bitty joins), being beaten by the Penguins. It’s the furthest they’ve made it since their 2004 Cup win, and it’s with the most promising roster of players since the Fantastic Four’s prime days. The media has a field day with the headlines, the fans apply pressure for them to win it in 2018, the players feel the effect of it all in a more grueling and demanding off-season training.

Where is Bitty in all this? He starts playing competitive, full-contact hockey much earlier on with the Atlanta Fire, he goes to Samwell on a full-ride scholarship (though Jack doesn’t go, so they haven’t met yet), and he leads the Wellies to winning the Frozen Four in both his junior and senior years. The Crabbers scout him all throughout his sophomore and junior years, offer him a two-year contract effective as soon as he graduates, and sign him in the spring of 2016.

He joins the roster in the fall of 2017, right in the thick of the pressure for the Crabbers to win the Stanley Cup again, and falls right in with a whole new group of players (more to come on that later).

#this is literally just 2k words of my fictional nhl team’s lore #but i'm like very attached to it and the history and the team #this is also a love letter to the Quinniebag shippers. i just know they would’ve ruled the online hockey fandom in the 2000s #lmao i don’t even know what to tag this as though #omgcp? since it's for an omgcp fic?#my writing #nhl bitty au #there we go

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