crack_van | Five Hockey Players Erica Staal Never Dated by mardia (PG-13)

Fandom: HOCKEY RPF
Pairing: Eric Staal (always a girl!) gen,
Length: 6,789
Author on LJ:

mardia
Author Website: on AO3 and

imaginarysound (RPF fic journal)

Why this must be read: Because Erica Staal is perfect!

This is a genderswap story, a "what if Eric Staal had always been a woman?". There are actually a couple of genderswap stories around (Sydney Crosby, Bobbi Ryan and some others). The basic idea for all of them is that for some unspecified reason there are a few female players in the NHL. Isn't it astounding how het pairings can find their way into a fandom that seems to be naturally set up for m/m only?

In the "we set our dreams to carry us" verse there is Erica Staal, a strawberry blonde with a tendency to blush, and I adore her. The five stories in this verse take us through the first few years of her career and are all around brilliant (there is Erica Staal/Jeff Skinner later on).

But "Five Hockey Players..." - the first story in the series- is totally gen and tells the story of how Erica becomes the first female NHL team captain. It's told from the view points of different people - team mates, publicist, opponents- and it works so well!

By this point, Rod's got the script on Erica Staal down cold.

He knows his lines, about how it's always important to have a player of that caliber on your team, how well she's doing adjusting to the NHL. How none of them treat her differently, think of her differently, and even if Rod always wants to add a snide you're the ones freaking out so hard about her to every reporter that asks, he never does, because he's not stupid.

Rod knows his script, and he actually means what he says. It is important to have good players, and whatever else is going on with the circus that surrounds Staal, that surrounds the Hurricanes drafting a girl—woman. Woman. The publicists were very clear on that, Erica was a woman, not a girl, not a chick. Anyway, she's a good player. Brilliant, actually. Scores goals, hard-working, eager to learn.

Five Hockey Players Erica Staal Never Dated on AO3

and

Five Hockey Players Erica Staal Never Dated on LJ