Page 50 of The Ex Puck Bunny
Me: Are you kidding me? Fans love seeing hockey players do things that aren’t hockey.
Grady: Like doing life stuff?
Me: Fun stuff.
Grady: Examples?
I send him the link to the Los Angeles Lions account. I’m not going to brag (okay, I am), but I was a better social media manager than Kimber, who they have now. The numbers speak for themselves. The Lions’ aesthetic was very LA with beautiful people doing things in beautiful places. From a production standpoint, the Lions’ content was slick and sleek. A bit edgy.
A few other teams have taken cues from what I did for the Lions. The Rhode Island Royals make everything very polished for their “Ice Princess” performances. The Saskatchewan Squatches, an AHL team, are a bit goofy, don’t take themselves too seriously, and their fan base goes gaga over it, especially the “Sasquatch” sightings in the stands.
Grady: Wow. Impressive. The routines you did on the ice were doubly so. You looked good.
I’m not sure what to make of that. Good as in my technique or something else? The little electric butterfly flutters in my stomach say otherwise. Or I’ve just been on my device for too long, which has me buzzy. I really should go to sleep.
Grady: If I’m watching hockey, it’s game highlights, but I can see why the fans like this so much. How’d you get into it?
Me: Since you asked… Between my dad, brother, and uncle, I’ve been around the Knights my entire life, though I’m not a super fan.
Grady: You did the social media posts and videos along with performing?
When I graduated college, I moved to Los Angeles and my roommate’s boyfriend was an NHL hopeful. We started attending games, became so-called puck bunnies, and created content for the team because it was fun.
When her boyfriend was drafted, they moved to Colorado. But I didn’t stop. Eventually, management reached out and asked if I’d join the “team” as their social media manager. The rest is history.
Me: It was a full-time gig and paid well, though I didn’t have to travel with the team so that freed up time for content creation and choreography and practice with the girls.
Originally, we were on the ice for five minutes, but we cut it down to less than three because although the live audience loved it, what got things rolling was when the videos went on social.
The shorter. The showier. The clickier.
Grady: You really know your stuff.
Me: Thanks. It was a lot of fun.
Grady: As I’ve been saying about fun . . . I think we both need more of it in our lives.
Me: I’ll get back to you on that in about eighteen years.
Grady: You mean when Bunny is grown up?
Yeah. I have to focus on providing her with a drama-free life. That does not include flirting with my brother’s hockey-playing best friend.
Wait. Is that what we’re doing? Definitely not.
I read a notification that comes in. It’s a girl I knew in Los Angeles and she comments on the whole eye flirting thing. Pfft.
It looks like people are already “Shipping” our names, debating between Graidi and Federice—though they already kind of go together.
Grady: So, do you want to help me with the social media stuff? As your brother said, I’ll pay you.
Me: I’m still thinking about it.
Grady: If you’re worried about having a Lions/Trey repeat, don’t be.
Me: That’s easy for you to say. Let’s see, there’s a pattern here...
Grady: He hurt you. That’s some major suckage. I hate him for that. He lost you, Bunny, plus two friends.
