BEN BARNES As BILLY RUSSO The Punisher S01E03 "Kandahar"

they’re That couple

If you got a car that can fight for a world championship, are you ready to take the fight?

"I feel ready. I mean I’ve always felt ready, you need to feel that way as a driver. If you don’t believe in yourself, then stay home.

I believe in myself and I feel much readier than I was in 2019. I'm more grown, I have more experience, which will help. So yes, I do."

It’s never only about hockey for Malkin. Never has been. If only it could be.

Instead, there was extortion to keep him playing for his hometown Russia club, Mettalurg Magnitogorsk. There was a clandestine escape to North America so he could pursue his NHL dream. There was learning English, and American/Canadian cultures. There has been playing second star to rival Alex Ovechkin in Russia and friend Sidney Crosby in Pittsburgh. There were major injuries. There were down seasons. There was marrying Anna and the birth of Nikita, each of which occurred during the 2016 Stanley Cup Final. There were the stressful negotiations with Penguins management on a four-year, $24.4 million extension that wasn’t finalized until after he decided to test free agency for the first time. There is choosing the best living situation for Nikita (Pittsburgh, Miami or both?). There is getting visas for his parents so they can see his 1,000th NHL game early this season. There is keeping that creaky knee ready for action. There is the war between Russia and Ukraine.

It’s a lot.

It’s a lot more than playing hockey.

Even when it’s only playing hockey, it’s more than that because Malkin can’t merely play hockey. An alternate captain with the Penguins, he wants to help his buddies Kris Letang, also an alternate, and Crosby, the Penguins captain, lead another Cup run. They are tied for the longest-tenured teammates in major North American sports history, according to Elias Sports Bureau. Their legacy is secure, but they want more, and they need each other at their best.

“Yes, it’s about team,” Malkin said. “I need to be a leader. I need to score points to be the best leader — the team needs me to score, of course, play the right way, for us to win.

“I know I’m still a good player. Last year was rough; I wasn’t strong. I had a good summer to train. I feel like myself for the first (time) in a long time. We have a good team in Pittsburgh. I want to win. I want to show I’m still a good player, show teammates we still can win.”

Crosby wants what Malkin wants, too.

They share a need to compete, as individuals and as centerpieces for a franchise that will one day retire their respective numbers. Since they teamed up in 2006-07, Crosby and Malkin have guided the Penguins to the most team points, playoff appearances and titles in the NHL. They’re Superman and Batman to their hockey generation and French fries and coleslaw on a sandwich in Pittsburgh. Sid and Geno are a modern-classic pairing as much as they were a smash-success duo. Also, they’ve become close — “like a brother,” Malkin said of Crosby.

Like a brother, Crosby can be protective of Malkin, and, like a brother, he supported Malkin this summer when negotiations with the Penguins had Malkin feeling as though he was becoming the odd man out in Pittsburgh. It’s likely why Crosby downplayed Malkin’s assertion that he must score like he did when he was younger to provide worth to their team.

“He puts a lot of pressure on himself like that, and it’s not easy,” Crosby said. “The thing about G is he doesn’t need to always put up big numbers to help us. When he’s best, it’s not always him getting points — he’s hunting the puck, and when he gets it you can’t get it off him. When he’s playing like that, it’s helping us even if he doesn’t get any points.

“But that’s tough to balance. When he scores, that’s obviously helping us. Goals aren’t easy to come by in this league, and not a lot of guys anywhere create chances for himself or people he plays with better than G. But a lot of times, people only look at your points, so I get why he might feel that pressure.

“He means more to us than that.”

ohhhh 🥺🥺🥺

Everyone shutup and listen.

Enemies to lovers is about:

The drama

The angst

The extremely complex layers of human nature

The yearning

The realisation

The first ever kiss

The exhilaration that comes afterwards

The “youre not alone” cmon guys this is textbook by now

The hasty kisses afterwards

That erotically intense moment in the story where they have stand off in front of each other, angry and hurt and never breaking eye contact, weapons drawn and pointed to the other ones throat, painfully torn in their decision, breathing and swallowing hard, knowing very well what they have to do but neither of them actually going through with it, stuck forever amidst what they stand for and what they yearn for, knowing that theres such a fine line between wanting to kill the other one and wanting to die for the other one, and that that line is about to be carved (in blood or lust could go either way you don’t know!) by the very weapon that they are now gripping and pointing at potentially the only other being in the world who makes them feel witnessed, needed and truly seen

oh… my… god…

richard "gorgeous" grayson.

Dick Grayson Arm Appreciation Post. 

they’re so soft 🫶

The Duality of Charles Leclerc,

off time & work time.

sid literally flipped that giant of a man over his head… his size kink is showing