Noah Cates looks for Kathleen Shive by the glass every Flyers home game during warmups, and she is there waiting in her No. 27 jersey. After the first couple of drills, Cates breaks away from the ice and goes to jump into the glass just behind the net, while Shive stands and points to the number on her arm before they bump the glass in unison.
That small collision has become a game-day routine at Xfinity Mobile Arena, and last week in Voorhees, Cates said he now heads straight to her spot. “She’s got my jersey, and she’s ready for it every time. I go right there,” he said. He called it “a cool little moment” and said the pair have “had a good run” since he first noticed her wearing the jersey about a month ago.
Shive, a season ticket holder for 13 years, said the ritual started on a hunch just after the holidays in January. She and her husband, Randy, drive nearly two hours from Easton for Flyers home games, and she decided to test whether Cates might make contact if she wore his jersey. “I thought, ‘You know what? I’m just gonna see if maybe he’ll hit me, since I wear his jersey,’ and he did,” she said. “So I just kept doing it, and it just kind of got to be an every game kind of thing.”
She said she figured the worst that could happen was that he would ignore her. Instead, the exchange turned into a way to feel part of the night. “But I just thought that was really cool. It was a way for me to connect with the game,” Shive said. That connection carried extra weight during the Flyers’ first home playoff game after eight years, when she was back in her usual warmup spot again.
Cates is a Flyers center with a habit of drifting to the glass behind the net after warmup drills, and Shive’s regular place has become part of the scenery there. They have never actually met, but the routine now draws a line between player and fan that both seem to enjoy. For the Flyers, it is a reminder that even in a playoff run, the smallest ritual can become part of the night.
