Page 44 of Game Changer
Elena smiled. “Well!”
Kip smiled too. “Yeah.”
“Jesus, this is cute. I’ve never seen you like this, Kip.”
“Like what? I’m not like anything!”
“Okay.”
“I’m just...happy, is all. He’s really—”
“You know what?” Elena said. “Thisjust turned into a beer lunch. Tell me everything.”
* * *
“That was interference!” Eric Bennett yelled. “He was ontopof me! Come on, ref!”
“I saw it,” the ref said. “It wasn’t. Calm the fuck down.”
Scott put a hand on Bennett’s chest to stop him from crowding the ref.
“You can’t be serious!” Bennett hollered over Scott’s shoulder.
“Iamserious, and I will give you a misconduct penalty if you don’t back off, Bennett.”
“Let’s just move on, Bennett,” Scott said. “Come on, we don’t need a penalty right now.”
Bennett glared at Scott through his mask.
“Please,” Scott said. “We’ll get them back by coming back and winning this game, all right?”
Bennett huffed, but skated back to his crease. Scott watched him tap the goal posts—right, left, and then right again—with his stick. A superstition that helped him gather himself and focus.
Scott turned to the ref. “For the record, thatwasinterference.”
“Don’t you start on me, Hunter.”
Scott skated back to the bench with the rest of his line to let Coach Murdock know what was going on. “Bennett’s mad,” he said.
“I canseethat Bennett is mad. I’mwatching the game.”
Harv Murdock had once been a great NHL center himself. An outstanding goal scorer, and a pioneer for Black players at a time when there had been none in the NHL, Murdock’s career had been cut short by a knee injury. He had returned to the game years later as an assistant coach, and had been the head coach of the Admirals for ten years.
“You know who else is mad?” Murdock continued. “Me. I’m mad because our defense decided to take the night off.” His voice grew louder with each sentence. “I’mmadbecause we’ve given up three passes this period. I’mmadbecause we’re down by two goals, and one of those goals was scoredshorthanded. So fuck Bennett being upset about a guy running into him. Let’s start playing hockey here, gentlemen.”
“Good idea, coach!” Carter said cheerfully. He and Scott skated over to the face-off circle together.
“He’s not lying about our defense,” Scott said. “Something is off with this team tonight. It’s like we’ve never played together before.”
“Yeah, well. I don’t think it’s a secret what’s off,” Carter said.
Scott grimaced. Things had gotten a little out of control at the team video meeting that morning. Scott had attempted to take Zullo aside and suggest that maybe he stop kicking his roommates out late at night, especially before game days. The discussion had escalated to the point that Zullo had informed Scott that his roommate, Brisebois, was “a fucking queer anyway,” and that he “could have stayed and learned something.” That had made Scott mad enough to shove Zullo, and well...
“Frank’s not exactly a team player tonight,” Carter said.
“When is he ever?”
“Only down by two, Scott,” Carter said. “No problem at all. Let’s turn this shit around.”
