Page 84 of Hockey Bois
Chapter Nine: March
“I’m not going to sugarcoat this,” Benns said to the team. Nick had taken a knee on the ice, mostly for a break. The rest of the team stood, and everyone on the bench crowded around. “Taking a timeout in the first period to settle the team isn’t a good sign. It’s not something I want to do, but we need a minute to step back and think.”
Nick looked up at the scoreboard.
There was 2:13 left in the first, and the score was 0:5. This game was almost assuredly a loss, but there were two distinct ways it could go from here.
Option One: they rallied and held their ground. They might not score, but it’d (hopefully) be less embarrassing. If they were lucky and the other team crapped out, theymightpull off the W.
Option Two: they continued to hemorrhage goals. They got their asses kicked and felt like crap, and it potentially spiraled into a losing season.
It was smart to take the timeout now to regroup because Option Two sounded awful. It might not be “disband the team and start over” bad, but it was bad enough to make morale so low that some people would look for other teams.
Like the people on the team who were already too good to be playing D4.Thosepeople might see it as time to cut their losses and move on.
Without meaning to, he glanced toward Brady. He looked like he was a million miles away, staring blankly at the ice in front of him.
“I know it’s a short bench tonight,” Benns said as though apologizing for a third of the team not showing up, as if he had any control over it, “but we’re being sloppy. That’s something we can control even if we’re tired. Does anyone have any other suggestions? Something to get us fired up?”
Gail caught Nick’s eye and mouthedFix it!
Nick’s heart lurched. Shit, shit, shit, what could he do?
“We’re short on forwards,” he blurted out. He could feel everyone’s eyes on him; as futile as it was, he willed himself to not blush. “But we’ve got enough D to rotate through two lines. Maybe move Br—Jensup to our line to fill in for Young Greg?”
It was a good thing Brady was already sitting on the bench, or he might have fallen over.
Benns looked around, mentally counting the defenseman.
“We do have five, so it does make sense to take one off…” he said reluctantly. His eyes darted between Nick and Brady. Apparently Gail wasn’t the only one who’d noticed something, even if Benns was too polite to say anything. “It would give us two full lines on the front and back ends. Jensie, you okay with that?”
Brady looked over at Nick, something akin to terror on his face. Nick offered an encouraging smile. They were still friends even if things had gotten weird for a bit. This was salvageable. Nick wasn’t holding the hotel against him, and maybe this was the olive branch he needed to prove it.
Brady gave a minute nod and turned to Benns. “Yeah, I’m good. Makes sense.”
“All right.” Benns didn’t sound confident. No one else spoke up with another suggestion, so he shrugged. “Let’s line ’em up. Jens, get out there. GG and Nicki, you alternate on the faceoffs. Let’s get some goals.”
The whistle blew, the puck dropped, and as if in slow motion, Nick watched.
In all honesty, he’d expected to win that draw. Nick was good at faceoffs, he knew this ref’s ticks, and the kid he squared off against had a bad track-record tonight. He knew his D would be expecting the puck, since Nick was also pretty good at aiming their way. So in perhaps overeager anticipation, he won it and took off for the blue line. Maybe he’d get the pass.
He hadnotexpected Brady swooping down to grab it before Mags or Lexi could get to it. It never occurred to him that he’d watch Brady dangling through the other team to get it into the zone. Luckily, Nick’s own momentum carried him over the line and up to the slot, or he’d never have gotten there fast enough. The fact that he swung at all when Brady passed the puck was pure reflex; his brain had not caught up with the action.
The puck ending up in the back of the net with two minutes still left in the first? Pure accident.
“Good boy,” Gail praised him when he finished his shift. “Knew you’d figure it out. I’ll almost forgive you for stealing my D partner for the night.”
“It’s one goal,” Nick grumbled. He tried not to be too obvious as he looked over to where Brady sat, well out of earshot. “It’s just luck.”
“It’s good chemistry,” she countered.
“Luck,” he argued. “The chemistry hasn’t been there for weeks.”
“Fine,” she said, though years of experience with Jenna’s “fines” told him this was more about her humoring him than actually agreement. “Then make sure you’re lucky a few more times until the chemistryisback.”
“That’s not how luck works.”
“And don’t expect to keep Jensie as a winger long term. I amnotdealing with anyone but him on the backcheck if I can help it. Fuck,I’llbecome a forward before I let that happen.”
