Good to see me? We saw each other five minutes ago.
His eyes float between his phone screen and my face and I wonder what the fuck is going on. The waiter sets down our beers, but Avery barely seems to notice.
“Dude. What's up? You look like you've seen a ghost.”
His lips pinch together and he looks back at the phone again.
“I'm, uh, trying to figure out how to tell you something I'm not sure you'll want to know.”
Well, that's fucking cryptic.
As I sit down, I wonder what he could possibly need to tell me. He looks at his phone again, then up at me.
“Am I keeping you from something?”
That seems to make the decision for him.
“No, but I think I might be keepingyoufrom something.”
He slides his phone across the table and I look down at the article he has pulled up. It's from a reporter named Sam Montgomery, who's always been one of the better hockey reporters out there. The picture at the top is Ethan, in a green button-up with a camel-colored cargo jacket. I wonder for a moment who picked it out for him – it looks nice, but it's not one of the outfits we bought together in Chicago.
My heart tugs for a moment at the sight of him and, rather than scrolling, I look up at Avery.
“I don't think I can read this, man.”
He looks at me, teeth biting his lip.
“I think you need to. And then, if you never want to talk about it again, I'll take you out and ply you with vodka sodas all night.”
I turn back to the phone and scroll down, seeing the article's title.
Ethan Tremblay Issues Challenge to NHL
I can feel the look of confusion on my face, the wrinkles forming on my forehead. I start to scroll through the article. The beginning is mostly fluff – a background on Ethan, a mention of his father's time in NHL, discussion of his own time in the AHL and his eventual signing with Minneapolis. Sam recounts the team's previous Cups, and the offensive downturn they've faced recently.
Then, I get to the interview. I guess I knew that the All Star Game would come with more press, but I didn't realize Ethan would be getting a full sit-down with one of hockey's top journalists. Based on the thumbnails on the side of the page, it looks like most other players' interviews were short and shallow – conversations about the best way to tape a stick, joy at having been chosen to their first All Star Game.
This article isn't like that.
From the very first questions, Ethan sounds...not petulant, but certainly like he has a bone to pick with establishment hockey. I'm shocked to hear him call their failure to select me homophobic – we'd never discussed it, and it had never crossed my mind that he was as pissed about their choice as I was.
Then again, I'd never given him the chance to talk about it with me, never given him the space to air his concerns.
I keep scrolling, the surprise continuing as he calls out the NHL specifically, challenging them to investigate the homophobia within the league. Even for a veteran, that's a big step, one that could have serious consequences. I look up at Avery.
“This is...this is a lot.”
Somehow, he doesn't look any less nervous. He peeks at the phone, seeing that I'm still mid-article.
“Keep going.”
There'smore?
Montgomery breaks away from the interview for a bit, discussing the league's sordid history with misogyny and homophobia, even referencing my own coming out five years ago and the subsequent lack of interest from agents and teams.
Then, he picks up the thread with Ethan again, asking about the locker room challenges behind having the first gay player in the NHL. I'm happy to see him call out Alexei and the work he did early in the season to make sure I settled in. Just as I think the article is about to take a boring turn to records and successes, Ethan redirects it. I almost can't believe the words on the screen.
Carter is neither the first nor the only gay player in the league.
