“That was fucking epic! But heads up, Coach is coming.”
A few of the guys visibly winced as Coach stormed into the room, followed by his assistants.
“WOULD SOMEONE LIKE TO EXPLAIN TO ME WHAT THE FUCK PERIOD I JUST WATCHED?”
No one answered; only a few dared to breathe. Coach was formidable at the best of times, but when he was in a rage, he was the scariest fucking guy I’d ever met and I couldn’t recall a time I’d seen him angrier. I looked around the room; none of the guys meeting Coach’s eye.
I nudged Jasper, who’d taken a seat next to me, lowering my voice to a whisper.
“Devon Walls is a piece of shit. He deserved a misconduct for that.”
He nodded. “He’s a sneaky fuck. He should have had a fucking suspension. I’m surprised Rook didn’t get knocked out.”
“Clevs and I will deal with it.”
“ANYONE?”
There were some mumbles of “No Coach”, but for the most part, the guys stayed wisely silent.
“WELL LET ME TELL YOU, THAT WAS THE MOST FUCKING AMATEUR DISPLAY I’VE EVER SEEN! YOU’RE BEHAVING LIKE A BUNCH OF KINDERGARTENERS. YOU SHOULD ALL BE FUCKING EMBARRASSED! IT WAS ACLEAN HIT. DO YOU NEED ME TO EXPLAIN THE RULES OF HOCKEY TO YOU?”
He glared around the room.
“I ASKED YOU A FUCKING QUESTION! DO YOU NEED ME TO EXPLAIN THE RULES OF HOCKEY TO YOU?”
“No, Coach.”
He narrowed his eyes until you could barely see the anger piercing through, and dropped his voice to a menacingly quiet level.
“If this continues in the final period and we have to go to extra time, you’re all benched for the rest of the season and I’ll bring a new team up.”
And with that, he turned and stormed out, his assistants following. The locker room staff started handing around electrolytes, water, and snacks to refuel us before the next period. A couple of the team physicians and therapists were checking over the guys who’d been hit.
“Rook, you okay?” Felix shouted across the locker room as he stuffed a cereal bar into his mouth.
“Yeah, Clevs. I’m good.”
“Good boy.” He turned to me. “Drew? We’re on this, right?”
“Yeah, man.”
Huck looked up from taping his stick, a mouth guard hanging out of his mouth. “Count me in, too.”
Jasper stood up, his back to the room, his head moving between us. “Get the puck first, and then sort it. This is my last year; I don’t want to spend it on the bench.”
I pulled a clean jersey over my head. “Don’t worry, Cap, we got it.”
Time was called and we made our way back out to the benches, Brogan heading out to the crease.
Coach was waiting with his hands on his hips. “Cleverly, Crawley, Marks, Sands, Jacobs! You’re up.”
“Fuck, yes,” Cooper muttered under his breath. “They’re not fucking getting through us. Boys, no brakes tonight. Balls to the fucking wall.”
Cooper was one of the fastest skaters in the NHL and the speed with which he hit the puck was no different. One of the reasons he scored so many goals was because the goalie could never see it coming.
We took our positions on the ice, Cooper in center, Felix and I flanking him on the wing, while Jasper and Huck were behind in defense. The Philly team got in their places opposite us, Devon Walls included.
The puck dropped and Cooper snatched it away with lightning speed, passing it over to Felix who was sprinting up the ice, me closely following. I could see Devon Walls reaching out for the puck as Felix passed it back to Cooper across the ice, but he was too late. Huck dropped his shoulder and took him out in an open ice hit, knocking him hard on his ass and out of the way.
