Page 149 of Rookie Rules

Every piece worked. The pieces no longer moved as one decision.

Vale called them over after an icing and drew the next route on the glass with a marker. Their opponent had begun sending the center toward Luca before the puck reached him, forcing Finn to receive along the opposite wall.

"We reverse through Hale," Vale said. "Weak side arrives with speed."

Rowan nodded. Luca did the same.

On the next entry, the reversal worked. Rowan took the puck below the goal line and heard Finn call from the slot. Luca was already cutting behind him. Two options, both useful. Rowan hesitated long enough to make certain which one would be safest.

The forechecker pinned him to the boards and the puck escaped.

Back at the bench, Vale did not raise his voice. "The play is designed to remove the extra decision."

"I know," Rowan said.

Luca stared out at the ice. He could have defended Rowan by saying the pressure had arrived early. He could have blamed the ice or the call. He offered nothing that changed the fact.

Rowan had once believed their private understanding sharpened the line because he could contain it. Without that understanding, he was discovering how often Luca's certainty had allowed Rowan to act before control arrived.

Halfway through the period, Luca took a hard pass off his skate, settled it, and cut toward the middle. Two defenders converged. Rowan drove the back post.

Luca's hands shifted into shooting position.

Rowan knew the pass would come. Knowledge lived in his body before evidence.

Then Luca shot.

The goalie kicked the puck into the corner.

The crowd groaned. Rowan turned to retrieve it and felt his right hip tighten against the change of direction. Pain flashed down the inside of his thigh, brief and hot. He completed the shift.

At the bench, Owen Brooks leaned forward from the tunnel. Rowan shook his head before the therapist could ask.

Luca noticed. His gaze dropped once to Rowan's right leg.

He said nothing.

Rowan had demanded exactly this. No private care hidden inside professional spaces. No touch that meant two things. No attention that could become evidence.

The clean success of it made him furious with no one but himself.

The opponent went ahead 2-1 after a neutral-zone turnover by the Wolves' third line. Vale shortened the bench. Rowan returned with Finn and Luca for two shifts in four minutes.

On the first, Luca drew a penalty. On the power play, he accepted a pass at the right circle and froze the penalty killer with the threat of his shot. Rowan waited at the goal line.

This time Luca passed.

Rowan redirected the puck across the crease. Finn buried it from the far side.

2-2.

They celebrated as teammates. Finn hit Luca's chest. Luca shoved his helmet. Rowan tapped both men with his glove and skated away before his hand could remain anywhere it did not belong.

The line had found the correct sequence. It had not found ease.

In the third, the score stayed tied through twelve minutes. Gabriel made two saves from the slot. Nolan blocked a shot with his shin. Luca backchecked forty feet to break up a rush and accepted the bench's approval with a quick strike of his gloves against the boards.

He was doing everything Rowan had taught him.