Page 10 of Offside

"I was already here." He shrugged.

The stick tapped the concrete when he shifted it under his arm.

"Your shoulder's low," I said.

"I'm not on your table." He adjusted the stick without raising the shoulder.

"No. You're in a hallway carrying a stick after nine at night."

"It's fine," he said. His right hand stayed loose on the stick.

That should have been the end of it. I still had the empty tape roll in my hand and he had a stick to return. We each had somewhere else to be.

"You changed Volkov's wrist wrap," he said suddenly.

I looked at him in surprise. "Last week."

"Figure-eight to a spiral."

"Yes." I turned the empty roll around my finger.

"Why?" he asked. Most questions asked in passing wanted a quick answer. Better support. Less pain. An answer that could be handed off in passing. Bishop waited.

"The figure-eight crossed the ulnar side at the same point on every turn," I said. "It put more pressure where he was already sore, and it limited the amount of extension he could use on his backhand. He kept adding another layer before warmups because he didn't trust it. More tape made both problems worse."

"The spiral leaves the joint open."

"More open. It still supports him. The load spreads instead of collecting in one place."

Bishop tapped the stick once against the concrete. "He took two hard passes on that side against St. Louis."

"I know."

"No hesitation."

"No extra tape the next morning either." I stopped turning the cardboard core.

Bishop nodded. He was fitting my answer next to his own observations.

"How did you notice the wrap?" I asked.

Bishop shifted the stick higher beneath his arm. "I saw the angle during warmups."

"From the blue line?"

Bishop's eyes dropped to the cardboard core in my hand. "I watch everyone."

"Volkov isn't your D partner or your assignment."

"It doesn't matter. I watch hands. Hips tell me where somebody's going. Hands tell me what he trusts when he gets there. He stopped protecting the backhand after you changed it."

His answer was professional. So was the attention behind it. That should have made the moment simple.

"You watch everyone that closely?"

"If I can. Trouble shows up early if you're looking."

I held the tape core against my palm. "And if nobody is?"