Page 85 of The Home Game

“But Antoni’s just … he’s a good person, he loves kids, he’s smart, and he doesn’t make me feel dumb even when it’s obvious he knows way more than I do.”

“About some things, maybe,” Dustin agreed. “But not hockey.”

Matty grinned. “True. He doesn’t know hockey.”

“Hey, speaking of, when do you wanna invite him and the kids to a practice? If I know, I’ll see if Charlie wants to come that day. He could teach Antoni a little about the game, maybe. They seemed to hit it off pretty well.”

“Who doesn’t hit it off with Charlie?” Matty scoffed. “He’s the best. But yeah, I’ll ask. Maybe next weekend? We’ll see.”

“Sure, no rush. I just know the kids would enjoy it.”

“They would,” Matty agreed. “And I’d love to have them there.”

“Don’t forget!” Dustin said, raising his voice enough that everyone could hear him. “Meeting with Coach Gilbert after practice tomorrow!”

Matty nodded and checked to be sure it was on his phone calendar. Good, it was. There was no way in hell he was missing that. He was both nervous and excited about officially meeting Michael Gilbert.

Matty, Dom, and Dustin had met with him via Zoom in July just after the new coach had been hired. He’d seemed like a nice enough guy and Matty knew a lot of players around the league spoke highly of him as a coach. But he was also known as kind of a hardass.

His reputation was being the kind of coach who made guys work for it. No matter how skilled they were, no matter how famous or well-established their careers were, it didn’t guarantee making it in the lineup.

That wasn’t all bad—and he’d had a lot of success, bringing several teams to a Cup win—but man, it was going to be a way different approach than Coach Casey.

And Matty wasn’t sure how everyone would do with him.

For some of the guys, it would be a piece of cake.

Others … maybe not.

Matty thought he’d probably be okay. He’d always worked hard, always had to fight for everything he wanted.

Making the NHL had been a long shot. He was undrafted, a grinder who no one had ever expected to get this far.

He’d had plenty of people kindly—or sometimes not so kindly—tell him that he should be more realistic. That he should accept that he wasn’t the kind of guy who teams needed anymore. He wasn’t skilled enough.

He was a tough guy—and that was great—but the league was moving away from fighting and heavy hits. But Matty had always believed somewhere deep down, that he’d be the guy a team needed. He just had to be ready at the right moment to show them what he could do.

And it was exactly what he’d done. Exactly how he’d earned a spot on this roster, earned the title of alternate captain. Earned a fat contract.

He’d worked his tail off to be in the right place at the right time.

He’d proven himself to his teammates, to the organization. And if he had to prove himself to their new coach, he’d do that too.

“Aww, look, he’s mooning about Antoni,” Jordan teased.

Matty shook himself out the thoughts he’d gotten lost in and rolled his eyes. “I’m not fucking mooning about Antoni,” he grumbled. “I’m thinking about our new coach.”

He realized how that sounded the moment it left his mouth and as the hooting and hollering rose around him, he had the overwhelming urge to bang his head against the nearest flat surface.

He loved his team, really he did.

The chirps flew hot and fast after that and Matty fired them back as best he could before he disappeared into the showers with a raised middle finger.

Sometimes that was the only language that got through to those idiots.

Michael Gilbert wasn’t exactly what Matty had expected.

Oh, Matty had seen him on the opposing team’s bench plenty of times over the years and the Zoom call last summer, so he didn’t look any different than Matty expected.

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