Page 76 of Conner

“How’s it going?” Conner asked as he sat down next to him and started to take off his pads and skates.

Murphy just shook his head and continued taking his pads off.

“Murph, you were good out there tonight.”

“It was my bad pass that gave them the lead,” he grumbled out.

“And I got stripped twice in the neutral zone. I missed a shot I should have had. We can all think about the things we did or didn’t do, but right now we just need to shake it off. You’re a part of a team, no one in this room wins alone and no one loses alone,” Conner said, clapping him on the back.

Murphy let out a breath and nodded.

“Put this one behind you. We aren’t out of this yet.”

After the team was showered and on the bus, Conner saw Sasha already on board. He couldn’t help but smile anytime he saw her. These past couple weeks with her had been a roller coaster, but there was a part of him that was looking forward to all of this being over. The stalker, playoffs, all of it. He just wanted to be with Sasha and enjoy her in a way the pressure of their current circumstances didn’t allow. As he watched her tapping on her phone without even looking up at him, he knew she was his future. He wanted a life with Sasha, he just had to get through the next couple weeks.

He pulled out his phone.

Conner - I think I need to be comforted after that loss

He watched her and waited. Then a smile spread across her face as her eyes started to look for him. Once their eyes connected Conner raised his eyebrows and she bit her lip. His phone vibrated in his hand.

Sasha - Oh I can comfort you all night

Conner - I like the sound of that

Sasha - I got 30 minutes of work to do, then I was just going to order room service.

Conner - Don’t order til I get there

He hadn’t had much time with her these past couple days, he was ready to have her home and back in his bed.

The bus made it back to the hotel and they were all heading in.

“Conner, do you have a minute?” asked Coach Wagner.

“Yeah,” Conner said.

“I want to talk to you about that power play.”

Conner sighed and shook his head.

“I think we need to work out some kinks, I had Russel send me over some footage of tonight's power plays. We are meeting in my room to go over some of the footage and change up some things. I need you in on it so we can hit the ground running with a quick special team’s practice once we are back in Glendale.”

Conner wanted to be alone with Sasha licking his wounds…well, maybe he wanted to be licking other things. She had a bit of work to do and so it seemed did he. There would be time. They did need to get the power play figured out if they had any shot at staying in this.

He looked around for Sasha. He would walk her to her room and then he would head to Coach’s room. He looked around the lobby of the hotel that was now full of Magic players and staff.

“Hey, have you seen Sasha?” he asked Cash.

“I think she just headed up to her room.”

“Are you ready, Conner?” asked Coach Wagner.

“Yeah,” he said as he followed him into the elevator.

He was ready to get this over and go to Sasha’s room, order some room service, and forget about the shitshow on the ice tonight.

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