Page 114 of Skating the Blue Line
“Yeah?” I ask, turning slightly.
“I just talked to my brother. He says Chloe, her parents and yours made it up to the box.” Blake informs me, giving me a nod.
Since Chloe is so close to her due, I want her to be around as many people as possible. I don’t want anything to happen while she’s alone.
It’s why she moved in with me in the first place, so she can have someone there in case something happened.
Her parents arrived earlier this week and they will be here for about a month, something that I arranged without Chloe knowing, so that has been helpful especially since I’ve been gone a lot these last few weeks.
These last few games, I’ve made sure that the box I put them in was filled with people that would take care of her if something happened.
Family, friends, anybody that she can go to if her water broke, or she had to go to the restroom.
So hearing that Blake’s family is also in there it helps bring my nerves about her tonight down a notch.
“Thanks, man,” I say, clapping him on the back.
“Thank me by kicking panther ass.” He says, that stupid as grin on his full display.
“You already know it. Gotta get payment for that busted up nose and messing up your pretty face.” I say nodding toward his face guard.
“Fucking assholes. We gotta let Logan loose or something tonight.” he says through his teeth, lifting his hand to his busted nose.
“We’ll see what we can do.” I tap him with my stick and head over to the door to get in the zone.
I try to clear my head as best as I can. For a minute, I close my eyes and clear my head of all outside noises. The only thoughts that I let myself have are those that include my stick and the puck.
For a short minute, it's just me on the ice with nothing stopping me from shooting the puck into the net. Just me and the sport that made me the man that I am today.
My team built me and I will do everything that I can to make sure they end up top. I owe them that much.
Tonight doesn’t have importance. Tonight is just any other game and should be treated as such.
We’re going to go out there and kick panther ass.
One minute is all I need and I’m fucking ready.
The voice behind me quiets down, just like it has done every playoff game before this one. My teammates are aware of my little ritual, so they know that as soon as I’m ready, off to the ice we go.
“Alright boys,” I start, “We have three periods, twenty minutes each. There’s something out there that we want. Let’s go get it. There’s only one team that’s getting their name added to it and it sure as hell isn’t going to be a team from Florida. So, let's. Fucking. Go.”
Every single person in the room erupts, the vibration can be felt on the floor.
One by one we start filing out of the looking room and making our way to the ice.
The crowd was electric during warm up and the second our blades hit the ice for the second time tonight is a whole different level.
It feels as if no time is wasted from the second, we skate onto the ice to when the puck is dropped.
Everything becomes a total blur.
One second we are in the first period trying to get the puck from the Florida forward and the next were in the third period with twenty seconds on the clock with a tied game.
Coach yells out a call and we start putting it in motion.
One more goal. That is all we need.
I bring my stick back and pass it over to Blake who then passes it to Logan. Volkov handles it for a few while I skate across the ice and get into position. I make eye contact with him and as soon as he winds back and slaps the puck to me, I’m already feeling it in my bones what my next move is going to be.
