Page 34 of Time to Shine

The puck dropped, and the play immediately headed in Landon’s direction. It was two-on-one, and Landon had to decide whether the San Jose forward with the puck was going to pass or shoot.

Landon sank into the moment. The crowd disappeared, along with the cameras, his teammates, his coaches, Antton Niskanen, all of it. In the span of a few seconds, Landon watched the forward’s hands, the puck, his feet, his eyes.

He was going to shoot. He would wait, try to fake Landon out, but he would shoot.

Landon edged his left leg toward the other San Jose player, to make it seem like he was anticipating a pass. When the shot he’d been expecting came, he shut the door, stopping the low shot cleanly and covering the puck to stop the play.

The world came back, and the crowd was cheering. He could hear Casey yelling from the bench over everyone. “Hell yeah, Stacks!”

He handed the puck to the linesman and shook himself off. He could do this.

Unfortunately, he could not do it. After managing to prevent any more pucks from getting by him in the first period, he let in three goals in the first half of the second period, two of them within forty seconds of each other.

And then he was called to the bench and Antton had to go in to replace him. Landon couldn’t even give his hero one badly needed night off. He was a joke.

Sitting on the bench for the rest of the game was a nightmare. He felt like everyone in the arena was staring at him. He felt like crying but fought like hell not to because he was sure the broadcast would show close-ups of his face.

Antton kept Calgary in the game as best he could, stopping every shot, but in the end San Jose still won.

Landon didn’t talk to anyone in the locker room after. He removed his gear as quickly as he could. He wanted to burn it.

“Hey,” said a voice behind him. Landon turned and saw Antton standing there, still in full gear with his mask flipped up.

“Sorry,” Landon said, because it was the only word in his vocabulary in that moment.

“They won’t all be like this one,” Antton said. It was a nice thing to say, but Landon was pretty sure there wouldn’t be any more Outlaws games for him. He’d probably be on a plane back to Saskatoon tomorrow. Felix, the next goalie in line, would be happy.

Landon didn’t know what to say, since he’d already used up his one word, so he just shrugged and continued to remove his gear.

“Listen,” Antton said quietly. “The press is coming in here in a minute. Go take a shower, all right? And stay in there. I’ll talk to them.”

Landon almost started crying, but he managed to swallow it down as he nodded. He absolutely could not deal with talking to the press right now.

“And that save you made in the first? The two-on-one? Beauty. I thought he was going to pass.”

Landon let out a shaky breath. “No way. You would have seen it too. He was shooting.”

“It was nice. An NHL save. You should be proud of that one.”

“Thanks.”

Antton gently nudged Landon’s chest with his glove. “You’ve got talent. Now get naked and get out of here.”

Landon nodded, lips pressed together as his eyes burned. Antton left, and Landon made quick work of the rest of his gear, more than ready to shower away his disastrous first—and probably last—NHL game.

Chapter Thirteen

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Landon said as soon as he and Casey were in the car.

Casey thought it was pretty obvious that Landon didn’t want to talk about the game. The way he hadn’t said a word in the locker room after—had barely made eye contact with anyone—and the way he’d walked several strides behind Casey on the way to the car.

“That’s cool,” Casey said. “No problem.” He started the ignition. “But. You shouldn’t—”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Yeah, I know. But—”

“Do you ever fucking stop talking?”

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