Page 74 of In The Game

Raleigh: Funny. I was just thinking about you too.

Me: I’ll be home Friday night. What are you guys doing on Saturday?

Raleigh: I don’t think we have plans.

Me: Good. I’m going to need some Raleigh and Arthur time when I get back. Maybe we could go to a park.

Raleigh: His favorite is Trillium Park.

Me: It’s a date. I’ll call you later. xo

Now that I have that set up, I can give my focus to our final game this round. Seattle has been playing well this year. And now they’ve got home ice advantage.

After a night at the hotel, we get on the bus and head to the arena. Game night has everyone on edge, but nobody talks about it. We all have each other’s back while on the opponent’s territory and we are leaning on one another.

You could cut the tension in the locker room with a knife.

“Hey, would everybody just fucking breathe?” I say to the boys.

Jen leads us in some meditation before the game while we envision what we need to do. By the end, we’re a little less jumpy and more focused.

When we hit the ice, my heart is pumping.This is it.Warm-ups go well, Strass is blocking shots like a champ. I’m feeling good about tonight. I try to get the guys to shake off some of the noise. Tune out the crowd, focus on our plays, our strategy, pull up those weak areas and show our strengths like never before. We kicked their ass at our house, now we gotta do it at theirs.

“How ya feeling?” I ask Sully. We practically share a brain on the ice, yet I can’t imagine where his head’s at. He’s retiring, and these playoffs have been fucking with his psyche pretty hard. This could be his last hockey game. That’s some heavy shit.

“Ready.”

“You’re a hell of a captain.” I remind him.

He shakes his head. “Don’t even start with that.”

“Alright, you’re a shit leader and you skate like old people fuck.”

He holds his glove out, and I bump mine against it.

“Always could count on you for a pep talk.”

After another quick speech in the locker room and the national anthem, we come back out to center ice for the drop. Banks lowers into position and the stands grow quiet as the crowd’s anticipation builds. I drop down and prepare for his pass. When the rubber hits the ice, it’s on.

We capture the first round and it’s the fucking start we need. I snag and pass to Sully, then he passes to Banks before it’s snagged by Seattle. They’re as tense as we are. We combat their advances on Strass for my entire shift.

O’Callahan jumps on the ice, flying past me as I return to the bench. I’ll have a better sense of how they’re defending after a few shifts. They’re playing well. Sully enters the box soon after me and hunches over. We’re a couple of old bastards. Next is Banks. He leans in.

“I’m gonna go deep, I can steal from their D men. Their left is weaker.”

I nod, we knew this going into the game tonight based on the footage of their previous games. “I’ll get in the slot for a blind pass.”

“Conway!” Coach shouts, and I swap out with O’Cal.

My skates pound ice to get into position. Lonan checks their guy into the boards and dekes it back to me on the side. The opening I had is closing fast, I send it out, but my pass is missed by Bishop.Fucking hell.I need to get my line out here, but the puck is in our zone, so we can’t do a shift change. Kucera intercepts like a fucking bulldog and sends it out.That’s what I’m talking about.As our puck moves up, we finally get to swap the line, and Sully and Banks get on the ice with me. Coach calls me in, but I ignore it. We need this set up.

We go for a dump and chase. Even though Sully and I are the older guys, we are still some of the toughest skaters on the ice. It works, and their defensemen are spinning around to race us to the net. It’s a split second, but it’s enough to get possession. Sully gets ahead and I pass to him, Kucera blocks for him, and he makes the first attempt on goal, sailing it into the five hole.

“Fuck yeah, Sully!” The horn sounds and he looks up to the scoreboard, taking a deep satisfied breath before he drops his chin. I can see on his face this is going to be an emotional game for him. We skate off the ice to get a fresh line and I ask the zebras to give me the puck, in case it’s his last goal. I don’t want to think that way, but it’s a possibility.

At the next drop, they get a breakaway and make a goal on us. Well, that was fun while it lasted, all forty seconds. The first two periods are more of the same. By the third, we’re fucking beat. It’s been neck and neck, with zero new goals made. A few bullshit calls keep us under their thumb. I’m thinking we will go into overtime.

During the intermissions, we’ve discussed how they’re playing, but every time we think they’re going to zig, they zag. It’s frustrating as hell. Banksy looks like he’s ready to kill somebody. He better pull it together, the last thing we need is to give them a power play. It’s time to close it out. I don’t want another twenty minutes of this shit.

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