The Player by Paul Coccia

Author:Paul Coccia
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: James Lorimer and Company Ltd., Publishers
Published: 2021-01-07T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

Hoser

Pesh called the team over to my net. They circled around.

“It’s the start of a new week and it’s the first game of the finals,” he said. “There are only minutes left. We’re behind by one goal. We need to tie it up. Let’s push it into overtime. We can still win.”

I lifted the cage on my helmet. “They’re a good team. We’ve only scored twice.”

“They’ve only scored three times.”

“We might not win this one,” I said.

Pesh glared at me. “We have to win. I have to win. I’ll score the goals. You worry about keeping them from getting past you. Just us two can do it.”

The rest of the team stared at each other. We weren’t a team if it came down to two players. Pesh made it sound like we didn’t need them. They’d played as hard as we had. The other team was tough. This wasn’t like the last series. This would be a hard round.

Pesh skated away.

“Guys?” I said before the rest of the team took off. “We won’t ever win working alone. I can’t stop every shot. I need you. Let’s see if we can tie it up. If we can’t, we win the next one. Together.” I held out my glove.

The other guys nodded. They put their gloves on top of mine and we cheered. Without Pesh. They took turns slapping me on the shoulder pads before they took their positions.

The last few minutes made no difference. Pesh had a short breakaway. Their team stole the puck. No one scored. The clock ticked down. We lost. Three to two.

When we got into the locker room, Pesh threw his gloves at the benches.

“Calm down, dude,” Brian said. “It’s one game.”

“To you!” Pesh yelled. “We need to work harder!”

I said, “We played our best.”

“We still lost!” Pesh yelled. “We need to play better than that.”

I turned to the rest of the guys. “It was close. We’re pretty evenly matched with the other team. Next week’s game, luck will be on our side.”

“Luck isn’t enough.” Pesh pushed off his skates. “Be early for practice tomorrow.” He stripped down. He left his gear in a heap on the floor. He muttered as he stomped away, “We even had home ice.”

I started taking off my gear to follow him.

Brian grabbed my shoulder. “Leave him. He needs to cool off.”

I got out of my uniform with the rest of the team. I passed Pesh as I headed to the showers.

“Be quick. I’ll be waiting in my car,” he said. He didn’t stop or give me a chance to answer. He was still dripping from his shower.

A guy named Dale snuck up behind a wingman named Chris. Dale began pretending he was humping Chris from behind.

“Get lost! Don’t be gay!” Chris exclaimed when he realized why everyone else was laughing.

“Don’t pretend you didn’t like it,” Dale said.

“I’d rather be riding the bench than riding your mom!”

“More like riding my dad!” As he walked away, Dale high-fived Brian, who was a few shower heads over.

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