Chapter 40
Conner
Conner was sitting on the bench sucking in air after another hard shift on the ice. It seemed like Florida had their number since game two of this series. Game one they had eked out a win, but after that Florida seemed to be one step ahead of them. They kept getting the puck stripped from them in the neutral zone, pushed to the sides in the offensive zone, they just couldn’t get it together.
As he squirted some water in his mouth, the whistle was blown. Taylor had been tripped and they were on power play. Four minutes left in the second period and down by two. This was their shot to get in. Conner jumped back on the ice with the rest of the first power play unit.
He was in the zone, passing to Sven just like they had been practicing. Only they couldn’t seem to get it right. One of Florida’s defensemen hit the puck out of the zone. They tried for another zone entry, and it was sloppy, but they made it. Conner took a shot, but the goalie got a glove on it. He skated in for a faceoff.
“Not so easy without your golden boy?” said the center he was facing off against.
“I’d worry more about you losing your fucking goon, we’re good,” Conner gritted through his teeth.
Conner knew with Wes on the ice it would be a different story, but at least Blake Kelly was gone. The only silver lining of the last quarter of their season.
He won the face off, which felt good, but they made it through another scoreless power play. They hadn’t scored with their power play this whole series. Conner skated back to the bench and hit his stick against the wall. He hated losing, of course he did, but losing to Florida was the fucking worst.
Another scoreless period, another failed power play, had their time in Florida coming to an end. The team made it back to the locker room feeling the loss as well of the weight of being down 3-1 in the series.
“Hey, I know that sucked,” Conner said to the team as they all made their way to the showers. “But now we have them back on our ice. We aren’t out of this yet. We’ll go back to the hotel and leave this fucking place first thing in the morning. Once we have them back home, on our ice, we are going to put an end to this.”
They all gave a nod, headed into the showers, and back to the bus to lick their wounds and get ready for the next game. Conner saw Murphy sitting by his cubby with a dejected look on his face. He remembered the pressure of a rookie year, but during his rookie year the team wasn’t as good as it was now. He didn’t have a playoff run until his third year, but he could imagine the pressure the young rookie felt.
“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.