Page 51 of The Game
“Well, he’s not an ex, just an asshole from my studies, so no need to be jealous!” she quips as she steps out of my embrace.
Sarah is always cute, but when I make her squirm like this, she’s freaking adorable.
All flustered, trying to create distance between us.
“Well, if he ever bothers you again, I’ll find him,” I say as I check my watch, seeing it’s almost time for the meeting.
“I have to go, angel. You make sure no other douchebags show up at the arena, even though you’ll handle them just fine.”
I gently squeeze her waist before taking off, feeling much lighter than before.
~
We’ve just gone over the tapes from yesterday, looking at our mistakes and where we could have done something differently.
Looking back, the game wasn’t just a case of a bad day.
Coach pulled up several examples of plain bad hockey.
I winced several times, watching it back.
Even though I wasn’t in the examples myself, it feels terrible seeing our team struggle like that.
Unclear passes, bad communication, overall bad flow.
Our meeting from this morning is fresh in my mind, and if I was sceptical before, I don’t have any doubts now.
Coach is right.
We need to do something different.
I need to do something different as captain.
When the meeting is nearing its end, I raise my hand to indicate that I would like to say something.
I haven’t exactly planned what to say, but I do need to take some responsibility and make it clear that I’m ready to lead this team forward and turn this around.
I make my way to the front of the room, and the tension is heavy.
Several of the guys are sunken into their chairs, their heads cast down, like they’re ashamed of themselves.
Christ.
This is bad.
I take the place beside the coach, and he gives me a nod.
“I think we all can agree that the game yesterday was bad, and that we are struggling to deliver as a team on the ice,” I begin, looking out in the room.
There’s no reason to sugar coat our struggles, but I don’t want to crush them even more.
Athletes are hard on themselves. We know when we fuck-up. And if you didn’t know, the movie demonstration we just saw pointed it out.
“We need to try a new approach, get back to our flow. As your captain, my door is always open if anyone needs to talk, except for you, Noah; you already take up too much of my time,” I say, causing a chuckle to spread throughout the room, cutting through some of the tension.
Noah shrugs his shoulders, knowing I’m just messing with him.
“On a serious note. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if there’s anything on your mind or if you havesuggestions to turn this around. Because I know without a doubt that we will.”
