Page 23 of Tough Call

NAL Referee Under Investigation After Boning a Player and Then Favoring His Team.

Yeah, that would be the day. Connor would absolutely die, especially since he’d always endeavored to be the most scrupulous ref to ever touch the ice.

Still funny to imagine the headlines, though.

After practice, we showered and sat down to eat. Some irrational part of me expected to hear my teammates gossiping about a certain player hooking up with a ref, but they obviously weren’t.

There was definitely one topic of conversation buzzing through the room, though.

“I heard the North American League sent scouts,” Žagars said.

“They always send scouts.” Petrovs took a gulp of water. “They want to poach the best from our leagues into theirs.”

“I’d let them poach me,” Žagars muttered. “I like playing in Latvia, but if a team in Canada or the US wants me?” He waved a hand.

Some of the other guys grunted and nodded.

“You played over there, didn’t you?” Petrovs asked me. “How was it?”

I tried not to squirm under my teammates’ scrutiny. “It was great. Good money.” I laughed dryly. “Schedule was a killer, but it was worth it.”

“You think you’d ever go back?”

“If they offered me a contract, sure. In a heartbeat.”

Valters cocked his head. “How’d you end up in Switzerland, then?”

I shot him a pointed look. “Because they didn’t offer me a contract.”

“Ooh.” His cheeks colored. “Uh. Sorry, man…”

I shrugged and continued eating. It was admittedly a little bit of a sore spot, but I was mostly over it. Yeah, it stung when I became a free agent and suddenly no one—not even the teams in the middle of rebuilds—were interested in me. I couldn’t even get a professional tryout contract, and I knew guys who could barely skate who got PTOs. Such bullshit.

Okay, it was more than a little bit of a sore spot. I wanted a place in that League so bad I could taste it. And my agent was confident that if I shined here and in Genève, I had a shot at getting signed again.

“They’re always looking for international talent,” Kirils had told me a few months ago. “And you’re hitting that sweet spot soon—an unrestricted free agent who’s in his prime and still young enough to be worthwhile.”

So true. Sometimes guys who weren’t free agents still got signed, but they had to be superstars to be worth all the extra paperwork and money to essentially buy them from their European team. One of my teammates had gone to North America last year on such a deal. Another had ben signed as a free agent the summer before.

This year could be my chance. Quite possibly my last chance. And if I really, really played my ass off at the Games, that could be my ticket back to North America.

No pressure or anything.

CHAPTER 9

CONNOR & MADARS

Connor

Great game today!

Madars

Were you there? I didn’t see you! (sad emoji)

No (sad emoji) but I saw the score and the recap.

I don’t think Team USA knew what hit them.