Patins et pilules

Chapitre 13

Liam

16 novembre

Yesterday, at the practice, Jay was angry. Like mad. We lost all our games since Winnipeg. That's 4 games in a row. And in Montreal, it's like forever. Like the end of the world. We heard some boos at the end of Monday's game, I mean it's understandable because it ended 5-0 for the Leafs; the fans and some media are asking to fire Coach Champagne or the GM or both, to trade Colin or Jack for someone younger, to bring back all of the Laval's players to Montreal. It's always like that in Montreal. It was like that before I was born, before Coach Champagne was born, before our GM was born and, I guess, before his own parents were born. It's not Jay's fault, nor mine. Jay gave all he had since his bad game in Winnipeg. I did too. But it wasn't enough. Jack is injured. He can still play but he's not in a shape to steal the games when we're not playing like we should. Jack at 75% of his capacity is still better than most goalies on the League though but I guess it's not enough.

They had officially sent Niklas to our farm team in Laval in the morning. They had told him the night before, just after the loss to Toronto. His faceoffs problems were killing him. For these last 4 games, he had a 26% efficiency rate, which is way too low for a first center and far from his usual rate. And he knew it, this new generation of guys is much more into statistics than I am. It affected every part of his game, and every part of our game too. I mean, it's hard to make a good offensive play when you never have the puck on your stick at the beginning.

What worried the management the most, though, is that his anxiety issues were coming back. They were alerted by Olli who now shares an apartment with him. Apparently, Niklas has developed sleep problems and started to have little anxiety attacks again when they are talking about the other teams and the upcoming games. And well, now, the management is much more attentive to this kind of thing, since, well, you know what happened. They told him that Laval was the best option for him, to gain back his confidence and start to have fun again. I can't say that it was really fun in Montreal for the last week anyway. There is also one of the guys from the Swedish National Junior hockey team there, a winger, that he played with last year at the World's Junior Championship, when Niklas was the team's captain. They'll put them in the same line in Laval.

So now, with Niklas in Laval and James out for a while, since his concussion had been confirmed when we came back from Winnipeg, we're in lack of centers. They brought back Lucas Wilson from Laval and they decided to try Jay at center, where he played when he was junior, under Coach Champagne. And that's why Jay was angry.

They told him how they expected him to play, and he didn't think it would work. He had other ideas and he made sure that they knew what he had in mind. I heard some things that I'm sure his mom didn't want him to say when he was younger like: "Tabarnak Martin, ça peut pas marcher contre eux-autres!" or "How the fuck do you think I'll get through Thompson like that, Andrew?". And you could ask: who is he to discuss the coach's instructions when he doesn't have much experience at this position? That's what some of the players on the team were wondering too. But curiously, the coaches listened. Jay's brain is filled with game patterns, ice rink maps with players on it, puck trajectories, equipment specs, players characteristics. Those who know him well know that his career as a player is only the first part of his hockey career. Once he decides that the playing part is over, the teams will run after him to get him on their staff, if it's not the media who will want him as an analyst. Some reporters know that and reach to him already when there are some things that they don't understand or when they need to know what to look at on the other teams. Our coaches know that too and when he speaks, they consider what he has to say. Especially when he's angry, which doesn't happen often. It certainly didn't happen much last year, when he was more passive and distracted on the ice; that's why some of us, like Colin and I, couldn't help the smirk on our face while Jay was having his little fit, which made us get a: "Come on guys, that's not funny! Help me out instead, you know James wouldn't accept this!". Like everyone on our team, Jay wants to win. What's different though, is that he has to do the little media thing much more than the rest of us. They didn't keep him away from this for long after his little slip up about James. Saturday morning, after the skate, he was back at it. And Monday night too for the post-game interviews after we lost against the Leafs. Even after yesterday's practice, he had to go there, to tell them how he felt about Niklas going to Laval and him playing center now. I wasn't too far, and I heard what he said. It's amazing how he always has to repeat the same things, in French and in English while staying calm, polite and positive. This is certainly a lot easier to do when we're winning. Fortunately, that morning, nobody asked about his disagreement with the coaches, I thought that maybe they didn't notice.