Better Together (Patrick Kane)

33| Coaches Good Side

Patrick

Joel Quineville, first taken 21st overall in the NHL draft and played for many many teams. A hard nosed defenseman in his respected time. He's played in over 800 NHL games and coached in over 600 games so far in his career. He went to seven straight playoffs with the blues, which is a accomplishment in itself, and won a ring as a assistant coach with the avalanche. He also won coach of they year and is one of the winningest active coaches in the league. If anyone is going to catch up to Scotty it's gonna be him. He was known for being tight fisted and addicted to winning. And that's why he's just what we needed as our new head coach.

We walk into the screening room and take our spots on the floor or in chair depending on how much you're really going to pay attention. I sit on the floor next to Jonny and Danny and people fill in around us. Quineville walks in addresses the team as a whole.

"Hello boys, as you know I'm your new coach but you can just call me Q. The goal here is to make it to the playoffs and do so this season. This is the most talented team out there and it's about time we show people that. We have a lot of work to do but I believe that this is a team that can go the distance and I am honored that I am your coach.

I wanted to start with some film and see what you all see then go from there. Any questions" he asks and we all shake our heads. He seemed pretty straight forward, he'll tell us what he wants and we'll do it. Seems pretty simple, and the simpler the better.

"I actually have a question" he starts. "Who is the girl down in front" he asks squinting past the light of the projector.

"That's kaners giiiirlfriiiiiend" Steeger chirps and they all start oohing and ahhhing. Real mature guys.

"I wasn't aware these kinds of team things are open to just anyone" he snarls looking my direction.

"No offense sir, but I'm not just anyone. I'm Danielle Bowman, niece to Stan and granddaughter to Scotty. I have been helping out here since I was 15 years old and almost have my masters in business and finance. I help out with scouting reports and I find out matchups for the coaches and dissect stats to know who were going against and how to approach them. With all do respect, I find it very important that I'm at these screenings to watch not only how we play nbut how teams play us" she says. His lips pull into a smile and I think we were all kind of shocked. He wasn't known to smile, especially considering she was talking back to him. Rumor has it that under that mustache is nhls biggest secrets. But here he was actually smiling at her. Glad I'm not the only one.

"Well Miss Bowman, I'm afraid I jumped to conclusions, and I apologize. Happy to have you with us" he nods.

"Thank you sir" she replies.

"Now, lets get started" he says.

We watch film and talk about what we want to work on. It sounded like a lot of defensive changes which was obvious we should have made long before today. After we finish watching we all get laced up and wait for further instruction. Finally once everyone was ready we go out to the ice and I stop at the entrance.

Not only was coach q out there skating around with the players, but so was Danny and I become very confused. I skate up to her and she smiles at me.

"What are you doing" I ask.

"Quineville wanted me out here. Give some insight and help him keep a eye on things" she shrugs.

"Baby, that's awesome" I say.

"It's pretty cool. Now I can knit pick in person" she teases.

"Great... we both have win" I joke.

We warm up a few laps then start on drills. I work with some of the defenseman on protecting the puck with Q and Danny leading the charge.

"Okay Dan, what did you see from the films here that we should work on" he asks.

"Keeping our head up. It's easy to want to keep your eye on the puck when working along the boards, but it also makes it easy for the puck to get lost once obtained. A lot of players are able to get the puck but get picked immediately after. So your job during board battles isn't just to win them but to create something out of nothing. Read your options before just chipping the puck away" she explains.

"Good. So I want Kaner and I want Big Buff to battle it out" Q announces and I groan. That's not even fair, he's the worlds largest winger. Q drops the puck in the corner then Buff and I go after it. I come out with the puck but he quickly knocks it off my stick.

"Again" I demand and he smirks. Q drops the puck and yet again I retrieve it. But this time I keep my head up and see Danny tapping her stick in the ice. I pass to her and she easily stick handles it.

"Good job Kaner, way to execute" Q says and I nod.

We conclude practice a little after that and hit the showers. I get changed and collect my things before finding Danny in the parking lot.

"Hey coach" I tease and she rolls her eyes.

"Hey player" she jokes back.

"So that was kind of cool. Not only did you stand up for yourself but you even got on the coaches good side" I say.

"He's a smart guy, scary, but smart. My uncle was big on him and I wanted to see why. I get it now" she shrugs as we get into my car.

"I think he's great for us" I admit.

"Of course you do. He already loves you" she claims.

"How do you know that" I ask.

"You're a coaches dream Pat" she insists.

"How so" I wonder.

"You listen well. You always want to get better and you have being out worked. You have the skills that allow coaches to have options on where to put you but no matter what they know you're going to crest opportunities" she explains.

"That's what they think or thats what you think" I ask and she starts blushing.

"Shut up" she says and I laugh.

We head to lunch and for the first time in a long time didn't talk about hockey. We talked about our dreams, where we wanted to visit some day. We talk about what life after hockey would be like and we both had one thing in common, and that was each other.