Post Olympic

Puck Drop

I don't know if this is important, but there's a sequel thing to this? so if it does well, you could see Plie and Clout in the future. I've only written the sequel because I've basically finished this story (on my own doc, not here yet) and I wanted to continue with the team, because they're adorable. Anyway.

Well that's about it. uh, music, right. Hey Look Ma, I Made It - - Panic at the Disco

-rabid

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Ten seconds to puck drop and I'm on the bench, standing on it, actually. Sauerkraut is center, Greenbean right and Keegan is left. Ireland is a second liner as of now, I had him moved down. In the rear, Pax is our starting goalie, right defense is Squid and left is Yeti. They blow the whistle and Sauerkraut loses the face off, Minnesota has the puck and they're careening toward Pax.

I watch Sauerkraut closely, and instantly can tell his game apart from everyone else. His focus is impeccable, his ease on ice is even better. His starts could use work. I lean over and scribble Sauer-starts on my clipboard. Hadley watches with bated breath, and they win the puck, Sauerkraut drives up the ice, open and ready for a pass from Keegs, who doesn't give, instead getting blocked by a Wild defenseman.

"PASS!" I yell onto the ice. God, they do play like peewees.

***

An hour and a miserable half later, we lost. I didn't expect anything different, but it's still disappointing.

"The Wild is a hard team." Hadley starts, but I cut him off.

"Don't tell them that." I snort.

"Huh?"

"Don't sugar coat a loss, teach them what they can do better." I say.

"Can you give the speech?" He asks.

"Yeah." I say. "The Wild is a beatable team. I have no idea what you guys were doing out there. Keegan, that first breakaway, Sauerkraut was wide open, what were you thinking?" Keegan turns red. "Yeti, same for you on the second, we gave them a shutout on their first game of the season, and I get it, we're the wolves. We notoriously play like peewees. But that shouldn't be an excuse for the sloppy plays I saw out there. We might be the Wolves, but we shouldn't play like we are. Come on, guys. Play like you're Boston." Ireland gives a groan at this.

"Shut up, masshole."

"I can say the goddamn same to you, Mr. Northeastern, mr born in Quincy you're not just a masshole, you're a privileged masshole." The team makes a low oooohhh noise. "That doesn't matter. What I need you guys to do is go into games playing like winners. No more of this, whatever this is. Tomorrow we're going back to the basics. I'm getting you guys out on the field and we're playing five on five soccer."

"God, not soccer please." Yeti mumbles.

"Clap your trap, Sasquach." I respond. "We need to work on the easy stuff. The passing, the teamwork." I start to pace around, lifting chins with the butt of my stick. "You're playing like you're individuals. This is easy stuff boys." I jump toward Keegan, who spooks away from me. "I kind of want to take you all camping. Force the teamwork into you guys. We're the wolves, but I need you to not play like we are. Hitting a double digit loss in a hockey game is absolutely unacceptable." I look around. "Sauerkraut, Ireland, anything to say, captains?" They both let out a sigh.

"Heads up, boys. Remember to take the loss in stride, I don't want to hear a single complaint about the workout tomorrow, she knows what she's doing, and I bet we're going to come out with a win by January." Sauerkraut mumbles. I snort, but stifle it.