Hoyt shot a look in that general direction. “I’m not saying it’seasy. We’re not playing peewee hockey here. But what I saw tonight made me think Gavin was right. That speech he gave at the end of the season about having the right pieces and learningto work together? That’s what I saw on the ice tonight. I’m not gonna blow smoke up your ass. This season isn’t going to be an easy one. We’re going to need to fight for every point. Every game. But I would rather see us drop a few games at the beginning and pick up steam after than start on a high, crash, and lose morale.”
He glanced around. “There can’t be any coasting or complacency though.”
“Or plagues from Tanner!” someone called out.
Everyone laughed and Tanner stuck his hand up to show off his middle finger.
“Or plagues from Tanner,” Hoyt agreed with a chuckle. “Ordrinking ourselves sick, Erik.”
Another pointed look went in the direction of the rookie who’d gotten so drunk he puked last night. Hoyt hadn’t gone easy on him in warmups this morning and he’d been benched for the game.
The kid slid lower in his seat.
“We need to besmartthis season,” Hoyt said. “Your choices don’t only impact you, they impact this team. What we need from you is to make every single choice with that in mind. All season long, I want you to think before you act. Decide if you’re going to go for what feels good in the short-term or what you want in the long-term.”
Hoyt said something else, but Thad stopped listening, thinking about what the coach had said.
He wasn’tThad’scoach and they didn’t have a ton of interactions, but Thad liked the guy. He thought he was solidand a good man. He seemed more interested in teaching his players than merely screaming at them and Thad respected that.
So he wondered if he should listen to Hoyt’s advice about thinking long-term himself.
It wouldn’t impact the team—well, it kinda would since he was dating someone on the team … Thad resisted the urge to glance back at Graham.
Maybe he needed to be smart and think long-term about how his relationship with Graham would impact the team too.
God, he’d been something else tonight.
Watching him on the ice was always mesmerizing but he’d taken it to the next level in this game.
Graham generally wasn’t a flashy player—or a flashy person for that matter—he leaned more toward quiet and subtle. But sometimes he had thesemomentswhen he came up so clutch for the team no one could tear their eyes away.
Graham had done that tonight, streaking up the ice and bodying his way through New Jersey’s defense, then tucking a puck in the back of the net to tie the game up at the end of the third with less than fifteen seconds on the clock.
The goal had sent them to overtime, given them a chance at a win, and gotten them the OT point.
Would it have been better if they’d won? Of course. But Graham’s game had beengood.
He looked miserable now though, brow furrowed like he was replaying the game in his head and finding his performance wanting.
He’d always been like that, or at least as long as Thad had known him, anyway. He was hard on himself, expecting the best. Thad just had to hope he wasn’t blaming himself for the loss.
Or, worse, blaming the fact that he and Thad were together now.
Thad knew as well as anyone how weird a player’s brain could get when it seemed like every win or loss could be blamed on what happened in the hours prior to it.
Hopefully, Graham wasn’t having second thoughts about them dating.
Because the thought of having a taste of what it could be like between them, then having that snatched away made Thad’s chest ache.
Worry gnawed at his stomach as they made their way over the George Washington Bridge and into Manhattan, the bright lights of the city so familiar.
He’d liked living in New York City, but he didn’t miss it. He didn’t have many happy memories here. Mostly a blur of dead-end jobs and hustling to make rent, interspersed with brief, meaningless sex with people whose names and faces he could barely remember now.
He hadn’t had family or friends to rely on then. Had thought he hadn’t even wanted them.
But now … his life was starting to feel very different, wasn’t it? He was almost feeling … hopeful about the future. It was such an alien thought he turned it over and over in his mind until they reached the hotel.
The team was subdued as they left the bus and trooped into the lobby.
