Joey
I’m sittingon my back porch with a glass of wine, my tablet open, my notebook beside it, my laptop besidethat.
Pens and pencils are strewn on the old wooden table’s surface.
The threat of a splinter is always imminent when I work out here, but the weather is changing and I know soon enough that I’ll need a blanket…and then a parka…and then, when winter really hits, I’ll be stuck inside, staring longingly out at my back yard.
Today, it’s chilly.
But today, I have the fresh air and the soft trill of birds in the trees, and the wind gently bouncing the pine needles on the evergreens in my yard.
Practice plans have been reviewed and tweaked, drills added as needed, line combinations written up and stored away—Lake is our strongest forward by far, but his wife, Nova, had her baby not too long ago and though I don’t doubthis commitment to the team, I know that he’s not sleeping much and milestones come quick and babies and moms get sick.
I want to provide flexibility, not just for him, but also for the rest of my guys.
Yes, they’re multi-million dollar athletes.
But they’re not robots.
They’re people with families who need understanding and compassion—at least on the team thatIwant to build.
So, I’m making that happen.
Along with reviewing tape from last night’s game—and not just ours. Coast to coast, there were eight games and we’ll be facing off with most of those teams in the coming months.
I need to know what systems they’re running, how their chemistry is looking, and what player and/or roster changes we need to make to match against of all those things. We’ve been honing stuff on our side throughout the off-season, but that’s the micro we can control versus the macro of the other teams in the league.
So, I need to be aware of what’s happening with other teams too.
And I need to know how the guys on our AHL team are looking too. Who’s ready to be brought up for a game or two to keep growing their skills, who we need to find a spot on the roster because they’re ready for The Show, and who needs more games to develop, or—always the hardest part—who we need to move in order to better the team as a whole.
It could be they don’t fit in with our system, with the culture we’re building.
Or, worse, it could be that they do but we need to trade for a different type of player anyway.
I’m not alone in my quest to digest all of this information.
I have a video team and a player development department.I have assistant coaches and… My lungs freeze. Because I also have…
Damon.
I close my eyes, clenching my teeth together, ignoring the sharp bolt of pain that shoots along my jaw.
There’s a reason I’m out here with my notebook and pens, my tablet and my laptop, and it’s not just because I like to work—though, spoiler alert, I do. But it’s also because I’m trying to avoid what happened last night…same as I’m trying to avoid the fact that I woke up with sun streaming in through my bedroom window.
And that I did it alone.
Because Damon had carried me there.
He’d torn the truth out of me and…
He left.
I reach for my glass of wine, take a big sip, and I do it hoping that it’ll dull the sharp edges of last night.
Of course,he left.
What was he going to do? Crawl into bed next to me?
