They’re good - every team here is - but they don’t play with the same edge. Fewer cheap hits. Less chaos along the boards. They’re seeded third - one above us.
Still dangerous.
Just… cleaner.
Which is exactly what we need right now.
I push off from the boards as Russo wins the faceoff and the puck slides back toward our zone. My legs feel loose, energy buzzing under my skin in that familiar way that means the game is about to click.
The objective today is simple.
Win.
Impress the scouts.
And keep Shaw from getting smashed into the boards.
I glance across the ice.
Shaw - Leonora.
The correction still happens automatically in my head.
For weeks he was just Shaw. My winger. The smartest player on the ice most nights.
Now every time I look at him there’s this second of recalibration.
Her.
The word still feels strange attached to the same player.
She cuts through the neutral zone now, stick low, shouldersrelaxed, slipping past a Northern State defender like he barely exists.
And suddenly I understand something I hadn’t before.
Part of the reason I never figured it out. And why the idea never even crossed my mind.
I never considered that a girl could play like that.
Could step onto our line and just… belong.
Fit into the sequence of our team like she’d been there all along.
The realization sits in my chest like a weight.
Because the truth is ugly. It just never occurred to me.
I shake my head slightly as I skate.
That’s on me.
And honestly?
I’m a little ashamed of it.
The puck slides across the blue line and Shaw taps it neatly off the boards toward me.
Perfect pass.
