“So, what do I do?”
“You don’t hit the player,” he says. “You remove the ice under them.”
I frown. “That sounds… philosophical.”
He demonstrates instead. Just before contact, he shifts his weight suddenly, drops low, and drives his shoulder into my chest while his stick clips the outside of my skate, sweeping my feet out from under me.
I lose my balance instantly and have to grab the boards.
“What-”
“That,” he says calmly.
“You cheated.”
“I redirected your center of gravity.”
“Which sounds suspiciously like cheating.”
He gestures for me to reset.
“Your turn.”
I push off the boards and skate toward him. At the last second I copy the movement - dropping my hips as I drive my shoulder into his chest, stick sweeping low to clip his skate.
Chen stumbles enough that he has to widen his stance to catch himself.
“That worked!”
He straightens, brushing imaginary snow from his gloves.
“Physics,” he says.
I try it again.
This time he slides sideways half a step before recovering.
I grin inside my helmet.
“Oh,” I say quietly. “That’s dangerous.”
Chen nods.
“Exactly.”
“OK,” he says finally. “We’ve got a game in a few hours.”
Right.
Another game.
Another chance to prove I belong out here.
“You set up two goals yesterday.”
“We still lost.”
“Yeah,” he says. “But that wasn’t all your fault.”
