He was right.
He was also early.
I stopped the clip and looked at him. Not hard. Not for the room.
“Finish this part first.”
The pen stilled.
Jace shut his mouth, looked back at the screen, and nodded once.
Immediate.
No joke. No defensive flash. No “I was just saying.” No performance for Milo, who was already grinning like he had been handed a loaded weapon.
The response was so clean it unsettled me.
I continued. “Before the reverse is available, what has to happen?”
Jace answered after a beat. “Lowell has to pull F1 below the dot.”
“Good. Next?”
“F3 has to hold middle instead of drifting.”
“Right.”
He did not seem to realize what he had done. That bothered me more than if he had done it deliberately. If he were trying to please me, I could categorize that. Players wanted approval.Players adjusted to new coaches. Stars liked being taken seriously.
This looked less conscious.
The rest of video passed without incident. Jace fidgeted. He lost the thread once when someone’s phone buzzed too loudly and he glanced back toward the sound like his attention had been physically yanked. He recovered when I called on Roman instead of him, giving him ten seconds to find the room again.
By the time we hit the ice, the air between my shoulder blades had gone tight.
Not from nerves. From attention.
Practice opened with pace drills. Holloway was good. Annoyingly good. He made difficult reads look casual, not because they were easy, but because his brain chewed through options faster than the drill could present them. That was part of what made him special. It was also what made him a nightmare.
Halfway through a regroup sequence, he anticipated the release again. Not lazy. Not disrespectful. Excited. He saw the seam develop and went before the defenseman had earned the touch.
The pass missed. The line broke down.
A week ago, I would have explained the mistake. Two days ago, I might have given him the specific cue.
Today, I wanted to know what happened if I gave him less.
I blew the whistle.
Everyone looked over. Holloway circled back, already talking.
“I saw the weak side open. If he moves it right away, that’s a clean entry.”
I said, “Again.”
He blinked. “But if we’re trying to build speed through the middle, then I can pull their guy up and create space underneath.”
“Again.”
