"He kept it because you were down. You're not down anymore. You're my one. That's the job."
"He earned the net, Bodie."
"And you own it. Both things are true. Game one's yours." He claps my shoulder where Tikh's hand was. "You okay?"
"I'm okay."
"I didn't ask if Soucy earned it. I asked if you're okay."
"I'm okay, Bodie." He looks at me a beat, the way they all look at me today, and then he goes. The net I held all season comes back to me the same week he held it best, because I'm the one and that's the job. The sport is going to walk the two of us backinto the same small room. Him two stalls down. Me in the blue paint. Close enough to read each other. Far enough that neither of us has to.
One by one they all go. The room empties down to the hum of the lights and the smell of tape and the folded paper on the bench. Then it's only me.
I sit there a minute. I'd told Davis I'd. I take out my phone and hold the voice-note button down for my mother, because a screen for ten seconds won't kill me, and because she built the calm into me in the first place. She's the only person alive who won't make me explain past where I can go.
"Hey, Mom. Yeah, I'm good. Head's coming. Lights are still a lot but it's coming. We're through. We're in the Finals, can you believe it." I stop. I find the next part, and it costs more than the game cost me. "Listen. There's been someone. On the team. For a while now. I think I had it, the whole thing, and I read it wrong somewhere, which I don't do. I don't read things wrong. But I think I did. I don't really know how to say it yet. I'll tell you more when I can. The knee's fine. Tell Dad good luck. I guess we'll see him out there. Love you."
I send it before I can take any of it back, and I sit with the phone in my two hands in the empty room. Her answer comes faster than I expect, her voice small in the quiet.
"Okay, sweetheart. I'm glad you told me even that much. I won't ask. When you're ready, and not before." A pause, the length of a held breath. "We're proud of you, both of us, all the way out here. Get some sleep, and stay out of the light. I love you."
She doesn't ask. She heard the whole of it in the hole between the words. She taught me the calm. She knows it's a thing you build to stand inside when the rest won't hold. I put the phone face-down on the bench beside the crossword nobody finished.
I sit in the dark a while longer with the one thing I'm best at in all the world. Being the steady one nobody has to worry about. The one who's fine. The one who provides. The one you can set down two stalls away and trust to stay exactly where you left him.
I've never in my life felt so much like the furniture.
CUP FINAL: CHICAGO
Press Conference Transcript #4
PRE-SERIES MEDIA AVAILABILITY
REPORTER: Lundy, you cleared concussion protocol this week and you'll start Game 1. And you're facing a Chicago team coached by your father. There's no precedent for this. What's it like?
LUNDMARK: It's the matchup the schedule gave us. He's the best coach in this league and we're going to try to beat him anyway. That part's simple.
REPORTER: It can't be that simple. He's your dad.
LUNDMARK: He's my dad in the summer. For two weeks he's the guy behind the other bench, and I'm the guy in the other net, and neither of us is going to pretend otherwise. He taught me how to do that. He's been doing it my whole career. He's never once watched me play and not sent a note after. Always after. Never before. Because before would be coaching against his own kid, and he won't cross that line. So we'll do it the way we've always done it. I play. He coaches. We talk in July.
REPORTER: Speaking of which, Coach Lundmark was asked about you this morning. He said, quote, "I'm aware Atlanta hasa capable goaltender. I've seen tape." That's all he gave us. Any response?
LUNDMARK: [a beat, the corner of his mouth] That's about forty more words than he'd give me. He's seen more than tape. Tell him I know that too.
REPORTER: That's the real question, isn't it. He's watched you play since you were a kid. He knows your game better than any opposing coach could. Does that give Chicago an edge on you specifically?
LUNDMARK: Yes. Of course it does. He knows every tendency I have because he built half of them. He'll have his power play designed to find the six inches he taught me to protect. I'd be insulting him to pretend otherwise. My job is to be a goalie he hasn't seen yet. That's the only answer to a man who knows you that well. Become someone new by Thursday.
IKONEN: Whatever Karl knows is a season old. We'll take our guy.
COACH BOUDREAUX: Karl Lundmark broke down three NHL goalies in the nineties and built the systems that did it. I have enormous respect for him. I also intend to beat him, and I've got his son in my net to help me do it. Both of those are true.
REPORTER: Avi, last word. A first-year expansion team in the Stanley Cup Final. Did you see this coming in September?
IKONEN: No.
REPORTER: That's it?
