Page 28 of Offside

11

Bishop

The hit was clean. Their winger came down the wall with the puck on his forehand and his head up. I held the inside lane. He ran out of room below the circle, chipped the puck behind our net, and finished through my right side before I could turn away. His shoulder caught mine against the glass. For a second, the joint held. Then my arm stopped working.

The puck had gone behind the net. Garrett collected it and sent it up the boards while I pushed away from the glass. My right glove hung below my hip. I could close my hand around the stick, but I couldn't lift it high enough to put both hands back in position. I skated to the bench one-handed.

"Change," Reeves said before I reached it.

I went over the boards and sat without arguing, without trying to roll the shoulder. The strength had gone once in September and come back within the shift.

This time, it didn't. The broadcast camera at the end of the bench turned toward me and its red light came on.

I kept both gloves on my knees, the right one lower. The arena board showed a replay of the hit from above in slow motion. On the second angle, my arm dropped before the rest of me left the glass.

Vicki touched my left shoulder from behind the bench. "Tunnel."

I stood. The camera followed me to the door. In the training room, Declan cut the tape at my right wrist while Vicki pulled my jersey free without lifting the arm. Zoe closed the door to the corridor.

"Numbness?" Declan asked.

"No numbness. No tingling either."

"Grip," he said, holding out two fingers. I squeezed them. He checked the other side, then had me lift the arm. It stopped near my ear. I tried again. The shoulder blade climbed; the joint didn't.

"Don't force it," he said.

"I can move it." I tried to lift it again.

"You're moving around it."

Zoe stood on my left and repeated the strength checks while Declan recorded the result. Vicki called Reyes from the doorway.

Reyes arrived before the period ended. She checked sensation, grip, and strength again. Then she took the joint through a passive range while I let the arm stay heavy.

"The passive range is better than the active," she said. "That doesn't clear you to go back, but it tells me what needs another look."

"What gets me back?"

"No repeat weakness. No overhead use. No reaching into resistance. Short shifts, and you leave the ice if the arm fails again." She looked at Vicki, then Declan and Zoe. "He reports after every shift. If any of you see a change, he's done."

"And if it doesn't change?"

"You can finish under those limits. Tomorrow I examine you again. This is a new episode, Bishop. September's clearance doesn't cover this."

Reeves came in while she was speaking. Reyes gave him the same list. He didn't negotiate it down.

"Can you play inside that?" Reeves asked me.

"Yeah. I can play inside it."

"Can you leave if it fails again?"

That was a different question.

"Yes. I can," I said.

Reeves held my eyes for another second. "Then get dressed. Garrett takes the wall. You hold the middle and move it early."