A Mountain Springs Christmas

Chapter 9

nine

CONNOR

Connor stepped off the ice and headed down the hallway toward the visitor locker rooms after the game against the North Star in Minneapolis. It had been a hard-played game that left him frustrated and exhausted. They’d managed to squeak out a win in the end, but it wasn’t pretty.

Normally, nothing except the game was on his mind for hours afterward. But he was barely off the ice and Katie popped into his mind. Yes, she’d been spending a lot of time in his head lately, but her coming into his mind right now was unprecedented for him. Maybe it was because he wanted to talk with her about the game. He loved every chance he got to talk to her— their conversations were easy and natural and made him feel like he could be himself.

Last night had been fun. Outreach was a big part of the NHL, and he didn’t usually mind doing it at all. But it was tough having to do it while trying to gel with a new team, during Christmastime, and with such a tight window to fit everything in. But unlike the previous activity that had gone so disastrously, he’d really enjoyed every bit of last night.

And even more than the gingerbread judging, he enjoyed talking with Katie after. He always felt a strong connection with her whenever they talked, but last night, it had gotten stronger. After he spilled so much about his dad, they’d talked about random things, laughed, shared goals, and just chatted until the people closing up the building kicked them out. Then they got ice cream at an all-night convenience store and talked more.

And now, he really wanted to talk with her about the game. To work through what was going on. He had played hard— they all had, but things just weren’t coming together with this team.

Although it wasn’t super common, fights happened in the NHL. It was an intense game played by driven players, and sometimes emotions and frustrations spilled over. Sometimes it was during a game with a player on the opposing team. Sometimes during practice with a teammate. When you spent so many hours a day with the same guys over so many months, traveling together and rooming together, you could get on each other’s nerves.

But fights with a teammate during a game rarely occurred. And it wasn’t exactly what happened out on the ice tonight, but Briggs lifted his stick with both hands a few times like he wanted to cross-check Connor, and once looked like he’d much rather grab him by the jersey and give him a punch. That time was right after Connor had scored a goal, which made zero sense.

Connor missed the comradery he had with his old team. He couldn’t get traded quickly enough.

He got the sense that if he talked with Katie about it, she would be level-headed and help him to see things more clearly. He liked the way he always felt after being with her, too, and had been all but counting down the time until he got to see her again.

But he shouldn’t be wanting to talk more with her or to see her more. Not when he was doing what he could to be traded far from Denver.

Since they all still wore their gear, they mostly walked single-file from the ice to the locker room, and he had guys behind and in front of him. He heard the distinct muffled rhythmic clacking noise of walking with hockey skates on foam padding speed up right before Briggs knocked his shoulder into Connor’s as he passed by him.

“Hey!” he called out to his teammate.

Henderson was just behind Connor and said, “Just ignore him.”

“What is his deal tonight?”

“He’s just agitated because we played the North Star, which is who Thompson got traded to at the same time as you. They were pretty good friends.”

“It’s not like I replaced him,” Connor said, then used his teeth to undo the strap on one of his gloves. “Or that I had any say in it even if I had.”

“I know. And he knows. He’ll get over it.”

After he showered and changed, he was at his locker when his phone rang. It was Vaughan— his old team captain and best friend on the Thunderstorm— so he stepped out into the hall to take the call.

“I caught the tail end of your game,” Vaughan said through the line. “Sorry it was rough.”

“Eh. It happens.” Connor said, acting like it was no big deal when he was still very much feeling the full strength of the frustrating game, even if they did manage to pull a win out of it.

“I saw Briggs sizing you up like you are a Thunderstorm and the rivalry is still as strong.”

“It was that evident, huh?”

“Pretty much.”

“How’s the new guy on your team?” He was the one whom Connor was traded for. He wanted only the best for the Thunderstorm, but a part of him didn’t want the guy to be so amazing that they forgot about him.

“Let’s just say that we’re trying to not be like Briggs is to you.”

“Oh?” He was pacing the hall as he talked, but he came to a stop.

“I mean, he’s great on the ice, but he kind of sucks as a person. We’ve all been missing you over here.”

“Believe me when I say that the feeling is very mutual.”

“It was hard to see you go.”

“I’m guessing it wasn’t hard for the GM, but it’s good to be missed.”

“That’s actually why I called. The GM pulled me in for a meeting after the trades went through to get the pulse of the team— thought you might like to know what he said.”

Connor went back to meandering down the hall as they talked. “All right. Shoot.”

“The Glaciers really wanted you. Apparently, they’ve been wanting you for quite a while, but the Thunderstorm didn’t want to give you up.”

“You’re making that up.”

“I swear on my grandmother’s grave that it’s true. But we needed a goalie— you know how badly we did— and we apparently had our eye on North Star’s goalie, but they weren’t willing to give him up. And Thompson is great. You know— you played against him tonight. Even scored against him.

“The Glaciers have a second goalie— the one you’re using now— who is practically as good, so they went to the North Star and said they’d give them Thompson if the North Star would give us their goalie. Solving our biggest problem was a good move on the part of the Glaciers because it was the only way they could get us to give them you.”

Suddenly, everything with Briggs made sense. Thompson was his goalie up until five days ago. And his friend. As a hockey player, it was your job to protect your goalie. In warmups, you never shot above your goalie’s waist. But in a game, you were playing against the opposing team’s goalie, and you got the puck in the net any way that you could. Thompson was unprotected, and Connor had shot high. And he scored.

Earlier in the game, the puck was in the crease, and Connor went into the crease after it and may have had some incidental contact with Thompson. He knew how much he hated it when the opposing team made contact with his goalie. Knowing that Briggs was still seeing Thompson as his teammate made his reactions understandable.

Connor stopped walking and leaned his back against the wall. “They gave up two players to get me?”

“Yep. Apparently, it took a while.”

He didn’t know if it made him feel better to know that he was wanted and that the trade wasn’t as casual as it felt, or if it made him feel worse, knowing that there were four players who all got traded a week before Christmas.

After he and Vaughan hung up and Connor went back into the locker room, he decided that if he was being real with himself, he had to admit that maybe things hadn’t been gelling between him and his new team because he hadn’t been trying hard enough. All he’d been thinking about since he arrived in Denver was how to get back out. And if he played with that in mind, he couldn’t play his best. And that wasn’t the kind of player he was.

He needed to acknowledge that Erik Henderson had been a good friend and teammate since the first time Connor had met them, too. As they all headed out to the team bus that would take them to the airport and the plane back home, he decided that he was going to give everyone on this team his all. They deserved better than what he was giving them.

And as he made the decision, he wondered if he had come to the conclusion partly because of Katie. She didn’t seem to ever be far from his thoughts lately, so maybe by deciding to give Denver a better chance, he was deciding to give the two of them a better chance, too.