Off the Crossbar by David Skuy Read Free Book Online Page A

should include some pucks, to see if you guys can actually play this game,” he said.
    Charlie laughed. He was beginning to warm to him. Coach Tremblay was always friendly, always offering encouragement or some good-natured advice. More important, behind his joking and laid-back attitude lay a deep well of hockey knowledge, and there’s no better way for a coach to earn a player’s respect than to have that.
    “I think this is the perfect time for the neutral zone one-on-one drill. What do you think?”
    Charlie and the others answered his question with a sea of blank stares.
    “I’ll take that as a yes, and explain the drill.”
    He retrieved a small clipboard from the bench. “Thesethings are great,” he said, holding up the clipboard. “I wish I had ’em when I started coaching. You hold your papers on the front, and on the back are the rink markings, and you can use a marker on it. Isn’t that amazing?”
    Again, his question garnered no response. “I’ll take that as another yes,” he chuckled. “Anyway, here’s the drill.”
    Tremblay sketched out the drill rapidly on the back of the clipboard with a well-practised hand.

    “D1 is the defenceman and F1, the forward. D1 starts at centre and F1 against the boards at the hash marks. D1 skates hard to the blue line where he takes a pass from F1. D1 then skates backwards with the puck to the red line, and while he’s doing that F1 skates around the circle. D1 skates back to the blue line and passes to F1 when he’s finished the circle. Then they go one-on-one to the other end. Everyone understand?”
    The players all nodded.
    “Let’s divide into two groups, one at each end. Those of you who played defence last scrimmage may as wellstay on defence. Goalies, you can organize yourselves, but let’s have at least one of you in each net. Okay, let’s go.”
    A confusing few minutes passed as the players tried the drill, not exactly sure of what they were supposed to do. Tremblay calmly explained it over again, until they eventually figured it out, and the drill began to go smoothly.
    Charlie had joined one group of defencemen. Jake, Matt and Liam were among the forwards facing that group. When he saw Matt ready to go, he went to the front, budding ahead of Thomas.
    “Hey, you’re kidding, right? I’m next. Get to the back.”
    “You can go next,” Charlie replied icily, “as long as it’s after me.”
    Thomas grunted in surprise, then shouted “Hey, Matt, show this loser how to play the game.”
    Charlie ignored him and got ready. Coach Tremblay waved at him to begin, and he skated hard to the blue line to take an equally hard pass from Matt. He was certain Matt would want to show off in front of his friends by deking him out and scoring, so he probably wouldn’t be focused on the first part of the drill. That’s when he’d make his move.
    Once Matt finished circling, Charlie hesitated with the puck slightly before passing to close the gap between them. He then made as if to turn and skate back towards his own end to get in position to defend. Matt accepted the pass, lowering his head momentarily to gather steam. Charlie had no intention of defending, however. Hedidn’t retreat one inch, and when Matt crossed the blue line, Charlie took two steps forward and smashed his shoulder into Matt’s chest.
    Matt flopped to the ice like a sack of potatoes, landing full on his back. Charlie leaned over his prone body and said, “Thanks for the tape, I really needed some.” He then passed the puck to Thomas nonchalantly, as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.
    Fortunately, he glanced over at the forwards before rejoining the defence line. Jake and Liam were charging after him. As they got close, Charlie jumped to the side and sent a left hook into Liam’s chin, knocking him off balance and sending him tumbling to the ice. Jake wheeled around and waded in with a windmill of punches. Charlie held nothing back, and threw as many punches of his