Body Check (7 page)

Brent enjoyed this drill, even though he wasn’t one of the best shooters on the team. And he was relieved to have something
to do that would take his mind off the problems threatening the team.

He was in the same group as Vic, who was directly in front of him. When Vic’s turn came to shoot, Brent wasn’t surprised to
see that Vic was barely able to hit the goalmouth, let alone put the puck in one of the
holes. Then he seemed to take forever getting the puck back onto his stick. Finally he managed to send a weak pass in Brent’s
direction.

Brent fired a shot that caught the edge of the lower left hole and tumbled into the cage for 2 points. “Good goal!” shouted
Chip, who was scoring for Brent’s squad.

As Brent hooked the puck out of the goal with his stick, Sandy caught his eye and called out, “Nice shot!”

Brent nodded in response and sent a pass back to Burt, who was next in line. When Brent got another shot opportunity, he aimed
for the center hole but missed when his shot went high. At the end of two minutes, Coach Maxwell blew his whistle again.
“Time!”
he called. “This group has eighteen points.”

“Sixteen points here,” said Coach Seabrook.

“Sixteen here, too,” said Chip.

“One more time, same squads,” said Coach Maxwell. “Remember, when you try flip shots, get the toe of your stick right under
the puck and put your wrists into it. Okay?”

He blew his whistle. Brent took a pass from Vic and tried a flip shot at the upper right hole. Remembering the coach’s advice,
he really gave it everything he had
with his wrists — and the puck sailed completely over the net. As he raced to retrieve the puck, he heard someone snicker
behind him and say, “Brilliant shot.”

It was Vic.

Furious, Brent whirled around and glared at Vic, who smirked back at him.

“The clock’s running, Brent,” Chip said quietly. Brent took a deep breath and went to get the puck. He knew he’d almost lost
it, and that would have been bad news. Instead, he flicked a pass to Burt, who fired a shot into the middle hole.

“Good one,” he said as Burt went by.

“Thanks, dude. Chill out,” murmured Burt.

When Brent’s turn came again, Vic’s pass was way off to the side. Brent lunged after the puck, got it under control, took
a deep breath, and shot it into the lower right hole for 2 points. Yes! he said to himself, retrieving the rubber disk and
sending it to Burt again.

When Burt got behind him in the line, he tapped Brent’s shoulder. “Don’t let that creep get to you,” he said in a low voice.
“That’s just what he wants to happen.”

“Yeah, I know,” Brent said. “Thanks.”

After the second round, Coach Maxwell clapped his hands. “The point total was up that time,” he said. “Twenty-four each for
two squads and twenty-two for the other one. In other words, you shot better. Way to go.

“Let’s work on our bodychecking. There’s a lot of hard physical contact in hockey, but we have to make sure we know the difference
between clean, legal checks and the kind that send you to the penalty box.”

Coach Maxwell set up a line of traffic cones between one of the blue lines and the line along the goalmouth, twenty feet from
the boards. He moved the goal from its normal position so that it was midway between the line of cones and the side of the
rink, and then he put another goal on the blue line, facing the first one. The result was a long, narrow playing area, twenty
feet wide and sixty feet long. The players stared; this drill was new to them.

“We’ll play two-on-two between these goals,” the coach said. “You play for a minute and a half, then I blow the whistle and
send in two new players on each side for a new matchup. The object is to score goals and to keep the opponents from scoring
with legal
body checks.
Legal
is the key word. No high sticks, no checks into someone’s back, no elbows, and so on. Your team gets two points for each
legal body check and loses two points for each illegal one. You also get a point for every goal. In this drill, solid checks
count for more than goals. Coach Seabrook will keep score, and I’ll officiate. Questions? Okay, Ted and Burt will start on
my left, and Sandy and Cam, on my right. Sandy, Ted, get set for a face-off.”

Coach Maxwell dropped the puck between Sandy and Ted. Ted’s reflexes were a little quicker. He flicked the disk back to Burt,
but Cam hit Burt hard with his upper body and knocked him away from the puck.

“Good check! Two points!” called Coach Maxwell. Cam got to the loose puck and swung his stick back for a shot, but before
he could connect, Burt crunched him. “Good check the other way!”

A moment later, Cam came into Ted hard, but Ted had been moving away from him, so Cam ended up hitting Ted in the back, knocking
him forward.

“No!” called Coach Maxwell. “In the back! Two points off, Cam.”

Cam rolled his eyes and looked angry but said nothing. He knew that his hit had been illegal. A few seconds
later, Burt got penalized 2 points for hitting Cam with his elbows and stick raised.

Brent had thought that there’d be lots of goals, but then he saw that the narrow playing area made scoring more difficult.
Just before the ninety seconds ended, Cam managed to snap a pass to Sandy, who put the puck through the unguarded net for
a 1-point goal. After the final whistle, Cam and Sandy had 9 points and Ted and Burt had 6.

Now it was Brent’s turn. He was teamed with Gavin, against Vic and Gil. Brent faced off against Gil and got control of the
puck. Vic came forward at him, but Brent veered sharply to his left. Vic couldn’t swing around quickly enough, and Brent saw
Gavin open on his left. He dropped a backhand pass to his teammate, who appeared to have an easy shot in front of him. But
Gil lunged ahead, got himself between Gavin and the net, and swung his body into Gavin so that Gavin couldn’t keep the puck
on his stick. It was a nice check, good for 2 points.

Brent raced after the puck, but it went past the line of cones, out of bounds. The coach whistled play to a stop, got the
puck back, and set up another face-off. This time, it was Gil who swept it away from Brent’s
stick. Just as Gil controlled the puck, Brent was jolted hard from just behind his right shoulder, and he stumbled forward.

“Two-point deduction for a block in the back!” called Coach Maxwell. “Vic, you have to watch out for those.”

Brent heard Vic mutter “This is really dumb” as Vic got the loose disk and moved forward toward the net. Brent got in front
of him and forced the chunky, slower boy toward the side. Vic lost the puck and hit the boards with a grunt.

“Two points!” the coach shouted. “Nice check, Brent!”

Vic swung around to face Coach Maxwell. “How come
he
gets two points and I
lose
two points?” he whined.

“You hit him from behind, and he hit you from in front. Keep playing,” snapped the coach. Vic turned to look at his father,
but Coach Seabrook didn’t say a word. Meanwhile Brent had the puck and passed to Gavin. Gavin saw Gil coming toward him and
feinted to his left. Gil tried to check Gavin, but Gavin slid by him and put a shot into the net for a point.

Ten seconds later, Brent put a hard check on Vic for 2 more points. When Coach Maxwell blew the whistle
to end the drill, Brent and Gavin had 7 points to 1 point for Vic and Gil. Gil had managed to score a goal, but Vic had lost
4 points for two illegal checks.

After everyone had had a chance to try the check drill, Coach Maxwell said, “If we give away power plays to the Cyclones,
it’ll cost us. I saw their game last week, and their power play is really solid. So watch out for those fouls, guys. We can’t
afford to give them an edge like that. Everyone, take a break, and when we come back we’ll have a scrimmage.”

During the break, the team broke into small groups in the same way as they had before practice. Brent sat on a bench with
Arno, Gavin, and Sandy. Across the rink, he saw Cam, Vic, Barry, and a couple of others having a very lively conversation.
At one point, Cam looked up and saw Brent looking at him.

They stared at each other for a few seconds. Brent thought that Cam had a sad expression on his face, but they were too far
apart for him to be certain. Then Cam turned away and began talking to Vic again.

Brent hoped that Cam had felt bad. Because he sure did. Hockey had been a lot more fun a couple of days ago.

A
fter the break, Coach Maxwell organized an intrasquad scrimmage, six-on-six, just like in a regulation game. There were also
several reserves for each squad.

“Everyone will play,” the coach assured the reserves. “We’ll practice some on-the-fly changes, and I’ll also take breaks every
few minutes to make substitutions and go over some strategies that we need to work on. And I want to thank our volunteer officials
for the day. Mr. Jeffords teaches physical education at the high school, and he’ll be our referee. And Mr. Wallace, our linesman,
has worked as a hockey official for years. They were nice enough to give us some of their time this afternoon.

“These men will call the scrimmage just like a game. Players will be called for penalties when they occur. If that happens,
the player will have to leave the ice, just
like in a game. And we’ll work on power plays and penalty killing. Here’s how I’m splitting the team.”

The coach read off the names of the players on each squad. Among the Badgers playing with Brent were Cam, Gavin, Sandy, Arno,
and Chip, their goalie. Coach Maxwell would be in charge of this group. Vic, Ted, Barry, Gil, and Max, the other Badger goalie,
were among the players on the other squad, which would be under Coach Seabrook.

The two squads gathered with their coaches for a quick huddle. Coach Maxwell said, “Play hard, just like this was a game.
I won’t let you burn yourselves out; I’ll substitute and call plenty of time-outs. Gavin, you’re my starting center. Brent
and Sandy will be the wings. The starting defensemen are Cam and Arno, and Chip… guess you know where you’ll be.”

Chip, who was wearing all his pads and carrying his mask, grinned. “Guess so.”

“We’ll play twenty minutes, like a regular period, except we’ll have more time-outs than the one that the rules allow in a
period,” the coach continued. “Anyone have any questions before we start?”

“I have one,” said Cam. “You said we should play like this was a game, right?”

“Absolutely,” Coach Maxwell said. “Don’t hold anything back.”

“So, we’re supposed to play to win?” asked Cam.

Brent turned to look at Cam. Cam was staring at the coach.

The coach’s voice remained calm. “I’ve always expected my team to play to win. I still do. Does that answer your question?”

“Yeah… I mean… ” — Cam started to say more but stopped — “Yeah. It does.”

“All right, then,” said Coach Maxwell. “Let’s get started.”

The starters for both squads got on the ice. Gavin and Ted faced each other in the center face-off circle. Chip and Max skated
to the goals at the ends of the rink. The rest of the squads lined up around the circle. Mr. Wallace crouched between the
centers, holding the puck. This was always Brent’s favorite moment, just before the action started. For a moment, he forgot
all about the things that had been bothering him and thought only about playing.

Mr. Wallace blew a blast on his whistle and dropped the puck. Gavin’s stick jabbed forward, but Ted got more power into his
move and shoved Gavin’s stick
away, pulling the puck back and controlling it. He flipped a pass out of the circle to Cam. Brent skated out to his right.
Cam saw him and sent a perfect backhand pass that Brent took in. He moved down the ice, over the red line. Out of the corner
of his eye, Brent saw Gavin outskate Vic and move down the ice. Brent left a drop pass for him just as Barry veered into Brent
and forced him toward the boards and away from the action. Brent eluded Barry by making a sliding stop so that Barry’s momentum
carried him farther down the ice. Now Brent was able to turn back toward the blue line.

In the meantime, Gavin found Sandy with a flip pass, and Sandy carried the puck over the blue line into the offensive zone.
Max moved forward, blocking much of the goalmouth with his body and stick. Gil circled around Sandy from the left and tried
to poke the puck away from Sandy’s stick. Sandy pulled the puck back and dropped a pass to Arno, who had come up behind him.

Arno fired the puck toward the goal. Max easily deflected it away with his blocker. The puck bounced toward the boards behind
the goal. Brent raced after it. So did Barry, who reached the puck first and sent it
caroming around the boards and back out toward the blue line. Gil picked it up, and suddenly the game was moving in the other
direction.

Brent pivoted and started back the other way, looking for a good defensive position. He noticed Cam skating backward, staying
with Gil, looking for the chance to take away the puck. Suddenly, Brent spotted Barry coming up fast, with nobody on Brent’s
team nearby. Gil saw it, too, and sent a pass to his right, where Barry could pick it up and move it deep into scoring territory.

Brent sprinted full-speed, hoping to cut Barry off before Barry could break away for an open shot on goal.

Wham!
He was no longer on his feet but smack on his belly, sliding on the ice. He rammed into the boards, hitting shoulder first.

He lay there dazed. He heard the shrill sound of a whistle, but it seemed to come from a long distance away. Then he heard
a voice.

“Brent! Hey, you all right?”

It sounded like Cam, but Brent wasn’t sure. He wasn’t sure whether or not he was all right either. He’d try to get to his
feet; then he’d know if he was okay.

“Just a second. Don’t try to move yet.” That voice, he knew, was Coach Maxwell’s. Brent opened his eyes and realized that
he was lying near the boards with the coach kneeling next to him.

“Can you hear me?” the coach asked, peering at him anxiously.

“Yeah,” Brent said. “I… I think I’m all right. I mean, I can hear, and I can see anyway.”