Page 153 of Body Check
Several players—who were straight, at least as far as Dakota knew—offered their support, talking about making fans feel welcome. Graham spoke about using his platform and hisprivilege to do good in the community, and Dakota smiled when he saw a clip of the team marching in a Pride parade.
The video cut to a clip of an older man marching with them, and the name Ned Merritt flashed on the screen before his voiceover began. He spoke about welcoming everyone to the arena, no matter who they loved or how they identified.
There were more clips, coming faster now, a camera panning over the city, then revealing shots from previous hockey games.
Jesse Webber appeared on the screen, grinning. “Pride matters because everyone should feel welcome to play hockey, be themselves, and have fun doing it!”
The video cut to Jesse hyping up the crowd as he danced, then transitioned to him dropping to one knee and shooting the puck. The camera panned across the ice, following the black disc until it landed neatly in the net.
The video ended with the images of Jesse celebrating with his teammates before it dissolved into a rainbow flag and the Harriers’ logo.
Dakota shot to his feet, clapping and cheering wildly as Violet and the rest of the crowd did the same.
Yeah, he’ddefinitelycome to the right place.
“C’mon, c’mon,” Gavin urged under his breath as Rafael Moon picked up the puck on the blue line and passed it back into the offensive zone to Mickey Krause. He captured it and passed it toConnor O’Shea, who got a great shot off that was, unfortunately, blocked by New Jersey’s goaltender.
“Damn it.”
“Hey, we’re only fifteen minutes in,” Finn reminded him, but he looked tense too.
Mouse and Moon seemed to be playing well together and the forward they’d called up from Concord, Ben Estrada, was fitting into the forward lineup in Bobby Tucker’s place.
Overall, the team was playing well lately. The problem was, so were the other teams in their division.
Connor was on a goal scoring streak and Jesse had been playing well, so Gavin was hopeful they’d pull out a win tonight. Especially since it was Pride night.
He held his breath as a New Jersey player streaked toward Jesse’s net, but Jesse batted the puck away and Tanner was right there to collect it and get it back to the other end of the ice.
Several more minutes ticked away without a goal and Gavin glanced up at the Jumbotron. Damn, they weren’t getting enough shots on goal.
Moon and Krause were back out and Moon collected a loose puck at center ice, shooting it toward Anker Henriksen. Henriksen fired a cross-ice pass to Krause, who passed it to Moon, who got it to Henriksen again. Before Gavin could even blink, Henriksen had fired it, shooting it straight into New Jersey’s net.
The lamp lit up and the sound of the goal horn filled the air.
Gavin released a deep breath, softening his shoulders as the crowd cheered for the Harriers’ goal.
He bumped knuckles with Finn, who shot him a small, bright smile.
As predicted, the press had been loudly and enthusiastically excited about having an O’Shea in the head office and, so far at least, their division of labor seemed to be working well. They’d spent a hell of a lot of time together in the past few weeks as Finn got up to speed.
Gavin was thoroughly looking forward to bye week coming up, however. The midseason break would do him and the team a lot of good. With the trade deadline looming in March, there was no way Gavin could tune out work completely, but he had arranged for a small vacation.
Next week, he and Dakota would take a direct flight from Boston to Turks & Caicos and then a smaller plane to a small private island where they’d stay at a luxury resort. Gavin couldn’twait.
He leaned forward a few minutes later as Connor drove toward the net and fired the puck, then slumped back when it glanced off the shoulder of New Jersey’s goaltender.
Damn.
Jesse made several more great saves, and then the Harriers got a power play a few minutes later when Tanner drew a penalty and a New Jersey player went to the box. But despite a few good attempts, New Jersey’s netminder stood tall and the scored remained 1-0 in Boston’s favor through the end of the first period.
Gavin got up to stretch during the intermission and Finn eyed him with an amused smile. “So, what’s up with the intermission yoga?” he asked. “I keep meaning to ask.”
Gavin shrugged. “It’s part of the fitness plan Dakota made for me.”
“How are you doing with the heart stuff?”
“Pretty good,” Gavin said, gently leaning his left ear toward his left shoulder, then dropping his right arm by his side and flexing his hand. He could still feel the stretch in his neck and shoulder, but it was so much better now. “Testing all pretty much said the same thing they told me in the ER. I have coronary artery disease and I’m at high risk for a heart attack but there’s nootherunderlying condition or anything. No heart murmurs or valve issues or anything crazy like that.”
