Chapter 8: Puck Me Secretly: Chapter 7

I HIT THE GROUND RUNNING. I spent the morning reviewing player contracts, that were so dull, they made my eyes glaze over. Then I watched a meeting between my dad and an agent. The agent was trying to negotiate on behalf of his player. My father bulldozed over him and the agent left with his tail between his legs.

My father’s admin, Julie, brought me a salad for lunch, which I ate at my desk while reading more contracts.

Mid-afternoon, my dad showed up at the doorway.

“Come on, grab your coat,” he instructed. “First practice for the pre-season is starting.”

I got up from behind my desk and hurried after him. Julie dropped a pile of files in my arms as I walked by her desk.

“Today, we’ll discuss each player, their weaknesses and strengths. Your main goal for the first three months is to understand each player’s ability on the ice, so we can further enhance our recruiting and negotiating tactics.”

What the fuck.

“Dad, don’t we have scouts and a team of people hired to do this?”

“We do. We have 31 scouts, which is a dozen more than any other team has, but I leave nothing to chance. You need to know who your team is and what it requires before you can recruit new players.”

“You want me to do this for you?”

He glanced at me as we stepped into the elevator. “Don’t kid yourself. I know everything about these players from the size of their skates to who their peewee coach was. This exercise is for your benefit. Until you understand the team we have, you’ll have no chance of being an effective member of my team.”

Roger that.

He gave me a big smile. “Come on now. Don’t look like that. You used to love watching hockey.”

“Yes, I did.”

When I was 10 years old.

He walked to our box. “What are your thoughts on traveling these days?”

“What do you mean?”

“Are you still afraid to fly?”

I thought about getting on a plane. I had zero reaction in my body. No fear. No anxiety. Nothing. My lifelong fear seemed to have disappeared. Go figure. “No. I don’t think so.”

He nodded. “Good. Tell Julie that you’ll be traveling with the team for all away games. You’ll need ice level seats and hotel arrangements, and clearance on all flights.”

I groaned. I had walked into that one.

FROM OUR FAMILY BOX, we spent two hours watching the team practice. I didn’t even crack the files. My dad talked, and I listened and made notes. He discussed playing styles. Past injuries. Cited contracts and numbers. The man knew his team, I would give him that.

“Check out number 33,” Dad instructed. We watched as 33 did a two-on-one breakaway. His teammates couldn’t keep up with his speed and agility and he scored with ease. “He’s a sniper. He has a brilliant track record on ice. One of the fastest players in the NHL and feared by all, during any fight.”

I could hear my dad’s tone. He was holding back.

“What aren’t you saying?”

“He’s a wildcard. His off-ice antics have created havoc for his last team, so we bought out his contract at a basement bargain price.”

“What antics?”

“Last year they arrested him for joyriding a Porsche, but he got off with community service. He got caught, by the media, locked out of his hotel room in the buff. Those unfortunate photos made the front page. He’s more than a lady’s man. Social media sites are filled with indelicate photos of himself in compromising pictures.”

“Not good for a team’s image, but he’s hardly in a class of his own in this league.” Hockey players were notorious bad boys.

My dad glanced at me. “He was permanently benched during the final round of playoffs last season. By his own coach.”

“During playoffs? For what reason?”

“He was in a full-on brawl with one of his own teammates. The fight was not only brutal, it spilled out of the locker room after a game and a syndicated television station managed to record it.”

Oh. That was bad. I made a mental note to look up that fight online. “What was the fight about?”

“No one knows, and trust me, I tried finding out before we bought out his contract. They would have won the cup if he had been playing. They lost because he sat on the bench.”

“That’s a coaching decision.”

“He hospitalized one of his own teammates.”

That stunned me. Even more that my father had bought his contract. “Why did you take him on when he’s such a risk?”

“Because he’s one of the best players in the league and if we can tame him, he’ll be a huge factor to getting us the cup.”

Tame him. I realized that this year I would see the not-so-pretty, inner workings of my dad’s mind. Who even talked like that? Everything for him was about control and power. He was never happy unless he was the puppet master, negotiating the strings.

“How do you plan on doing that?”

He glanced over at me. “I don’t. You’re going to.”

My mouth dropped open. “What? How?”

“We’ll meet him after practice. You’ll start by reading him the riot act. Then you’ll monitor his behavior. You will be the monkey on his back.”

Now that was a visual I could do without.

“Dad…”

“Rory,” he interrupted. “We have a lot to teach you this year. Your training starts now.”

“Now?”

He stood up. “Come on. Let’s go down to the ice. I want to introduce you. This introduction is about dominance. You let the team know you own them. You let them know you have all the power and hold all the cards.”

This was insane. “How do I do that?”

He stopped and stared at me. “By understanding that you do own them and by realizing that you are their boss and you have all the power. Is that clear?”

Jesus. “Crystal.”