Page 84 of Rookie Rules

"Plus signs are powerful," Luca said.

"I'm not even the plus sign."

Rowan sat at his stall removing tape from his socks. "You scored the winner."

"Do not introduce facts into my grievance."

The room laughed. Finn's offense was theatrical and brief, grounded in the security of having been part of the play whether the caption understood it or not.

Luca looked at the frozen image beneath the words. Rowan's glove was at his neck. Luca was turning toward him. The photograph had captured a truth and made it safe by choosing the correct category.

Dangerous on ice.

Nothing else to see.

The ten minutes before media belonged to cleanup and anticipation. Players changed out of wet base layers. Equipment staff collected gloves and helmets. Claire moved through the room identifying who would stay at stalls and who could leave through the training corridor.

"Luca, Rowan, Finn, Gabriel," she said. "Local broadcast first, then print. They want the line story."

Finn looked at Luca. "I have been restored to the narrative."

"Try to use your time wisely."

Rowan pulled a clean shirt over his head. "Credit the support read. Do not turn one goal into a system change."

The instruction was for all of them, but his eyes rested on Luca at the end.

"Anything else?" Luca asked. "Approved adjectives?"

"Accurate ones."

Luca smiled for the room. Underneath, he remembered Rowan admitting on the living-room floor that the clock scared him sometimes, one unguarded word more accurate than the paragraphs he offered cameras.

Media entered ten minutes later.

The first questions went to Finn about the winner and Gabriel about the third-period response. Then microphones gathered around Luca's stall.

"That weak-side play with Hale has become a pattern," a reporter said. "What makes the connection work?"

Luca glanced across the room.

Rowan had his own group. He stood in front of his stall with wet hair and a clean team shirt, captain's composure restored.

"He puts the puck where defenders don't want it," Luca said. "I have the easy job."

"You two looked like you knew the goal was coming before the lane opened."

"That's the idea."

"The broadcast called you a dangerous duo. Fair?"

Finn shouted from the next row, "Deeply disrespectful."

The reporters laughed.

Luca smiled. "We're a line. Finn makes half those reads possible. But if they want to put my face on the graphic, I support journalism."

Across the room, someone asked Rowan the same question.