Page 86 of Rookie Rules

No second message came.

Luca placed the phone facedown.

He was done turning scraps into enough simply because Rowan had chosen them carefully.

Chapter 14: What You Do When No One Sees

The line looked inevitable when Vale played it backward.

Luca's shot left the net and returned to his stick. Rowan's pass crossed the ice in reverse. Finn moved backward through the pressure. Three defenders recovered the choices they had already made.

Vale stopped the clip before the puck entered Rowan's corner.

"What creates the goal?"

The video room had learned not to answer too quickly. Players studied the frozen frame: Rowan below the goal line with two forecheckers closing, Finn underneath, Luca holding the weak side.

"Bennett stays," Nolan said.

"Mercer gives the short reverse," Eli added.

Vale looked toward Luca.

"They overloaded Rowan," Luca said. "When Finn came under, their weak-side winger had to close."

"And then?"

"We made them choose."

The phrase moved through Rowan before he could prevent the memory attached to it. A small video room in camp. Luca leaning forward. The first time the word we had entered their language without either man resisting.

Vale played the sequence forward.

Rowan received the puck, Finn released beneath pressure, Luca accelerated into the seam. Goal.

"This is repeatable," Vale said. "Not the finish. The information."

He moved to the third-period shift that produced Finn's winner. The opponent had adjusted toward Luca, leaving the left side available. Rowan sold the same threat and found the different answer.

"They took Bennett away," Vale said.

Finn raised one hand. "And discovered graphic design has consequences."

The room laughed. Jace had circulated the local broadcast clip before breakfast, ensuring everyone knew Finn had been reduced first to a tasteful blue line and then to punctuation.

Vale allowed the joke three seconds. "They took away one option. The line used another. That is why this is working."

Working.

The Wolves were 5-3. Their top line had produced in six of eight games. Luca had learned to remain beneath possession when the highlight lane tempted him forward. Rowan had learned to build support around risk rather than close it.

The arrangement outside hockey had rules. Inside hockey, they had reads.

Both systems were producing the intended result.

Rowan looked two seats to his right.

Luca's attention remained on the screen. He had answered Rowan's message the night before with two words.