The team is already on the ice when Ryan
takes his usual spot on the landing, but today he doesn’t see the
players as a unit, working together, assisting shots on goal and
helping each other out. No, they’re just a group of kids skating
circles around the ice, chasing after an elusive puck, every man
for himself out there. Not one of them stands out from the
others—not one shines above the rest. That’s their problem, they
have no one to rally behind, no one to carry them to win. Time and
again the puck skids around the net amid the clamor of skates and
sticks but there’s no cohesiveness here, nothing holding this team
together. He doesn’t see number 15 at all and off to the side
Jacoby stands like a sentinel, watching the puck whiz by with
nothing more than a perfunctory swipe
