The Land of Nuts and Fruits

Chapter 65: Danny VII or The Land of Nuts and Fruits

Danny frowned and chewed on his bottom lip as Patrick stormed by him, muttering in French and roared in anger as he lumbered into the locker room. He looked back at David Aebischer who was shaking his head and pulling his gear on.

"Oh my God!" Danny said, "Hey Abby are you gonna be OK?"

Abby looked up and flashed him a dazzling smile. "Of course Darling, don’t worry about me. This looks like it will be another interesting night."

Danny sighed as Abby skated onto the ice, circling the net like a shark would circle prey before he settled down in front of it. As the refs were working out Patrick’s minor penalty and game misconduct minutes, Abby took the time to stretch a bit in his crease.

"Man I’m real sorry guys, I thought I had Deadmarsh lined up!" Blake was saying to someone at the period’s end in the locker room.

"It don’t matter now," Keaner said. "Game’s still tied, we can’t let it bug us and I don’t want no one blaming anyone you hear dammit we’re still a team here."

Suddenly, they could hear a loud string of curses coming from the shower. Patrick had been in there the entire intermission, and Keaner had yelled into there earlier for Patrick to just stay there and cool off. It sounded like his rage was coming on again. Danny inhaled and held his breath for a moment. The temper on him was obscene; there was no getting around it. He looked at Peter who was also looking in the direction of the showers.

"It was kicked in," Forsberg finally said. "I saw Deader pull his foot back and kick it as he was falling."

"Really?" Hinote asked.

Forsberg looked at him and nodded.

"What did I just say?" Keaner snapped. "It wasn’t kicked in, it’s on the scoreboard so I don’t want no bitching about it!"

There was a silence from the team, but Danny looked at Keaner and nodded. Everyone was nodding their heads too. There was a third period coming up. There was lots of time.

"Who’s got the next goal, I wanna hear it in the next three seconds, who has the next goal!" Keaner barked.

"Right here!" Danny said loudly, feeling his cheeks suddenly warm.

Keaner flicked his blue eyes to Danny, his gaze running up and down him and he slowly nodded. Danny actually felt a small thrill in his stomach, he suddenly felt important. "I’ll hold ya to it kid," Keaner said.

Danny nodded his head eagerly and briefly he met eyes with Chris Drury, who was smiling at him.

Danny’s heart was beating wildly in his chest when they filed onto the bench for the start of the third period. He was nervous and already he could feel the sweat beading on his face and body. He had promised a goal. The next goal. This was crazy!

He knew Keaner would hold him to that goal, and he would have nothing less. He knew it had to happen. Was Cecile watching, maybe? He had called her that morning to tell him that he would be playing tonight, and all he had gotten from her was a nervous, "Are you sure you’re healthy?" But she had promised she would be watching. Maybe she and Mimi would be watching on the couch, Cecile was going over there tonight, she should be at the Roy house by now... What was Michele thinking now? How had she taken Patrick’s expulsion from the game? Was she relieved that he wouldn’t be coming home tonight, angry and stewing?

"Noter! Dru! Peter! You’re up next!"

Danny looked up in shock at Hartley who had called the line change. On a line with Forsberg and Drury? Hartley looked at Danny and winked. "Keaner’s gonna hold you to that goal," Hartley said and he patted him warmly on the shoulder.

Danny took in a deep breath and looking briefly at Dru and Peter, he jumped onto the ice with them. He stumbled almost immediately, out of pure nervousness more than anything. Quickly, though, he regained his footing and he skated up the ice, keeping an eye on Dru and Peter. They were more nimble, slippery skaters than his usual linemates so he knew he couldn’t lose track of them.

A King dumped the puck into their zone and Hinote rushed in there, retrieving a pass from Abby and he sent it straight to Peter. Using his big shoulders to ward off a couple checks, Peter skated it up ice with two Kings nagging at his heels. Danny lagged back a bit almost near their defensemen until he had slunk slowly to the front of the Kings net, immediately receiving a sharp stick swat on the back of his calf from Felix Potvin. There was the loud snapping sound of the puck being shot and a loud Thwap! as Potvin met the shot and it bounced off his pads.

Danny’s heart burst when he got that puck on his stick and as he shot it at the yawning side of the net which was only a matter of inches from him, he heard a PING off the goal post. How the hell could he miss that!

There was a loud OH! in the crowd and Potvin fell to cover the puck and in keeping with all miracles, the puck squirted out of his gloves. Not wasting the moment, Danny cried out as he snapped the puck up and over Felix and it hit the inside of the net.

"Yeah!" Danny screamed as the crowd moaned in frustration. He could actually feel the prickles of excitement tracing up the back of his neck and arms as Forsberg and Drury squeezed him in celebration. He even felt someone’s mouth on his cheek briefly and Danny laughed and pushed them away. "We’re gonna win this one, baby!"

Danny couldn’t wipe the smile off his face as he skated back to the bench, getting high fives and congrats from the guys. By the time he sat down, the corners of his mouth were hurting. He looked at Keaner for acknowledgment. Keaner narrowed his eyes, and smiling, he said, "Punk."

Danny stayed standing, he was too excited to sit down, and he leaned a bit over the boards, watching Aebischer. David was playing real well, he was moving crisply and he’d made a few difficult stops. There was only ten minutes left in the period, all they had to do was play a Kitty-bar-the-door game and maybe get an insurance goal and the game was theirs!

That’s when disaster struck.

An errant pass from Hejduk sent the Kings’ Jason Allison on a breakaway. Danny held his breath, watching helplessly as Aebischer scuttled out to cut down the angle. And then seemingly abandoning all reason, Aebischer took a few extra steps forward as Allison got closer and he slid his stick forward Billy Smith style to sweep a pokecheck. He swept the puck away alright but the surprised Allison lost his footing and the big man tangled right on top of Abby and the two fell into a piled mess on the ice, sliding a few feet as they did so.

It looked so bad that the whistle was immediately blown, and still the two didn’t move or get up. Danny frowned; neither of them seemed to be trying to get free of each other.

"Oh God!" Pat Karns breathed as he hopped over the boards and went scrambling to the two, meeting up with the Kings trainer. Karns grabbed Abby and the other trainer Allison, and they gently pulled the men apart. Neither of them was moving yet. Even the crowd had gone silent now.

Danny ran his tongue over his lips as Karns pulled off Abby’s mask and was slapping him lightly on the cheeks. Danny looked at Yelle. "It wasn’t that bad? Was it?"

he asked.

Yelle shook his head. "Maybe just got the wind knocked out of them, that’s all."

Danny exhaled in relief when he saw Abby’s hand shake off his glove, he was moving now! Allison was moving too and then the crowd exhaled in relief as both players were slowly eased into a sitting position. Fingers were being waved in their faces and questions were being asked.

Allison made it to his feet quickly and there was some applause as he was helped off the ice with his trainer but Abby had slumped forward onto Karns’ chest, his pale hand was on his own chest. "Oh God!" Danny said. "What if Abby’s really hurt?"

Karns put his hands on Abby’s pale cheeks and he was talking into his face, but Abby merely shook his head, breathing through his mouth and grimacing. He was slightly blue on his lips, and Danny was horrified to see the blue color intensifying.

"This isn’t good!" Yelle exclaimed.

David tried to stand up and he immediately fell down onto his back again, closing his eyes. The crowd gasped and Karns began to wave at the bench. "A stretcher! I need a stretcher!"

No one on the bench said a thing as Abby was carried off the ice on the stretcher, to the sympathetic applause of the audience. Danny was real worried about Abby, he knew they all were, but what he knew was predominant on all of their minds was, they had no goalie now.

Danny looked up at Hartley as soon as Abby was gone, "Coach?" he asked.

Hartley was pale and he was shaking his head.

Danny looked at Keaner who was muttering to himself.

Still no one was saying a thing.

Finally the ref skated to them.

"Give him a few minutes," Hartley said. "Just to get his wind back."

The ref shook his head. "I’m sorry Bob, you know the rulebook as well as I do, 18b says that you need a new goalie on the ice now, not in ten minutes, not in two. You need one now."

Hartley shook his head. "You can’t be serious!"

"I’m giving you just enough time to strap some goalie gear on a guy and get him on the ice. Rule 15e and 15f will allow him a two minute warm up, now get whomever you have on your bench and dress them, now!" the ref said.

Hartley nodded and the ref skated back allowing the team a little privacy.

"Keaner!" Hartley barked. "We need a goalie."

Keaner looked at Parker. "Dress up!" he said.

Parker blanched and his mouth fell open.

Rob Blake laughed and clapped Parker on the back. "Hope you’ve played goal at least once in your life." he said.

Keaner immediately flicked his gaze to Blake and Danny found himself holding his breath through the upcoming exchange.

"Didn’t you win a goaltending prize?" Keaner asked Blake.

"Uh," Blake said slowly, "When I was a kid, I was like twelve. That was a long time ago, I was just fooling around for a day."

"Well don’t fool around today," Keaner said. "Get in the locker room and get some gear on now. We could use that ass of yours to plug in the net."

Blake shook his head. "I’m not gonna make an ass of myself here! Not here!"

"Get in the back!" Keaner barked. "Show some humility, and help out the team! I don’t give a shit whether you do feel embarrassed or not!"

Robbie was as white as the ice surface now, and Danny patted him lightly on the arm as he slowly stood up and with the equipment managers buzzing at his sides, he disappeared into the locker room.

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