Chapter 10: Dru--Ambition

Chapter 10: Dru—A is For Ambition

Drury knew he was feeling roughly like a rat being asphyxiated by a snake. He hated snakes and now he was being constricted. Derien Hatcher and Dick-head Matvichuck had him squished between their huge shoulders....well, mostly squished. Drury relaxed a bit and he could feel them relax too, he nudged the puck forward a bit, OK now forget about it for a sec. He let his body fall slightly, and it worked, they thought he was falling to the ice and that’s when Chris Drury split the D.

He burst through the two men and there was the puck all alone. Got it! It was strung on his stick now and he felt an incredible rush buzzing through his brain as his stocky legs pumped him forward, he wasn’t looking into the goalie’s eyes he was looking at the ice where he wanted him to be. It worked like magic, Marty Turco slid exactly on the spot where Drury wanted him to go and he fixed his position there. Chris then ignored Turco and slid the puck, unmolested into the unprotected half of the net.

"God daaaaaaaammit!" Turco yelled as the audience in the building let out a collective sigh of disappointment.

"Yeah!" Drury yelled. He threw his arms up in celebration and then fell to one knee pumping his hand. Within seconds he was met by Foppa who crunched him in a bear hug that slid them across the ice and against the glass.

"You’re beautiful! You know that?" Foppa laughed.

Drury kept smiling, he didn’t know what else to say, he just giggled as Steve Reinprecht slugged him playfully in the abdomen. "Wooo!" Reino kept hooting, "Tied it up baby!"

Drury laughed again and then sighed as he and his linemates skated jovially back to the bench. There was nothing quite like the feeling of being behind four nothing in a game and for some odd reason, tying it up. It was almost worth falling behind on purpose in a game, just so you could get that feeling.

"Good one thats a good one keep it up need more like that like that one boys!" Drury took a shot of watered down Powerade as he tried to figure out if Keaner ever breathed or took a space between words when he chattered.....for God’s sake did the man ever speak in real sentences? Drury squirted pinkish water all over himself as Keane stopped chirping and playfully slugged him in the side of the head.

"Dammit, Keaner!" Drury snapped looking into that leprechaun smile of Keane.

"Your goals are too pretty kid, you better cut that out you’ll ruin our reputation," Keane said in his deadpan tone.

Drury smiled, "You score one of those aye Keaners?" Drury said.

Keane’s smile widened, and he winked one of his large blue eyes, "Don’t hate me cause I’m gorgeous." With that, Keane swung his legs over the boards and he was onto the ice. Drury leaned forward on the bench, the coach was talking to him, but he didn’t feel like listening at that moment. There was twenty seconds left in the third period, he wanted to see what would happen.

Right off the face-off, Keane barreled through Mike Modano, who had been ridden like a fine thoroughbred throughout the whole game by Footer. Drury’s hair stood on end as he watched Keane cut through the ice, swing behind the net with the puck, pretend to turn back to the right causing Turco to swing back to protect that side, and then continue to the left and complete a perfect wrap-around goal. There were two seconds left on the clock and the crowd moaned in absolute disgust.

The bench erupted in euphoria, Drury was screaming at the top of his lungs. This was too wild, Turco was laying face first on the ice not even bothering to get back up after being fooled on two goals like that. Drury kept laughing as Keane came skating back to the bench and said with a nod at Drury, "Lick that up son, lick it up!"

"Awwwwwwwwww suck me!" Drury snapped back, still smiling.

This was too sweet, they had been out four D-men, they were playing with the chocolate bear brigade, and they had managed to win. Man he needed to have a beer.

Drury looked quickly at Sakic to share some joy and he saw only a serious pensive look on Joey’s face. "What’s up Joe?" Drury asked.

Joe looked at Drury, a small smile on his face, "Great one Dru," he said.

Drury nodded.

It was a few hours later in the locker room when all the reporters had finally left and everyone was either finishing showers or cooling down on the bikes when Drury saw Patty slumping on a bench. He was showered but not dressed, and looking absolutely miserable. The reporters had him the most, which wasn’t an odd thing, he was often a popular catch for reporters, but Drury had heard most of the questions directed at Patrick. A lot of them weren’t about the game, they were about that attack on his wife. Patrick had held up well, but Drury couldn’t understand how, if it were him he new he would have told those reporters to stick it.

Drury sauntered over to Patrick who looked up at him with large, almost begging eyes. That was the one thing that Chris always thought of whenever Patrick came to mind, he had the most expressive eyes he had ever seen on someone other than a woman.

"Hey, Patty," Drury said as he plopped down on the bench next to him.

Patty smiled tightly, but he didn’t say anything. Drury sighed and patted him on his towel covered knee. Patty leaned back and said, "Thanks, Chris. You really saved my butt."

"Aw," Chris said, "No one had to bail anyone tonight, OK? We know what you’re going through....hell if it were me I think I woulda gone insane thinking about home, and all of that. Danny’s prol’ly taking great care of Mimi, OK?"

Patty looked at Drury, he shook his head slowly. "What should that have mattered? How selfish am I if I put my home worries above the team’s priorities, I let you down, I let you down! I’m Patrick Roy goddammit and I played like a nervous putain!"

Drury shrugged and looked at Patrick, "C’mon Patty, we’re down four defensemen and Danny-boy to boot. Footer played like a Mongol horde and stayed in the box practically the whole second period....shit what did you expect?"

Patty’s eyes sparked angrily, Chris could swear that he could feel all of Patrick’s sudden seething heat, "I expect to win!" Patrick snapped.

"Well you did," Drury said calmly holding his hands out, "What more can you ask for?"

Patrick suddenly smiled, "Yes....it’s in the win column....."

Abruptly he stood up to grab his clothes, muttering to himself as if Chris had never been there. Chris grinned, he had just given a pep-talk to Patty Roy. He had withstood the flash in the pan of Roy’s anger and not even flinched.

Chris stood up and walked out of the locker room, he was dog-tired and happy. That had felt good, Joe gave little pep-talks like that all the time, so did Coach Hartley. It was a leader’s job to reinforce, to reward, to be as positive as possible at all times. To be an example. That’s what Joey had told him when he had informed Drury for the first time he would be wearing an A on his jersey.

Drury had remained as calm as possible, but inside his heart had been throbbing. Sometimes he had thought that Joe didn’t like him, he was often getting after him and snapping at him. The A was a sure sign that Joe had seen something that he liked in Drury.

A is for ambition, Drury thought, I’m ambitious.

Sure he thought Joe was the greatest, sure he respected Joe above any other player, sure he thought that right now Joe was the best player in the league.....but it couldn’t stay that way forever.

Someday the team would be different and perhaps Joe would still be there...perhaps he won’t be. Joe no doubt knew that, and he would want the team to be in good hands when he was no longer there. Of course the obvious choices were Foppa or Blakie...they were considered leaders.

But it didn’t have to be that way, Drury knew what he wanted in the end, and he was practicing now to get it. Drury wanted the Captain’s C.

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