A Miracle On Ice

Chapter 4 "Drinks and Tests"

Later that day, Carly and the rest of the guys who tried out, found themselves sitting in the stands. They were told to assembly there, before going back to their hotel rooms.

Coach Patrick was currently reading the list of guys they had picked for now, "Hughes. Ross. Auge. Delich. Horsch." he started.

When he started counting off the Minnesota guys, most of Carly's friends relaxed one after the other, "Strobel. Christoff. Morrow. Suter. Ramsey. Janaszak. Christian. Pavelich. Verchota. Baker. Harrington. Schneider."

Craig Patrick continued after taking a breath - that felt like ages for Carly, "Brooks. O'Callahan. McClanahan. Silk. Johnson. Craig. Cox. Eruzione. That's the roster for now. The rest of you, thanks for coming out."

After hearing both hers and Mac's names Carly grinned proudly, hugging her best friend to death. Everyone started to congratulate each other as some guy yelled above everyone else, "Way to go, Rizzo."

Carly just grinned at that, not commenting on some of the other guys' looks.

"Take a good look, gentlemen." Herb appeared at the top of the stands.

He made his way down as he kept talking, "'Cause they're the ones getting off easy. I'm putting a few of you on reserve in case somebody gets injured or their game goes to hell. The final roster will have 20 names on it, so more of you are going home. If you give 99 percent, you'll make my job very, very easy." he stated seriously.

Before leaving he turned around, facing the players, "I'll be your coach, I won't be your friend. If you need one of those, take it up with Doc or Coach Patrick."

Robbie McClanahan exhaled and looked at his best friend, "He ain't kidding."

"Nope. He's dead serious. He's been stuck watching tapes of us in his office for weeks. Driving mom crazy." Carly whispered to him.

"All right, gentlemen and lady." Coach Patrick started again, earning a grin from Carly.

"Congratulations to all of you. That's it for today. On the way out, pick up one of these. You've got a little homework to do before you celebrate." Coach Patrick joked, "Thank you."

"Come on, guys. Let's get out of here." Mac hollered.

He offered his back to Carly who jumped on him, "Off to the bar!"

The rest of them followed, cheering.

Meanwhile Herb was loading up his car, so he could go home early.

"Herb! Herb! Hold on a minute." he was interrupted.

Looking up from his trunk and shutting it, Herb nodded towards the man jogging up to him, "Hey, Walter. How we doing?"

"I think we got a problem here." Walter stated when he stoppped walking.

"What's that?" Herb questioned unbothered.

Walter inhaled, before telling Herb what the issue was, "I've got a room full of people who want a say in this process and you've already picked the team."

Having expected nothing less, Herb huffed, "Look, Walter..."

But Walter cut him off immediately, "No! There's a right way to do this. And this is not it."

"If I was in your shoes, I'd probably be saying the same thing." Herb admitted, calming him down.

Walter, who found himself to be victorious, pointed towards the office, "All right. Let's go upstairs. We'll help piece together a hockey team. All of us. Together."