A Miracle On Ice

Chapter 6 "Becoming a Team"

"Hey, Rizzo! Pass me the potatoes!" Verchota yelled to the other end of the table.

Rizzo started passing the bowl down to where Philly was sitting next to Carly. 

Watching her friend pile the potatoes on his plate and digging in immediately, she laughed.

"Were you raised by wolves?" Carly asked him.

Verchota gave her a challenging look, "Think you can do better, princess?"

"Oh, definitely." Carly accepted, grabbing the bowl and joining him in an eating contest.

The boys were cheering and hooting as Carly finally won.

"Close call." Mac said.

Verchota nodded, "Yeah, well, she has to eat like that or else there would be no food left with that many siblings."

"I don't have that many." Carly shrugged it off.

"How many?" Mark Johnson looked interested.

OC jumped in, "Yeah, how many seeds did Herb plant?"

"Okay, first off, gross." she winced, "I have two brothers and two sisters."

"That explains his incredible people skills." one of the guys said sarcastically.

Carly grinned at him, promissing, "It will get better once we're at the game."

They continued their dinner, chatting and laughing about stupid stuff.

Coach Patrick and Doc had been waiting in a gas line for hours, when the radio blurred out, "The Soviets performed a nuclear test yesterday, setting off a 75-kiloton bomb in eastern Kazakhstan..."

"So much hate and fear." Doc let out a sigh.

"What's that?" Craig looked away from his window. 

Doc just pointed at the radio, "Between the Soviets and the West. It's bound to end in disaster." 

"They'll figure something out, Doc. They haven't got any other choice, right?" Craig responded.

"I hope so, but it just seems to me that some people will never get along." Doc explained sadly.

"Yeah. Like hockey players from Boston and Minnesota." Craig said absentmindedly.

Doc gave him a smile, "Our own private cold war."

They laughed at that, when Craig got serious, "Let me ask you a question."

"Of course." Doc looked at him expectantly.

"You've worked with Herb for a long time?" Craig asked.

"Quite some time." he nodded.

"Does he always treat his players like this?" Coach Patrick continued his question.

"No. This I have never seen. But, Craig, believe me. Herb has a reason for everything he does." Doc promised.

Craig shrugged, not understanding Herb's plans, "Well, he's ending up with 20 players who hate his guts."

"Maybe if they hate him, they won't have time to hate each other." Doc simply replied.

Craig looked away chuckling, but then he realized what he had just heard. Herb did have a reason.

"Hey, honey." Patti peeked into Herb's home office, "How much longer you gonna be?"

"I still got a few more." he pointed towards his movie projector that was showing old hockey games.