A Miracle On Ice

Chapter 14 "Building Their Legs"

The next weeks were a pain train of practises. Herb had them doing all kinds of skating drills, building their legs.

"Quick feet, boys. Push it. Work hard, boys." he yelled through the rink. 

"Strobel, pick up your knees. Keep your shoulders square. Push it. Come on, boys. Go." he kept calling, as they were skating off in more complicated formations. 

Then Herb blew his whistle and skated up to Strob, "Strobel, you've got a million-dollar set of legs and a ten-cent fart for a brain."

Carly, who was standing next to Strob, chuckled at that.

"Hey." Herb looked at his daughter, "You better be quiet, because you're playing worse and worse every day and right now you're playing like the middle of next week!"

At that Carly shut up and now Strob chuckled.

"You two get out of here." Herb sent them to the bench.

The two of them were making fun of each other, enjoying their time. After all they had been friends since first grade.

Herb kept saying, "The legs feed the wolf, boys. The legs feed the wolf." 

Next were shots on goal, "Stay with him, Jimmy. Stay with him, Jimmy." Herb called out to their goalie.

Jim Craig was getting better, but Herb still felt like he wasn't even showing half of his potential.

Just then a puck hit the net and Jimmy yelled out in frustration, "Damn it!"

They skated towards the bench to get water, before Herb would call them back.

"How's your legs?" Mac asked OC.

OC took a big gulp and handed Mac the bottle, "I'll let you know when I can feel them."

After that they went back to shooting practise.

"Come on, boys. Go get him. Go get him." Herb yelled.

"Thattaboy, Jimmy." he called out after Jimmy blocked a shot.

Herb nodded his head slowly, "Better. Not good, but better."

Then it was back to skating, as they were playing a practise game, "Pedal to the metal. Intensity, boys. There you go, there you go. Work it, boys. Quick feet. Push it. Tape to tape, boys. Passes come from the heart." 

Herb was scribbling on his board again, explaining something to the team, "We wanna stretch things out. We got the Coneheads on the line. Take me through it."

Bah spoke up first, "I stretch the D out and across."

"What do we do with this space?" Herb asked.

"I fill the open lane." Pav explained.

Buzzy added, "I fill in for Pav's lane."

"Exactly." Herb stated and they went back to skating.

"That's it, that's it." Herb yelled, "Don't let them have it, Jimmy."

This time, Jimmy blocked the shot.

Herb gave him a pat on the back, "Attaboy, attaboy. Yeah!"

To finish the practise, he had them skating Herbies again, "Build your legs up, boys. Build your legs!"