Chapter Ten
Chapter Ten February 2014—Sochi, Russia “Shane Hollanderrrrrrrr!” Shane nearly jumped at the sound of his name being bellowed behind him. He spun around, and spotted two familiar faces approaching him: Carter Vaughan (yelling) and Scott Hunter (not yelling). Scott was the captain of Team USA’s men’s hockey team, and Carter was his teammate both here […]
Chapter Nine
Chapter Nine December 2013—36,000 feet over Pennsylvania Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Ilya could hear Ryan Price’s foot drumming against the floor, even with an empty seat between them. Even though Ilya was wearing headphones, and watching a very loud Fast and Furious movie. Ilya glanced over. Price’s knee was bouncing, jostling the paperback novel he […]
Chapter Eight
Chapter Eight June 2011—Las Vegas It couldn’t have been a closer race. It was the night of the NHL Awards in Las Vegas, and all anyone had been talking about leading into it was who would win the Rookie of the Year award. Both Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov had scored over fifty goals. In […]
Chapter Seven
Chapter Seven February 2011—Montreal Fifty minutes on the treadmill and Shane still couldn’t get his brain to quiet down. He had a very nice gym in his apartment, which was close to the Voyageurs’ practice rink in Brossard. Some younger players shared apartments or houses with other young teammates, but Shane preferred to live alone. […]
Chapter Six
Chapter Six January 2011—Nashville Ilya swiped his key card for the third time and his hotel room door finally unlocked. Once inside, he fell back on the king-size bed with his arms outstretched, pleasantly buzzed from the drinks he’d consumed at his All- Star team’s dinner. He had expected to be on a team with […]
Chapter Five
Chapter Five September 2010—Montreal Shane was a man of routine. He woke every morning at six o’clock, and immediately went for a ten- kilometer run. He would then return to his (new) apartment to do sets of pull-ups, push-ups, and crunches. Then he would stretch before he would make himself a smoothie and a bagel, […]
Chapter Four
Chapter Four July 2010—Toronto Shane had signed a lucrative endorsement deal with CCM, one of the biggest hockey equipment companies. He hadn’t played a single game in the NHL yet, so he was pretty stoked about it. Then he found out that CCM had also signed Rozanov. And then he found out that they wanted […]
Chapter Three
Chapter Three December 2009—Ottawa Ilya watched the red glowing numbers on his hotel room’s alarm clock flick from 11:56 to 11:57. The room was completely dark. His roommate was down the hall, along with half the team, watching the American New Year’s Eve celebrations on television. Ilya had been in that room too. He had […]
Chapter Two
Chapter Two June 2009—Los Angeles “Shane, could you move a little closer to Ilya, please?” Shane felt Ilya Rozanov’s arm brush against his as he stepped closer to him for the photographer. “That’s perfect. All right, smile, boys.” Shane’s eyes were bombarded with camera flashes. He stood pressed against Rozanov, who seemed to have grown […]
Chapter One
Chapter One December 2008—Regina Ilya Rozanov trudged through the bitter cold of the hotel parking lot to the team bus. Like most of his teammates, it was his first time in North America. He had expected to feel more overwhelmed by that, but Saskatchewan was hardly New York City. Here, there was nothing to focus […]