Marked by the Puck: Icebound Hearts

what's on the table this morning. Marcus Webb's official two week concussion protocol review. Coach Morrow at the head of the table. Two assistant coaches. Sandra Okafor, the GM

be used against me later, which is to say thoroughly, with document

ptom resolution has been steady. He's cleared baseline cognitive testing as of yesterday and is asymptomatic at rest and with ligh

asks, not looking up from

ce without symptom recurrence. That puts him back in a game lineup the week

son to

no reason to rush. This

all decisive nod of a man who's heard enough doctors hedge in

needs for the file. None of it is difficult. All of it is the kind of unglamorous, exacting work that nobody outside a medical department ever se

nuine, and Hartley gives me the same unreadable nod from the doorway that he's

stays

ough that it's just the two of us and the smell of old

nk y

earning is its own kind of signal with h

e ice well," he

o know what he means.

a line combination he's not quite sure about yet. "Some of these guys have been getting their own way on medical calls since ju

alking ab

en't already listening for exactly this. "Kane specifically tends to think his read on his own body is t

awa

off the table, gathering his folder. "I'm telling you because it's not going to be the last time, and

derst

d the way his conversations always close, no residue, nothing left

kind of validation I came to Seattle hoping for and didn't expect to get this clearly, this early, from

stly

ning to throughout the morning, which I tell myself is simply because suture rem

able without a word, same as last time, like punctuality and silence are

say, and lean in

re, despite his earlier protests to the contrary. I work the small scissors under the first suture and pull it free, then the second, then the third, and the whole proc

t's the specific quiet of two people who have both decided, separately and without discussing it, that the a

ld not be comfortable saying o

ure the distance in inches if I wanted to, which I don't, except that some traitorous part of my brain has already done it anyway. Two inches. Maybe less. Close enough that I can feel the

I am aware of that. I make it anyway, privately,

the last thread is clear. "Healing's goo

eating it

said tha

true bef

xactly as brief and clipped as every other exchange we've had, which would be

I can stop myself, "let m

gh that I can see the side of his face, the particular stil

ment was rig

ing in the middle of my own office holding a pair of suture scissors and turnin

one, the specific shape of an apology that never used the word, delivered by a man wh

I've fully decided what

e

e for a while. Half the roster weighing in. Someone's used a penalty box emoji. Some

's apparently taken hold across the enti

x. Welcome to

to be flattered, amused, or quietly horrified that an entire professional hock

ination of all three, and that none of them outw