"So, Tibbles, tell me about my new kids." Gordon said, looking at the seven kids in hockey jerseys lined up in front of him.
"Well," Tibbles pointed to a tall Cuban boy wearing a red, white, and blue uniform. "That's Luis Mendoza from our Miami club; the kid's fast. I clocked him at 1.9 seconds blue line to blue line." Gordon nodded with approval, as did some of the other Ducks.
"Good looking skater." Connie said, smiling in appreciation.
"Yeah, good looking skater, what do you think Gee?" Voiced Averman
"Shut up Averman!" Guy said as he elbowed the joking boy in the stomach which then caused him to fall over. Everyone laughed.
"There's just one minor problem…he a little trouble stopping." And true enough, Luis tried to stop once he passed the blue line but couldn't, and slammed hard into the board.
"I'd say so" Goldberg replied.
"That's gotta hurt!" Jesse said laughing.
"Hard hit." Adam said. Elizabeth nodded as she stood behind him with Tammy and Billy he had on a Ducks jersey as well. He had joined the team after Bombay left to play in the minors. Adam had convinced the team he was cool. They gave him a trial run. It was cool. He fit in he was a true Duck.
"Howdy ya'all, are you ready to play some puck?" "Hey look, it's hop-along-Gretzky!" said Jesse which caused the team to laugh again. Gordon looked at them and they promptly stopped.
"That's Dwayne Robertson, the best puck handler I have ever seen." Tibbles said.
"You mean for his age?" Gordon asked.
"No, I don't." Don replied.
The Ducks watched him dance across the ice, handling the puck deftly.
Some laughed at his actions. If these two were a part of team USA they would surly loose. That was on the minds of most of the Ducks. And Bombay's.
Tibbles continued,"Julie Gaffney won the state championship in Maine for three years in a row."
"But we already have a goalie, Goldberg." Gordon said, looking over at the net. "Come on Guy, shoot." Guy skated over. He was about to shoot when Goldberg accidentally did the splits and was unable to get back off of the ground. Tammy skated towards Goldberg and Guy as they helped Goldberg up.
Watch this." Tibbles told them. On the other side Julie was blocking every shot Connie threw at her.
"We could always use a backup." Gordon said hopefully.
Goldberg nodded in aprovment.
"Isn't that the kid from the Olympics?" Gordon asked as a small Asian boy skated on to the ice and started to spin.
"Ken Wu, what can I say? I told him hockey had more of a future. Got a stick in his hand and no one's been able to touch him since."
A buff goon came onto the ice listening to loud, head banging music. Unfortunately, the Ducks had spread out, so when the goon came on he started pushing most of the Ducks down with the greatest of ease.
"That's a teenager?" Gordon asked dubiously.
"What can I say? Hormones." Tibbles replied.
By that time everyone had spread out, and Lizzy was standing with Billy, Adam, and Tammy Portman skated by. "Don't you know that everything's on fire…" Portman began singing. "Come on, Tex, sing it with me!" Dwayne shook his head nervously.
He started pushing the Ducks around.
"My kids don't play that kind of hockey." Gordon told Tibbles firmly.
"They're called enforcers, Gordon," Tibbles explained. "And when you face Iceland, you're gonna need them."
"Here you go, sweetie!" Portman tossed his stick to Julie, who caught it.
"Hey, my little man!" He picked Ken up and sat him on the net.
"Who does this guy think he is?" Fulton asked in disgust.
"All right, that's it!" Goldberg sped away from the goal and a huge fight began between the two of them - Ducks vs. New Comers. They were yelling and screaming, you couldn't even hear what the person next to you was saying. Elizabeth, Billy, and Tammy were fighting with Portman alongside Fulton when Gordon blew his whistle.
"Everybody FREEZE!" He barked. The sound echoed through the empty arena. Everyone turned around to see an angry Gordon. "You are here to play hockey." Gordon reminded the kids. We're Team USA. You represent your country now. That means you play hard and you play fair. I want you to –"
"Be all you can be!" Added Tibbles, who was becoming fired up by Gordon's enthusiasm. "Go for the gold! Come on! YES!" Gordon threw Tibbles a look. Tibbles shrugged apologetically and backed away.
"Leave the egos at the door." Gordon continued. "We're all on the same team. Okay, let's start with a scrimmage." A whistle blew. It was Tibbles again.
"You heard him." Tibbles shouted. "It's do or die! Scrimmage! Let's-" Once again he was cut off by Gordon's cold stare.
"You know what?" Tibbles said sheepishly. "I just remembered I have to go meet Ms. MacKay the team tutor." Tibbles tried to slip away, but before he could, Gordon held out his hand. Tibbles looked down at his whistle. Reluctantly he removed it from around his neck and returned it to Gordon.
"You'll get it back at the end of the school term." Said Gordon, and the kids all laughed.
Gordon broke the squad into two sides. Jesse faced off against Dwayne. Dwayne stole the puck by tapping it through Jesse's legs. It was too fast of a move for Jesse and he slipped and fell on his backside.
Next Fulton came barrelling across the ice. He knocked Dwayne down and leaned in to take the puck but not before Portman appeared out of nowhere and knocked Fulton down. The scrimmage went downhill from there…
To Gordon it looked as if the old Ducks were out of shape. They were easily tired and gulped greedily for air. To be fair, some were still in good form. He watched as Tammy and Connie made an excellent pass to Guy, Lizzy and Adam were shooting continually at the net skating well with Connie, Guy, Billy, Tammy, Charlie and Jesse. But as for some of the others…
"Haven't you been training in the off-season?" Gordon shouted as Averman skated by, huffing and puffing.
"I knew we forgot something!" Quipped Averman.
"Yeah, he would forget his head" Tammy joked skating by him.
"That's only one" Adam said smacking Averman on the back.
Charlie went after the puck, but he slipped and fell onto the ice. Dwayne recovered the puck and passed it to Ken, who then passed it to Luis, who picked up speed as he headed toward the net. He looked set to score a goal, but there was just one problem: he couldn't stop. He slammed into Goldberg at the net, and both players went tumbling head over heels. Gordon took Goldberg off the ice to recover and replaced him with Julie, the new goalie. Jesse tried to shoot the puck past her, but she made a save with calculated precision and agility.
Banks tried his luck. He picked off an errant pass near his own blue line and skillfully began to guide the puck down the ice toward the net. Suddenly he picked up speed and lunged for the face-off circle to Julie's right. At the last second he veered back to the centre and smashed the puck straight at the net. Julie was caught off guard. He scored!
"Good job, Adam!" Gordon called as he watched his best players he jotted down, Lizzy, Adam, Connie, Tammy, Guy and Billy they all made goals against Julie as well, he told them that they also were good shots. The game was going well until...
Fulton got hold of the puck and started to wind up for one of his patented cannon shots. All of the old Ducks skated clear - they knew how deadly Fulton's slap shot could be. Portman, however, stood placidly by on the ice watching Fulton.
SMASH!
The puck went screaming through the air. Portman ducked just in time. So did Luis, Dwayne, and Ken. The puck smashed into the goalpost and ricocheted like a bullet into the stands. And right into Tibbles.
They got the unconscious Tibbles to the stands and got an ice pack. Julie held it on his head.
"Mr. Tibbles, can you hear me?" a lady called.
Gordon got some smelling salts and started running it under his nose. Tibbles suddenly jerked awake.
"I'll have a cheeseburger, fries, and a chocolate shake, please." he said, batting away the smelling salts.
"Hi." The unknown lady said. "I'm sorry. He didn't get a chance to introduce us. I'm Michele MacKay, the team's tutor."
"Yes, hi." replied Gordon. "I'm Gordon Bombay, their coach. Team, this is Ms. MacKay."
"I don't need no school!" Portman shouted defiantly.
Goldberg stepped forward and placed a hand on Ms. MacKay's shoulders. "Ms. MacKay." He said sounding very serious. "We're America's team. Shouldn't we just be concentrating o
"That's not a bad idea." Replied Ms. MacKay. "School will be optional."
The erupted in cheers. "However, however," Michele interrupted. "Should you not attend, you will not be eligible to play." They groaned. Gordon smiled.
"Aw man, that's unfair" Connie said pouting
"Well, for a two whole seconds we thought that there was gunna be no school" Adam whispered to Lizzy, a tad disheartened. Gordon called an end to practice and so the team went to the locker room to change.
"I'm just here to tutor the kids and provide them with some adult supervision." Ms. MacKay told Gordon.
"My kids are well behaved and responsible." said Gordon defensively. "I'm capable of providing them with all the adult supervision they need."
Unfortunately, it was just then that they were interrupted by the roar of a motor. Gordon and Michele turned. The Zamboni ice machine crashed into the boards.
"Whoa! That was awesome came Guys voice.
"So cool" Jesse said, as they high fived excitedly.
Gordon shook his head what had he gotten himself into.