"You've forgotten the most important lesson I've taught you," said the ghostly visage of Coach Mercer. Jarrod Lakemore's mite-hockey coach had been excoriating for some time. "You score a few goals and suddenly you are only interested in playing on one side of the rink." It was the same criticism he had received as a youth playing back in England. As one of the most talented young hockey players in a not very hockey-heavy area, he found it easy to skate around the stiff, slow moving defenders and put up gaudy goal totals. But has lackadaisical defensive effort constantly drew the ire of his coach, who constantly reiterated that Lakemore would be benched for his defensive efforts in a more competitive climate. Coach Mercer was one of the few experienced English hockey coaches; most of his youth hockey coaches were volunteer parents who tried to coach hockey like it was football. But Mercer transformed Lakemore into a complete player, one who was always hard working and responsible defensively, regardless of his offensive output.

Jarrod woke up in his bed, the moonlight barely illuminated outside his window. It was just a dream, but the fact is he had been thinking about his youth coach a lot recently. He had been given a larger offensive role for Buffalo this past season, and he had led the league in goals after putting up 63 in 66 games. But had his defensive game suffered as a consequence? There were times last season where he did shift it down a gear on the defensive end, or left his defensive responsibility early to try to get a breakaway. It was things he would have never done earlier in his career, but maybe the media attention and the stat chasing was starting to get to him? (304 words)