On Saturday morning, Caro starts cutting clips of the passages in streams where she explains the waiver wire in the NHL, as well as the classes of assets teams have to build their rosters and prospects pools. And finally, the trade calendar, with 2 high seasons for transactions: one is the trade deadline, and the second, the off-season, which, for trade purposes, start with the draft.

  Which she makes available on her YouTube channel as well as the Discord servers of the streamers she follows, alongside her own.

  After eating the leftover frozen pizza of the previous day, she goes back to writing Player Masher, realizing there is a glaring hole down the date scene between Emma and Gus written the day prior. I get it, there is going to be some banter before they get to the first drink. However, it’s what happens past that drink that I am not so sure about. Also, I believe this scene might be referenced in the following chapter.

  She continues writing the banter, and then the choice of drinks the two make, with, once again, Gus offering to pay for the couple’s entire bar tab, grub included. Which included burrata, calamari as well as a pizza for two, the first one was something Gus never had the opportunity to eat in his lifetime.

  And certainly he starts getting a taste for the finer food and drink available in the city the way he doesn’t always have on the road. The convo turns into a comparison between Montreal and Seattle from a NHLer’s perspective. Sure, Seattle was good for beer and seafood lovers, but man was life expensive there, even on a US$2.25M salary. Housing was far more expensive in Seattle, as were utilities. I’d get far more home in Montreal on that budget than in Seattle.

  As she writes them with more banter and drinking more alcohol, such as a glass apiece of the most expensive red wine they could get, which still set them back CA$20 per glass, she racks up more words. Once she gets to the first kiss, after drinking several glasses of booze each, she tunes in to watch Legnica.

  Whose stream, starting at noon (Quebec City time), begins with progress made on various followers’ manuscripts. When Caro’s turn comes as Caro is about to write the couple’s first kiss, made under the influence, but nonetheless consent to it:

  “Please excuse my lack of familiarity with North American pro sporting practices, but wouldn’t a draft system as you describe it encourage the bad teams to lose?” Legnica asks Caroline, rolling her eyes.

  Caroline: In hockey, the luck factor is greater than in, say, basketball or football, so a team can crumble despite having good players, and star players can only do so much; on top of that, you have a lottery system to limit the impact

  You only need to look at this season’s Preds: the Preds won big in free agency, yet started the season poorly, Caro starts thinking about bad luck can do a team in. But I never actually addressed the draft lottery, and I think it’s premature to write about it for now, since, while the draft day scene was already mostly written, what triggered Gus in it was not a top-2 pick. Not to mention the lottery being held before the playoffs begin. Also, it will take place after the trade deadline arc.

  It is only then that Caro manages to finish the first kiss scene, which she describes as being an unremarkable kiss. Which makes Gustavs tell her that they should stop drinking.

  Then comes the time for how Simon will ask them to stop talking about Gus’ new romantic conquest, but they also realize that a lot of them were talking about one-night flings on the road in the past. Which, in Caro’s mind, took place the night before an away game, and best practices involve telling prospective WAGs that one-night stands are part of the deal when one can only spend one night in each city.

  Especially when she is at the stage in the story where the Constellations are going on their traditional Holidays’ road trip, which, as with the real Canadiens, include their away games against Southern teams. Or at least some of them. So before the team leaves Montreal for the road trip, she has Gus text Emma about aventures d’un soir.

  And she must decide against whom the first game of that road trip should be played, knowing that either the team she codenamed C at the very start of the project or Buffalo will be the opponent. Ideally, I should have Gus play well enough in both games to impress either team, and have them as possible trade targets. The question is: do I want him to play C on the road the week before Christmas, or one week before the trade deadline, which is two months later?

  Mired in the question of when to have him play team C, she is told about foreshadowing. And how proper foreshadowing can make later parts of a book less painful to read through, but at the cost of them being more predictable.

  “Foreshadowing is a delicate thing: there are times where it can become too obvious, which is not something you want, and handling it with subtlety requires re-reading the manuscript when you feel you have issues” Legnica adds on the foreshadowing comment of that viewer.

  I didn’t pay much attention to the more technical aspects of creative writing, but Legnica makes me feel like she is much more technical than I am about the mechanics of writing. Oh, Glitter will tell me about tropes, and how romance readers will look for specific tropes, over and over, based on their personal circumstances. So I may as well drop any pretense of obliviousness to love, and make the whole thing feel more like growing a long-distance relationship because that’s what I feel I am headed for at this point, unless the latter is common in stories when people are oblivious to love, Caro seems to squirm inside a little bit when she listens to Legnica.

  But then, she feels like Legnica has forced her hands into naming team C, and making it play the Constellations before being headed to play four more games on the road. She is also reminded of how sports teams tended to be named after things significant to the city.

  The team I kept referring to as C mustn’t be in the same division as the Constellations, which, at this point, is the same as the Atlantic division of the NHL, because there’s this fear that a trade might come back to haunt them, come trade deadline time. That’s precisely what I want to happen, and I’m sure it had before in real life, Caro keeps thinking about what hockey considerations must be made into choosing this team, as well as the plot roles she plans on giving this team. I guess, I may as well go for the Dallas Gunners…

  And then she starts writing the game against the Gunners, who don’t expect much out of the not-Canadiens. Especially since Montreal are bottom-feeders at this point of the season. They, of course, tend to play their bottom-line players more during that game, at least during the first period. However, the following on-ice sequence gives her pause, after a Gunner ate a clipping penalty and the Constellations are on the power play:

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  The best shooter on the Gunners’ fourth line shoots from a face-off circle, hits the post, and bounces off the glass. Mayrand attempts to clear the puck, Kurpnieks takes the pass at the blue line, he’s on a breakaway… but then, Caro, reminded that, rather than simply describing the play on the ice, she ought to give more substance to what goes into the mind of player while on a breakaway. Especially when the crowd, surprisingly made of a good portion of Constellations fans who spend their holidays down in Texas, make him feel as if he was playing, well, at home. Kurpnieks dekes in the slot, shoots… and scores!

  “Constellations goal, his third of the season, scored by number sixty-one, Gustavs Kurpnieks! Assisted by number twenty-four, Guy Mayrand! Power play goal, scored at thirteen minutes eight seconds of the first period, Constellations one-nothing” Caro puts on her best attempt at an English-only goal announcement so she can write it down later.

  I can have good games sometimes; she writes about his state of mind after she had him score his first PP goal of the season. Especially when that player who ate a clipping penalty is on the ice once more, and Gus is back on the bench, before the face-off at center ice between Simon and that opposing player.

  Then Lagado DMs Caro about how she feels about how Caro writes game-day scenes.

  Lagado: Often it seems like, even when hockey romance writers tried to get games right, more often than not, they tended to make the games stuff such as overtime, or late in the third period

  Caroline: Here I don’t feel like, at this point of the season, they should obsess over the standings

  Lagado: What is the plot purpose of that game then?

  Caroline: I want to set up a possible trade partner to trade him away later; having him play that team is how I feel is the way to go

  There are so many games in a season that even the outcome of 3 pre-deadline games might not necessarily change the outcome of a season beyond a draft pick. The Constellations not being a playoff team, or even in the wild card, they don’t have the pressure of teams in “win-now” mode, she keeps thinking of how this setup differs from most people writing hockey romance fit games into the plot.

  Caroline: Most hockey romance writers fit in games as if it was either a game deciding whether the MC’s team makes the playoffs, or a game 7 in a playoff series

  At the same time, Caro doesn’t want to write out an entire season’s worth of games; it would get far too repetitive to aim for simply 50k words, Lagado then starts a session of Caro’s game.

  Meanwhile, when Legnica announces a 10-minute sprint on her stream, several of her viewers are ready to spit out as many words as they can. Which makes Caro not want to put in references to the Gunners just yet. Not in that somewhat unfinished shell of a draft day chapter. But it makes her want to go back to it.

  About how Gustavs, as of draft day, lives with one of his teammates, in one of those McMansions in some luxury Dallas suburb. About how life in Dallas means that he can live as a complete unknown the way he couldn’t in Montreal.

  But at the same time, it makes her feel like, all too often, when people write hockey romance, and feel the need to put in games, they want the protagonist’s team to win it all, whether this means a playoff berth (if there’s an underdog element) or winning the Cup (even in the absence of such). Capitolium DMs her while in the middle of the sprint:

  Capitolium: It might be a bit boring to some, but sometimes not winning it all, and not squeaking into the playoffs either can be a breath of fresh air; I hope that the Gunners don’t go all the way

  Yet, as Caro is focused on writing the third period of that game, she doesn’t respond to him straight away. By then she is focused on just getting the hockey game to be written up to a point where she can believably make the audience feel like he has improved. Hitting opposing players at center ice, stealing pucks in the corners, so that he can then clear the puck… while remaining mindful of the icing rule.

  Even if it meant dump and chase, and then hope that someone will get to the puck before it crosses the second red line. Which means that, as the race to the puck gets underway, the puck must cross the offensive zone’s blue line before any Constellation does, but dash to it before the puck crosses the red line. Once the Gunners get to the puck and try to clear it, Gus gets back and tries to catch the puck before it crosses the red line, she writes before the sprint ends, causing her to stop writing.

  “Time is up!” Legnica signals the end of the sprint, prompting every sprinter to post their word counts.

  And even then, Caro writing 466 words of a hockey game and glossing over the locker room banter before the third period seems to be a little fast for her tastes, but apparently not fast enough to win.

  She starts to ruminate. Shoot! Not even writing hockey games, which came somewhat naturally to me, was enough to carry me to victory in this sprint! Hopefully I’ll win the next one, even if this meant stretching out the book more than I would have liked!

  Caroline: What about you? Do you want the MMC’s home country to win the World Juniors, or his team to win the Memorial Cup?

  Capitolium: Winning the Q’s championship I do, but I don’t want my MMC to win either tourney

  I hope Caro realizes that often scouts and front offices put a lot of stock on how players perform at tournaments such as a major junior league’s playoffs, the Memorial Cup or the World Juniors. Especially the World Juniors. You only need to look at Jordan Schroeder to see what happens when a team puts too much stock on the World Juniors. Which is why I want him to be solid but not star in it, especially since my very own draft day scene forced my hands, Capitolium ruminates about the implications of making his MMC not win the WJC, nor the Memorial Cup, much less star at either.

  For the rest of the stream, Caro keeps writing about locker room scenes before and after the third period, which she completes. And, of course, how the game being tied 1-1 after regulation time made the pressure ratchet up on both teams. And, of course, both teams will use their top 2 lines more going into overtime.

  By the time the stream’s final sprint comes into play, before Gus could even text Emma, she realizes that she already overshot the daily par. If I keep overshooting the daily par, by November 30, I will have far too many words for my own good! And I still have the game’s 3 Stars to write about!

  Speaking of 3 Stars, Caro makes her own announcement, again reprising her own voice acting:

  “And the second star, Gustavs Kurpnieks!” Caro shouts as if she was a home announcer.

  “Mais pourquoi tu n’as pas attribué la première étoile à Gus? Il a compté un point sur les deux buts de la soirée” (But why didn’t you give Gus the first star? He scored a point on both goals for the night) Caro’s dad questions her.

  “Les votants sont souvent biaisés envers le marqueur du but gagnant si le match va en prolongation, surtout quand il y a peu de buts” (Voters are often biased towards the game-winning goal scorer if the game goes in overtime, especially when few goals were scored) Caro explains herself.

  And then I may as well give the third star to the goalie, she sighs, while, at the same time, feeling satisfied with how the game and chapter ends. Then again, when there is no hockey in a hockey romance, I tended to assume, in the beginning, that players were unremarkable until proven otherwise, and proofs to the contrary usually included spending habits and hence cap hits. I’m OK with hockey to overshadow the romance, but at the end of the day, there has to be romance, with a happy ending of some sort.

  And it is then that Caro writes about Gus texting Emma about him earning a star of the game for the first time in the season.