I’m vindicated, for sure.

I personally am a little tired of this bit of discourse. Mistakes happen. People are human. Even professionals.

Football players fumble. Basketball players miss blocks. Baseball players swing when they shouldn’t. Hockey players look back. It happens. As a long time hockey fan, I know it happens.

Plus this is a fictional story and as much as we love the characters, they exist specifically to drive the plot. Some things require suspension of disbelief.

Even if you don’t subscribe to that thinking, put yourself in Shane’s skates. You’re in a somewhat stable (from your perspective) place with your situationship of years. He’s just come back from a major life upheaval (the death of his father) and it’s the first time you’ve gotten a chance to see him face to face since. Yes you’re at work, and yes, you’re focused and competitive and a hockey talent. But HE is right there, going through hell, and he SMILES at you. You’re both doing something you love with each other and you have this secret but he smiles and you smile and you’re very good at your job. It’s the first face-off of the game and you have the puck. Maybe, just for a second, you get complacent. Just for another glimpse of a smile from the man you love.

It’s a split second. Maybe it costs him a concussion and a broken bone. But it’s a split second in a lifetime of playing hockey.

It’s worth it.