Rory
The final regular-season game before break carried a weight none of us said out loud, though everyone in that locker room felt it the second Coach Reyes walked in with his pregame speech folder instead of just winging it the way he usually did.
"This is the last time this exact roster takes this exact ice." His voice had gone gruff, uncharacteristically sentimental for a man who usually communicated entirely in short, tactical sentences. "Whatever happens tonight, I want you all to remember what you built this year. Now go win the thing."
We won. Decisively, even, the kind of game that felt less like a contest and more like a victory lap for a season that had already proven itself, and the locker room afterward exploded into the specific, chaotic joy of a team that knew exactly how
