Summary:

The best players, Stefan's mentor had told him, are like racehorses: highly strung, and easily spooked. Hollander was the best of the best. And his career - the challenge of working with him and his particular routines - had elevated Stefan's standing in the Honorable Siblinghood, so it was as much professional debt as favouritism that had Stefan taking a particular interest in Hollander, by the time he came out to the locker room. Stefan expected to be working with him until one or other of them retired. [...]
If, after that, Hollander's skate laces were replaced before they started to wear thin, and if the new laces passed through the hands of at least two fully-sworn Senior or Very Senior Equipment Managers before they met his skates, that was within Stefan's discretion. He never even spoke of it, directly, to his team.