Page 12 of Second Round

“But not a word to anyone. If this leaks out, there’s no point in doing it,” I warned him. If he shared this with Amanda, it might not pass her sniff test. My first impression of her was that she was very smart, but a little naive and idealistic aboutbusiness.

“Okay. What about coaches?” Lucky wondered. “Are we keeping both theassistants?”

“Well.” I considered this. When we met early this morning, Tellier had been throwing up a lot of roadblocks, telling me how things had always been done. He spoke to me in French, trying to imply that we were buddies because we were both from Quebec. That didn’t rub me the right way. However Ian Lee seemed more like he had been enthusiastic once, but he’d had the spirit crushed out of him. He’d offered some ideas that weren’t half bad. “Tellier’s out. I think Lee is apossible.”

Lucky peered at me. “I’m almost afraid to ask this, but would you make changes to the managementgroup?”

I laughed. “Yeah, I’m not going there. I know who signs thecheques.”

“I’m sure you’d prefer to have people with more experience,”hesaid.

“You know what I like? The fact that you’re open to ideas,” I replied. “I think the key is knowing your limitations and using them. LikeAmandadoes.”

“What are you talkingabout?”

“She uses the fact that she’s young and a woman. Like last night, the way she got the Millionaires guys to give her a ton of information, because she kept asking questions in this respectful way. They revealed stuff to her because they were showing offabit.”

Lucky laughed. “I can’t believe you’ve noticed thatalready.”

I looked down at the roster. My main concern for next season was player personnel. You couldn’t make a silk purse from pigskin. There would be contract and financial considerations, so we might end up with some of these guys anyway. So the real issue would be getting a better performance outofthem.

The current team reminded me of a book I’d read on the lifting of Communist rule in Eastern Europe. People were used to rules and restrictions and many of them found the new freedom terrifying. Pankowski hadn’t been a popular coach, but once players got used to being told what to do, they were like sheep. And sheep neededdirection.

“Hey, Goats. What limitations could I leverage?” Lucky’s voice was genuinelycurious.

“Well, you’re a popular guy from your playing days—which weren’t so long ago. So you’ll be able to get meetings and calls returned. But you’re inexperienced, so other GMs will try to take advantage. Let them thinktheyare.”

“How is getting suckered going to helptheVice?”

“Well, we’ve been talking analytics right?” Lucky had hired a young guy to crunch numbers for us. Apparently he had been some kind of blogger before and was happy to get paid to do the samething.

“Yeah.”

“We may end up asking for guys that teams don’t put a ton of stock in. You might make a better deal than someone who’s supposed to be moresavvy.”

There was a long pause while I shuffled papers from the desk. Many of them were dated from three years ago.Merde.

“I have to tell you, I’m not completely sold on analytics like Amanda and Greg are,” Lucky confessed. “I prefer to judge guys by character. That always worked in my playing days, you figure out the guys you cancounton.”

“Do both. Use the analytics to narrow down the field, then go in and talk to yourfinalists.”

I liked to see a guy play too. His skating was key for me. And characterwasimportant. You wanted guys with the right attitude who didn’t give up. You wanted to know how they faced adversity. Smarts were important too. That didn’t mean going to university, but more that they thought about the game in bigger terms. You could only coach so much, and every night a player was going to face some completely new challenge. You wanted guys who would make the right decisions more oftenthannot.

Lucky nodded and then excused himself to take a call. It sounded like Millionaires business. My talk with the Millionaire’s brass had gone well last night. No promises were made, but there was definitely a possibility of getting more involved with the NHL coaching staff if—big if—I could improvetheVice.

He finished his call. “Want to catch dinner? We can talksomemore.”

“Yeah, sure.” I gathered up my laptop and the few papers I needed from the mess. “Could we get some of this stuffclearedout?”

Lucky nodded. “Sure. I should have thought of that, but it seemed a little disrespectful while the guy’s still in thehospital.”

That reminded me of Lepper’s question. “What’s going to happen to Bob after hegetsout?”

“Cripes. I have no idea. I’ll ask Amanda.” Lucky shook his head. “I feel shitty about this, but Bob wasn’t the most popular guy, so nobody has really worriedaboutthat.”

“How’s Bob doing?” I asked as we walked back to Lucky’s office. Incredibly, his office was even smaller than mine. Half of it was taken up by an expensive ergonomicchair.

“He’s better, I hear. Amanda’s been going to see him regularly and giving me updates. I’ve been meaning to drop by, but I keep putting it off. You want to go tonight? We’ll do dinnerafterwards.”

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