Page 6 of Second Round

Lucky got me a beer, and we sat down in the front row of the box to watchthegame.

“Where’s Amanda?” heasked.

“She went to walk the concourse after the first period,” Greg replied. “You know her, she’s always trying to get a read on the ‘real’ fanexperience.”

“Damn good idea,” Rhett said. “I wish my marketing people would do moreofthat.”

The Millionaires coach sat down beside me and began grilling me on the power play success we’d been having in Albany. Even after thirty years of coaching experience, Coach Barber was looking for a new edge. The Millionaires might miss the playoffs this year and that clearly bothered him. No coaching job was everguaranteed.

I watched the Vice breaking out of their zone. One player lugged the puck from the goal line and tried to make his way singlehandedly into the offensive zone. Not surprisingly, he got stripped of the puck, and Manitoba got a good scoringopportunity.

“Christ, Lucky, what’s wrong with Lepper?” asked Barber. “A few weeks ago, we were ready to call the guy up, and now he’s playing likehorseshit.”

Lucky shook his head. “I don’t understand. Lepper has been one of our best players all season. But lately, he’s been crapping the bed. Maybe he needs a head coach kicking his ass.” He turned to me. “He’s yourproblemnow.”

I nodded. “Nothing I like more than fixing hockeyproblems.”

Don Swan snorted. “You’ve come to the right place then. The assistants have been useless, these players are putting the ‘me’ in team, and attendance blows.” He motioned to the half-emptyarena.

“Jesus, Swanny, don’t scare him off before he’s even started,” saidLucky.

Rhett cleared his throat. As the senior manager here, he had the most authority. “He might as well know the real situation now.” He turned to me. “Leo, we hired you because you’re a good coach with a record of winning. You’ve got a lot of experience with younger players, which is exactly what we need. But now that the Millionaires have a share in the Vice, we want to run the same systems on both teams. That way, when we call up players from your team, they can mesh seamlessly into our NHLsystems.”

“And who decides the systems?” I wondered. I wasn’t into coaching a losing system and both the Vice and Millionaires were losing right now. Lucky had promised I’d get to run my own ship, and now these guys were saying theopposite.

Rhett laughed. “You’re ballsy, Leo. I heard that about you. You’ll getinputtoo.”

That was fair. The Vice could play within the big club’s systems, but I’d have freedom to tinker with the things like the power play, which would depend a lot on the talent I had. If there was any talent. The Vice had just been scored on again. This game was only in the second period, and it already looked like abeat-down.

“Ugh, Manitoba scored again? In the time it took me to walk up the stairs?” a female voiceasked.

Lucky’s head jerked around, and I followed his gaze to see a blonde woman. This must be Amanda. She was casually dressed in jeans and a leather jacket, but she oozed class. Everything about her looked expensive, from her styled hair to her designer boots. She moved gracefully towards us, and as if in reaction to her royal presence, every man in the room rose. Barber probably hadn’t stood for a woman inyears.

She smiled and held out her hand. “Leo! Welcome to the Vancouver Vicefamily.”

I shook her hand and felt the cool pressure of her soft skin.Merde.I could understand Lucky’s reaction now. This was the kind of woman you got serious about. She reminded me of Sophie, my ex. Maybe it was because I came from a true working class family: six kids and never enough money. We weren’t poor, but there was only enough to get by. The first time I wore new skates was when I played junior hockey and manufacturers gave them to us. New sticks, new helmets too. I thought I’d died and gone to heaven. My feet ended up bloody because I’d never broken in a pair of skatesbefore.

It wasn’t that I envied people with money, more that I admired how they knew how to roll in any situation. When I first saw Sophie Demers at university, I thought, “That’s what I want. Class. A woman who knows what’s what.” She was a tall, beautiful blonde who dressed like a model. But most of all it was her confidence. She acted like nothing could shake her. I admired everything about her, including the fact that she was completely uninterested in an uncouth hockey player. I’d gone after her hard, but it was months before she’d even go on a date with me. When we got married, I felt like the luckiest guy on the planet. And when we had Charlotte, my heart had been evenfuller.

But it hadn’t worked out. How could it? We had such different expectations from marriage. I expected she’d be a wife like my mother: hard working, loyal, and uncomplaining. And she expected I’d treat her like her father did her mother: spoiling her with gifts and attention, and making her the focus of my life. At first, we were in love enough to make things work, but once my career began to take off, I had to work more and eventually leave Montréal. And Sophie wasn’t into making sacrifices, evenforme.

My marriage had taught me a lesson. All that effort distracted me from my main purpose: getting ahead in coaching. These days, I preferred women who were straightforward and relationships where we both knew what we wanted. Sex was a necessary part of life, but love surewasn’t.

Unfortunately, that didn’t negate the attraction I felt to classy chicks. Luckily, since Amanda was out of bounds on so many levels, she wasn’t attractive to me. Ever since Sophie, I’d avoided the blonde princesses. But Lucky was aluckyguy.

I pulled Amanda closer and air-kissed her on both cheeks. She flushed, so I explained, “A Montréal greeting. Especially when we meet beautifulwomen.”

Swanny snorted. “Better watch out, Lucky. These French-Canadian guys know all thetricks.”

Lucky sighed. “It’s true. I never played with a Quebec guy who wasn’t aladiesman.”

I sensed a slight tension that I needed to diffuse. “We appreciate women—even when they are our bosses. Is there anything wrongwiththat?”

Amanda regained her composure. “Nothing at all. We’re all excited that you’re joining the team. Thank you for coming so quickly. Sorry that your apartment isn’t ready yet. Did you get the questionnaire from the relocationpeople?”

“Yeah, but I didn’t fill it out. All I need is a home office and a bedroom for my daughter when she visits from Montréal. I don’t care about any design stuff.” Because Vancouver’s cost of living was so high, my lawyer had negotiated a fully-furnished apartment for me, a leased car and a hefty raise. The fact that the Vice were willing to pay up for me was proof that they were committed tochange.

Amanda nodded. “Well, hopefully you’ll be in there soon. Did you already check into thehotel?”

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