The Sabres had an awful year that saw the GM and Head Coach sacked at the end of it. That meant that Jared Landry, late of the Washington Capitals, was sitting in a hot seat in a meeting with an owner that was laying it on the line, a GM that needed to build a new unit fast, and a head coach that was under the gun.

He was coming in as a player that had lots of potential and showed a flash of it last year in the playoffs for the Division against the Pittsburgh Penguins. One of the other shifts needed a D-man and he showed a brief blaze of glory in the playoffs. Before that, limited stick time. His second season, the last, was supposed to be when he rolled out, but he took a slapshotted puck to the thigh that created a break...and that during a powerplay, a man down. Instead of switching out and creating another man down, even for fifteen seconds, he finished his shift in an excruciating haze of pain.

That was early season. He came back for the playoffs with a new intensity to his play, but pushed it a little too hard. Nothing big, but the medical history showed that he was still fragile, even if he was lucky. Maybe it was the training, maybe it was the rehab, but Landry was not all there in fitness.

But he was the right stuff. A thick-necked, blonde haired half-French Canadian, half-Boston Irish kid that played smash-mouth hockey at Malden Catholic and for some of the Boston area junior teams before being drafted into the Caps. Like most hockey players, he was a pretty casual dresser, with a t-shirt tucked into jeans. He sat in the spartan office with the cheap furniture and the minimalistic decoration, lots of laptops, cables and TV screens, a place of intensity and focus. Stacks of paper, guys working their asses off on every element of the game. And the new GM and coach were being worked. The pressure was on, like ozone after lightning strikes in the room.

His physical training involved a lot of weight lifting, using a guy the team set him up with, and it hadn't worked out too well. Talented guy, talented enough on that hot playoff streak that when he got injured on Game 6, it was considered a huge loss to the Caps' Stanley Cup chances. For a young guy coming in to replace a more experienced guy on the third shift, he quickly established himself with the control of the puck, the technical play.

He had ferocity, and that's why Gennaro Gatti, the owner, said that he wanted a guy like Landry. The Caps had enough D-Man talent that they were willing to trade and Bob Duncan, the GM, and Eduoard Lyon, the new Head Coach, were sold on the idea. Not only that, this was a guy that the fanbase wanted -- Buffalo was a hardscrabble city with a reputation for guts. A working class crowd wanted to see a team that would fight, with guys like Landry in there bringing steel to the spine of the unit. They'd even forgive that he was a guy that would rather be playing for the Bruins -- he played like a Boston Bruin, with ferocity, unafraid of getting in the mix. But, the playoffs showed something else; assists and goal scoring, Bobby Orr stuff.

But the trade wasn't inked yet. The Caps wanted it, because it was a good trade for them. But the GM and the Coach had to meet the guy first. They wanted to figure out the man's mindset, whether or not he had it in him to do more of that. If not, they weren't going to waste their time.

"So how do you feel about being here? Especially given the fuckin' season we just had?" Gatti was a notorious straight shooter, a squat man in exquisite clothing that did nothing to dispel the pitbull manner he engaged people. You could throw a hair treatment on a guy, but that changed little.

So Jared told him, "I came here to play hockey. I will do whatever it takes on the ice. Last season doesn't matter, because this is the next season. And nothing matters but the Stanley Cup."

"Yeah, but you just got traded by the Caps. How does that feel? They're a good team," Lyon asked. Quebecois, graying panther type, big lumnberjack shoulders in a polo shirt with a bit of gut.

"Coach, they weren't good enough to beat the Penguins, who won the Cup. They don't want me, and I don't wanna be where I'm not wanted. Hell, they don't need more defensemen, they have plenty. I want time on the stick, and if you're giving it to me, I'm your man." He had some heat and some strength to him, intensity.

That caused an exchange of glances between Lyon and Duncan; the GM made the decisions on this stuff.

Landry was great in the playoffs, coming in for someone else that took an injury, but he was fragile. He'd racked up a huge performance in the playoffs, but he needed work. They saw it in the meeting that the kid meant was going to leave it all on the ice. That spirit was what got the nod.

"That's awesome, Jared, and we're really happy to have you. But we're worried about the shape you're in. We're rebuilding this team," the Duncan laid out with nods from the other two -- they were in accord and they were going to; it wasn't like this was news, "And your problem is fitness. I want you to meet one of our best physical rehab and workout people, because I think you'll like her."

He gestured to the door. And that was the trick, women were kind of rare in this line of work.