First time in 89 years two U.S.-born coaches face off
Hockey history will be made for American coaches in the Stanley Cup Final.
The Cup has been handed out 89 times to the champion of the NHL since 1927. For the first time, two American coaches will face off in the final when the Nashville Predators’ Peter Laviolette goes up against the Pittsburgh Penguins’ Mike Sullivan.
It is just the seventh time the Cup will be won by a U.S.-born coach.
“Having two American coaches lead their team in the Stanley Cup Final highlights the continued growth and evolution of the sport in our country,” USA Hockey executive director Dave Ogrean said. “We have more coaches in our country than ever before, and two of our very best are in the final.”
Laviolette and Sullivan are among six U.S.-born current coaches in the NHL, along with Columbus’ John Tortorella, Detroit’s Jeff Blashill, New Jersey’s John Hynes and the New York Islanders’ Doug Weight.
The pair already is on the exclusive list of U.S. coaches to win the Cup — Bill Stewart with Chicago in 1938, “Badger” Bob Johnson with Pittsburgh in 1991, Tortorella with Tampa Bay in 2004, Laviolette with Carolina in 2006, Dan Bylsma with Pittsburgh in 2009 and Sullivan with Pittsburgh last year.
Every other Cup-winning coach is Canadian.
It took until 2012 for two U.S. captains to meet in the final when Los Angeles’ Dustin Brown faced New Jersey’s Zach Parise. Brown, who raised the Cup in 2012 and 2014, is one of just two U.S. captains to win it after Dallas’ Derian Hatcher in 1999.
Brown and Parise embraced the significance of their meeting in the final five years ago. Laviolette and Sullivan might still, but the Predators’ hyperfocused coach isn’t thinking about it as a special occasion while preparing for Game 1 at Pittsburgh on Monday night.
“Not really,” said Laviolette, one of only four coaches to take three different teams to the final. “Sully’s a good coach. I know him, but it’s not about that. It’s about the Stanley Cup. It’s about two teams playing.”
Laviolette, from Franklin, Mass., and Sullivan, from Marshfield, Mass., grew up about an hour apart and are three years apart in age. Each coached the American Hockey League’s Providence Bruins, served on Boston’s staff briefly and won the Cup in his second NHL coaching stint.
Asked about joining Dick Irvin, Scotty Bowman and Mike Keenan as the only coaches to take three different teams to the final, Laviolette, 52, quipped, “Probably means that I got fired a lot.” As recently as November, an online sports book had him listed at 13-2 odds as the first coach fired this season when Nashville lost eight of its first 11 games.
Now he and Sullivan are facing off for hockey’s biggest prize.
“It’s fun to see,” Ogrean said. “The only unfortunate thing is that only one of them can win.”