Preds’ Laviolette, Pens’ Sullivan meet in 1st all-U.S.-coaches Finals
Hockey history will be made for U.S. coaches in the Stanley Cup Finals.
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 as the Nashville Predators’ Peter Laviolette goes up against the Pittsburgh Penguins’ Mike Sullivan.
It’s 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 the Blue Jackets’ John Tortorella, Red Wings’ Jeff Blashill, Devils’ John Hynes and Islanders’ Doug Weight.
The pair are already on the exclusive list of U.S. coaches to win the cup: Bill Stewart with the Blackhawks in 1938, “Badger” Bob Johnson with the Penguins in 1991, Tortorella with the Lightning in 2004, Laviolette with the Hurricanes in 2006, Dan Bylsma with the Penguins in 2009 and Sullivan with the Penguins last year.
All of the other cup-winning coaches are Canadian.
It took until 2012 for two U.S. captains to meet in the final when the Kings’ Dustin Brown faced the Devils’ Zach Parise. Brown, whose team captured the title in 2012 and 2014, is one of two U.S. captains to win it after the Stars’ Derian Hatcher in 1999.
Brown and Parise embraced the significance of their meeting in the Finals 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 in Pittsburgh on Monday night.
“Not really,” said Laviolette, one of just four coaches to take three franchises to the Finals, including the Flyers in 2010. “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 Finals, the 52-year-old Laviolette quipped, “Probably means that I got fired a lot.”
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.”