‘ Tis the season for finals
NBA, NHL set to crown champs
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — David Poile thought he could squeeze in a quick day off after the exhilarating run by the Nashville Predators to their first Stanley Cup Final. Wrong. At least 200 texts and emails congratulating him on the Western Conference title greeted him.
Then Predators' only general manager had to deal with logistics, tickets, hotel rooms and talk with league officials to prepare them for the Stanley Cup Final starting Monday night in Pittsburgh.
It's Poile's first Stanley Cup Final after 15 years as general manager of the Washington Capitals and nearly 20 years of building the Predators from scratch as an expansion franchise.
"After all these years I'm doing something I've never done before, and it's different and it's a challenge," Poile said with a big smile. "But I'm ready for it."
No general manager has been with his current team longer than Poile, whose father, Bud, won the Stanley Cup playing for Toronto in 1947 and is in the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Next season, Poile will pass Jack Adams and Glen Sather as the NHL's longest serving general manager, and only Sather has more games and wins (2,700 and 1,319) than Poile (2,622 and 1,280).
Poile also was general manager of the U.S. Olympic team in 2014.
But he never made it to Sochi after being struck by a puck in the right eye at a Predators' morning skate, breaking his nose and costing him his vision.
Now, all across hockey, people are rooting for Poile to finally win a championship.
"The hockey community in general is elated for him," said Brian Burke, president of hockey operations for the Calgary Flames.
"He has performed at such a high level for so long in this league and not been rewarded like this. He's got lots of people pulling for him to go all the way."
New Jersey general manager Ray Shero, who was an assistant GM in Nashville, said his own wife was in tears so happy for Poile and his wife, Elizabeth.
"I was saying to David, 'Yeah everybody's saying it's so great for David, patient David Poile,'" Shero said. "I'm like, ' David, you're the most impatient guy know.' He used to boo the team from our box in Nashville like, 'David, you're so impatient.' He'd boo the team and say, 'He's brutal, he's brutal.'"
Poile just missed Washington' run to the Stanley Cup in 1998 after his contract wasn't renewed in May 1997. He had gotten the Caps to the Eastern Conference finals only once — 1990. Offered the Toronto GM job, Poile turned down the franchise with 13 titles to put together his own franchise in Nashville like his father had in Philadelphia and Vancouver.
"I just felt like it was the right thing to do," Poile said. "I've never regretted it. There's certainly been some ups and downs in this franchise whether it be on the ice or off the ice. But that's never deterred me to want to go somewhere else or to do something different. Everybody's treated me very, very well. I'm very comfortable, and it's a legacy for David Poile."