Behind the Bench by Craig Custance

Author:Craig Custance
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: Triumph Books
Published: 2017-08-25T04:00:00+00:00

6. Mike Sullivan and John Tortorella

Game 6 of the 2016 Stanley Cup Final / Game 7 of the 2004 Stanley Cup Final

I wish I could say that I’d spent years arranging the perfect time and place to sit down with Mike Sullivan and John Tortorella on the same summer day and watch hockey with them.

Because it’s a heck of an idea. It’s just that it didn’t come from me—it came from Tortorella.

We were on the phone hashing out a date to watch Game 7 of the 2004 Stanley Cup Final, where his Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Calgary Flames. Tortorella said he had an opening while he was in St. Paul, Minnesota, working with his Team USA coaching staff, which included Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan, before the World Cup.

The USA Hockey staff had a meeting early on a Thursday morning to talk about the World Cup, and then most of the coaches were traveling home that afternoon. Tortorella had a conference room already reserved, so he suggested we watch two games back to back.

Of course, I was sold. I pitched the idea to Sullivan and he loved it, too.

It was the opportunity of a lifetime—watching hockey with two best friends who just happen to be terrific NHL coaches, with Sullivan coming off a Stanley Cup championship just a couple months earlier, the first of his two with Pittsburgh.

On the morning of the meeting, while I was waiting in the lobby of the historic Saint Paul Hotel, the doors to the conference room opened. Out came American coaches Jack Capuano, Phil Housley, and Scott Gordon, along with Tortorella and Sullivan. Their meeting was over. Torotrella walks over and says hello. Our meeting can begin.

I still couldn’t believe my luck.

I walk into the conference room and the remains of the USA Hockey meeting are everywhere. At the front of the room is a white board, with a hockey play diagrammed in black marker. There is a long conference table covered with a tablecloth, a couple newspapers and empty water glasses scattered around. In the front of the room, a large television is waiting for the two games we’d be watching.

The first game, with all three of us watching, would be Sullivan’s 2016 Stanley Cup clincher—Game 6 in San Jose. The Penguins won 3–1 to finish off the Sharks and win their first Stanley Cup since 2009, the second for Sidney Crosby.

Sullivan is seated in a large leather chair immediately to my right. He’s wearing a red polo shirt and navy pants. Directly across the table, Tortorella is seated and wearing a navy Under Armor T-shirt. Brian Burke, the Calgary Flames’ president and a longtime NHL GM, is also present.

I get the game hooked up and the broadcast kicks in.

“What is this one?” Sullivan asks.

“The game you won the Stanley Cup.”

“Oh. Okay.”

“Have you watched it yet?”

“Not in its entirety.”

The story of how Sullivan arrived at that moment with the Penguins is one of perseverance and taking advantage of an incredible opportunity. He was also the perfect coach at the perfect time.

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