Coaching in the
2018 Honda NHL All-Star Game
is a little bit surreal, to be honest.
Usually during the All-Star break, we drive to Naples [Florida] or somewhere for a couple days to get away with the family and watch the All-Star Game together. Now, to think I'm going to be on the bench for this.
That it's in Tampa, that's the icing on the cake, the cherry on top. The All-Star Game is a celebration of the game, the talent. To be able to be a part of this experience, be around all the talented players and then get to sleep in your own bed and do it in front of your own fans, it's really exciting.
You're really looking forward to sharing that experience with a few of your players. I'm not the only one that's going to be standing there. Four of our guys are going to be there (forwards Steven Stamkos, Nikita Kucherov and Brayden Point and goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy). Well-deserved honor for our players, and it should be a fun event.
What also will be special is you're always with your own team and you don't get to spend a lot of time with other players in the League. I was extremely fortunate to have that experience at the World Cup and with the World Championship the past year and it was so great talking and learning from the other players, how they do things and what's going on. You get to have these conversations with these players aside from those on your own team.
I've been thinking a little bit about what the lines could be like. We lost [Lightning defenseman] Victor Hedman, who is injured, and we gained Point so we have two true defensemen back there. But I've got all this talent out there. Maybe I should throw it out to the fans and let the fans pick the starting lineup for me. What about a starting lineup of Stamkos, Kucherov and Point?
But it's going to be fun to experiment. We want to win, but to see Toronto Maple Leafs forward Auston Matthews with a Kucherov or a Stamkos with Florida Panthers forward Aleksander Barkov, how would these guys mesh? You don't have a lot of time to figure it out, but I think there's a lot of fun and the fans want to see it, too.
I'm also looking forward to getting to spend the time with Turk [Pacific Division coach Gerard Gallant of the Vegas Golden Knights] and Lavi [Central Division coach Peter Laviolette of the Nashville Predatord] and Trotzy [Metropolitan Division coach Barry Trotz of the Washington Capitals].
To be around that much knowledge in the game, you have to sit back and soak it in. There's really not a whole lot of time to talk once things get going; when you're the coach of this in your own city, the commitments get elevated a little bit of where I have to be and when. But there's no question I'll circle those guys together and figure something out with them, like a dinner together.
I remember I was very fortunate to meet Wayne Gretzky this summer and he talked about how fun the experience was for him last year because [Columbus Blue Jackets coach] John Tortorella had family commitments and couldn't go, so Gretzky took his spot and he ended up winning. We were talking about the players and how fun the experience was. Now I look back at that and say I'm in his position right now.
It's definitely a pinch-me type of experience.
