McCarthy not surprised by Jets fans

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This article was published 26/04/2018 (2716 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

NASHVILLE — Kevin McCarthy was amazed at the scenes coming from his birthplace, as Winnipeg Jets fans inside and outside Bell MTS Place celebrated their first-round playoff victory over the Minnesota Wild.

But now, McCarthy is hoping to crash the party as his Nashville Predators pursue the Stanley Cup they came so close to winning last season.

McCarthy, 60, is in his fourth season serving as an assistant coach with the Predators under Peter Laviolette. If they want to go all the way, they’ll have to eliminate the very team McCarthy once idolized.

“It’s something where, as a kid growing up, I was a huge Jets fan with the WHA. I played junior there, obviously. The Winnipeg Arena was my home. I still consider Winnipeg, even though I haven’t been there since I was 20 years old, but it’s still home for me,” McCarthy said Thursday.

McCarthy said he watched as much as he could of the Jets’ five-game victory over the Wild, which included an ever-expanding downtown street party involving thousands of fans.

“It makes you proud as a Winnipegger. It was kind of similar to watching where it was in Nashville last year in the finals. That street-party mentality. Let’s face it, the fans in Winnipeg are one of a kind. It’s football in the summer and hockey in the winter. The Jets have got a special place in everybody’s lives,” McCarthy said.

“If that rink had 25,000 seats, every one would be sold, we know that. It’s a great crowd. We’ve probably got two of the best rinks here in the NHL, as far as from a fan base and a crowd being loud. I don’t think you can see any better rinks than you’re going to see here.”

McCarthy played his minor and junior hockey in Winnipeg, including stints with the Clubs and Monarchs, before being selected 17th-overall in the 1977 NHL draft by Philadelphia. The right-shooting defenceman played 537 regular-season NHL games with the Flyers, Vancouver Canucks and Pittsburgh Penguins before calling it a career in 1988.

Lars-Erik Sjöberg was the player McCarthy tried to emulate early on.

“I was always amazed, he was one of those guys who could skate probably better backwards than most guys could skate forwards. He was just an amazing skater. He was one of my favourite players. He was such a cerebral player and a guy who could play both ends of the ice,” McCarthy said.

McCarthy also fell in love with the Hot Line of Anders Hedberg, Bobby Hull and Ulf Nilsson, which he said helped shape the up-tempo, offensive puck-control game we see today.

McCarthy has spent 22 years behind an NHL bench with previous stops in Philadelphia, Carolina and Hartford, and has also worked with Jets bench boss Paul Maurice. He sees many similarities between his current head boss and his former one, who will now go head-to-head this series.

“They study the game, they look at the game differently than a lot of coaches I’ve been with. They look at the chemistry of a team probably more than a lot of coaches do. They have that ability to have every player in that lineup feel like they’re a part of it. I think that’s a huge thing, when you’re a head coach, is to have everybody on that team on your side,” he said.

“One of (Laviolette’s) biggest strengths is his passion for the game. He’s one of those guys, he’s got an innate ability to get players to play for him. The way he approaches the game, the way he coaches people, I think in this game, you have to have that ability to earn the players’ respect. I think a lot of it is because of who he is as a person. First and foremost, he’s a guy that’s just a good person. I really believe players don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care about them, and I think that’s a big part of his success. Players know he has their back. They want to play for him and don’t want to let him down.”

Many are decrying the playoff format that sees the top two teams in the NHL meeting in the second round, and for a second straight season after the Pittsburgh Penguins and Washington Capitals did it last season.

But McCarthy said you have to beat the best to be the best. Whoever survives this series will have earned it.

“You know, with the way it is, the matchups and how it works in each division, we kinda knew going in that something was going to happen like this. It’s tough. You look (Wednesday) night at Boston and Toronto, you’ve got a really good team that’s no longer in the playoffs. You’ve just got to make sure you’re the last man standing,” he said.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @mikemcintyrewpg