‘They Wanna Stomp on Your Throat': A Late But Still Cool Stanley Cup Finals Preview

In case you missed the first three rounds of previews, this is not your typical (and better late than never) Stanley Cup finals preview. This is just two guys talking hockey. Viewer discretion is advised.

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Ryan Whitney
I’m sorry, Rupper. I’m sorry, O.K.?

Mike Rupp
Whitter, where have you been, man? You went M.I.A. on us. The people have been asking me when their preview is coming. We’re two games in already.

Whitney
My bad. I was off the grid for Memorial Day weekend.

Rupp
I’ve even had a couple players come up to me and be like, “Hey, what’s going on. You guys doing the preview?” I told them, “Whitter fell off the face of the earth.” Do you want me to tell you what they said?

Whitney
Tell me.

Rupp
They said, “He’s probably out on his fackin’ boat in Boston haba.”

Whitney
Hahaha. I’m getting up there in years now, bud. I can’t handle it like I used to. I need a few recovery days, you know what I mean?

Rupp
Those days are long gone for me. On Memorial Day … what was I even doing? I was with my kids playing cornhole for two hours and drinking ice tea because I had to work Game 1 that night.

Whitney
Listen, I did watch the games. Give me that. I’m ready to come hard and heavy with the analysis. Penguins? You wanna talk Penguins? Their team speed is out of this world. Unreal. You know what I love though? Sid is a prick to play against right now. Did you see Thornton cross-checking his helmet off, trying to get a rise out of him? Sid’s just standing there like the Terminator. No expression. No retaliation.

Rupp
I loved that.

Whitney
It’s like he smells the blood in the water right now.

Rupp
Yep, 100%. He knows it’s too important to react right now. He knows they’re frustrated. You know what I love about it? Sid’s done what Thornton did. He’s been there. He’s seen Geno and Letang do it. He knows what Thornton’s going through, and he’s too smart to play into it.

Whitney
So what’s going on in this series, man? Give me the analysis. Where’s it going wrong for the Sharks? Pittsburgh’s all over them on the forecheck, forcing turnovers.

Rupp
Well …

Whitney
Wait, wait. Hang on. Before we get into that, can we address this Crosby face-off cheating scandal? I want to get it out of the way. Logan Couture said after Game 2 that Sid is winning so many faceoffs because he’s cheating in the circle.

Rupp
I mean, if you’re not cheating on face-offs, you have no business taking them. That’s what you do. That’s 80% of it. It’s like holding in the NFL. You could call it on every play. The players know that.

I’ll give you an example. Craig Adams and I used to run a little scam when I was in Pittsburgh. Craig was the center, but I had experience taking draws, too. So if it was an important face-off, I’d say, “Hey, Craig, lemme take this one. I’m gonna cheat like a son of a gun.”

If the the ref throws me out? Who cares. Craig comes in and takes it like the true gentleman he is.

But if he doesn’t? Well, our chances of winning the draw just went from 50% to 70% because I’m turning my feet early and jumping the drop. People ask me sometimes, “What makes a good hockey coach? I don’t get it.” Well, any coach worth his salt knows that when there’s a super important faceoff, he has to put two guys with face-off chops out on the ice. One to cheat, and one to take it if the ref decides to toss him.

You’re a Pats fan. You understand cheating.

Whitney
Dude.

Rupp
My Cavs are getting smoked by Steph and Klay as we speak. Let me have a little joy. Don’t get me wrong though, I understand what Logan Couture is doing here. He’s trying to send a signal to the refs to make them square Crosby up without doing it during a game. He’s a smart kid.

Whitney
Yeah, you can’t keep bitching to the refs all game about Sid’s draws. I don’t care who you are. He’s earned that respect.

Rupp
I’ll never forget my rookie year I was taking draws against Rod Brind’Amour, one of the best face-off guys in the league. So, of course, Rod is spanking me. Every time I come to the bench, I feel like I let my coach down. So finally I go out and Rod puts his stick down and he already has his feet turned sideways. I backed away from the dot and looked at the linesman and said, “Can you square him up?”

He goes, “… What?”

I say, “Uh … Can you square him up, please?”

He glares at me and says, “Hey, rookie? Put your f—— stick down before I throw you out of here.”

Unless you’re Wayne Gretzky, you don’t have any juice against a guy like Brind’Amour or Crosby.

Whitney
No, not at all. So let’s just sum up this noncontroversy: Sid is smart for cheating and Couture is smart for complaining. Mind games, man. Playoffs. Love it.

Rupp
I think the Sharks have plenty of life left in them. But obviously the first period of Game 3 is huge.

Whitney
I’ve been exactly in their shoes, in ’08 with the Penguins. We lost the first two games of the finals at Detroit. The night before Game 3 in Pittsburgh, Gary Roberts gathered the team and gave this unreal speech. Remember how I said last series I’ve never heard a great sports-movie speech in real life? Well, I meant from a coach. I heard one from Scary Gary Roberts.

For you young people out there who might not be as familiar with Gary, the guy was an absolute animal. Straight up scored, hit, fought, would stare a hole through your soul and make you totally petrified of him. So he gets up in front of everybody and talks about how, when he was young with Calgary and he went to the Stanley Cup finals, he thought that the good times were gonna last forever. They’d be back year after year. How could they not? They were a great team. Well, 17 years later, he had finally gotten back. After so many battles and so much heartbreak, he was standing there in front of us with a final chance. He was 42 years old.

Most of our team was young. I was 24. I didn’t know what the hell was going on. When Gary made that speech, we were ready to follow the guy to hell and back. San Jose needs Joe Thornton to make a Gary Roberts speech.

Rupp
I just spoke to Sid about this the other day. When I won the Cup as a rookie with New Jersey, I remember thinking, Oh, if I stay here for 10 years, I’ll probably go to five finals. It doesn’t work like that. I spent the rest of my career chasing it.

Whitney
Sid was 21 when he lifted the Cup. Now it’s been seven years of playoff heartbreak to get back again. You can see it in his face right now. He knows how hard it is to get to where they’re at right now. He understands. And he’s playing out of his mind.

Rupp
You know it killed him to be away from the finals for so long.

Whitney
Crosby is the Jordan-level of ultra-ultracompetitors. I don’t know your experience with him, but when I was in Pittsburgh, he would be sitting at his locker, throwing a tape ball into the garbage can across the room. If he missed, he would go get the tape ball, come back, sit down, and throw it again. If he missed 20 times, he would go get the ball 20 times and shoot it until he made it.

Rupp
Oh my Gosh, I totally remember Sid doing the tape ball thing. When I first got to Pittsburgh, I watched him do it like eight times, by the seventh time he had a smirk on his face because Duper, Billy Guerin and the boys who have seen this many times were giving it to him. But he just casually walks over and picks it up, walks back to his seat, and does it again.

Whitney
Even if it took 50 friggin’ minutes, he wouldn’t quit. He’s just wired that way. He wants to beat you at everything.

Rupp
I remember just practicing against him —

Whitney
Dude, imaging being a defenseman. Listen — guys joke around at practice. Over an 82-game season, you can’t be serious all the time. I know, I know: “Practice how you play,” or whatever, but guys are going, at best, 95% in practice. Sid would be going 105% on a Tuesday morning in like January. There were almost no light moments with him. He’s got a side to him that I think you have to be born with. He’s like MJ. They wanna stomp on your throat. That’s what makes them great.

Rupp
That’s so true, and you know what? You need that mentality because what was everyone saying going into the finals? “Oh, hey, wouldn’t it be so great if Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau finally got a Cup?”

Sid’s probably like, “Hell no.”

It was the same thing with us in the ’03 finals. Adam Oates was on Anaheim. Amazing player. Never won a Cup. The media was like, “Hey, what’s it going to be like playing against Oates? Don’t you feel for him?”

“I was thinking to myself, I … really don’t care about Adam Oates. I’m here to win.”

Even afterward, did I ever feel bad? Heck no. It’s nothing personal, but I feel like you have to have that killer mentality.

Whitney

So you’re the big shot analyst, Rupper. What’s the story of this series so far?

Rupp
The Sharks have been outplayed over two games. But the thing is, if a puck bounces an inch to the left, or if they don’t hit one of those eight posts they hit in Game 2, we’re having a different conversation right now. The Penguins haven’t twisted the knife. If I’m a Sharks fan, I feel good about that.

Where San Jose is really struggling is on the breakout. The Penguins forecheck is all over them. They’re looking for the home run play instead of the base hit. I saw a few times in Game 2 — whether it was Burns or another guy making the pass out of his zone — he’s got an easy pass to make, and a marginal one up-ice where he can advance it a couple zones. He’s trying to make the harder pass.

There’s too many “hope” plays from San Jose when they have the puck in Pittsburgh’s zone. Just throwing it in front of the net hoping it will find a stick.

You’re giving it right back to a Penguins team that can advance it so quickly on you in transition. I’ve been saying this since the Washington series: If Pittsburgh has a weakness, it’s that their defense can have big breakdowns if you keep sustained pressure on them below the goal line. You don’t even have to necessarily get a ton of shots. You just have to make them work. San Jose, unfortunately, is not making them work.

Whitney
That’s good. I’m learning stuff. The Sharks have had hardly any power plays. That’s probably a symptom of what you’re talking about.

Rupp
Absolutely. When you’re not getting power plays, it’s not because the refs hate you. It’s not bad luck. It’s because you’re not being deliberate enough. You’re not going to net. You need to force teams to take penalties, especially in the finals.

The Sharks live off their power play, and I don’t just mean by scoring goals.

Whitney
What do you mean?

Rupp
Well, sometimes a power play is like a good at bat in baseball, even when you strike out. You made the pitcher up his pitch count. You made him work. You got a feel for his stuff.

On the PP, your skill guys get a minute to get a feel for the puck, to get comfortable zipping it around. They’re not backchecking. They get a minute to breathe. All of a sudden, things don’t feel so bad, even if you don’t score. You feel more in control.

Whitney
That’s right on the money. See, you could’ve done this yourself.

Rupp
San Jose needs to get on the power play five times in Game 3. I don’t care if they go 0 for 5. It’s about feeling the puck and getting some confidence. And honestly, their Game 2 was way better. I actually don’t think that Thornton-Pavelski-Hertl line is that far off. They’re close. And they’ve got a hot goalie. Jones has been excellent.

Whitney
I’m just blown away by these young kids on Pittsburgh — Conor Sheary and Brian Rust. These guys were in Wilkes-Barre to start the season, now they’re playing with Crosby and Malkin and delivering in huge moments.

Rupp
There was a quote from Sheary after Game 2. Sid said to him something like, “You’re playing with me for a reason.” I love that. As a young player, you know how important it is to get that message from Sid?

Whitney
Huge. You were riding a bus around the AHL in September. Now Sid’s giving you orders on a face-off in overtime of the Stanley Cup finals.

Rupp
What Sheary did on that overtime goal was so impressive, because he’s a lefthanded shot. On the draw, he’s coming from the left wing, looping behind Sid. Typically that’s a righthanded shot doing that, because he can zoom in and pick up the puck on his forehand and shoot it easily. Sheary is lefthanded, so he has to hesitate, sit in that little pocket of space, look over his shoulder and wait for the pass from Letang. Then he still has to turn and shoot the puck in one motion. It’s hard to explain, but the patience and body control he showed there was pretty impressive.

Whitney
You saw Sid’s face after Sheary buried it. It was like, That’s my boy. Sid probably had him going over that play 200 times in practice that morning. I’m happy for Sid, because he’s reminding everybody what a once-in-a-generation talent he is. He’s doing what people gave Toews a lot of credit for in Chicago, and rightfully so. He’s inspiring his teammates with how hard he’s playing.

Rupp

It seems impossible, but it’s almost like people don’t give Sid enough credit for what he’s done in this league. When you’re that consistent for so long, people almost take it for granted.

Whitney
They don’t understand the work it takes. I remember I was at this preseason camp with Sid and a bunch of NHL guys up in Vail a few years ago. Dan Cleary was there. He was a little older, like 36. Him and Sid — for whatever reason I have no idea — were playing one-one-one. Full ice. Not like joking around, doing shootout moves. Like, gamespeed one-on-one, full friggin’ ice.

I was standing there watching it like, “You guys realize we’re in Vail, right?”

Afterward, Cleary said it was the longest practice of his life. He’s like, “I didn’t touch the puck once.”

Rupp
Sid’s drive is crazy.

Whitney
Man, I have to say, I love my guys in Pittsburgh, but I really hope the Sharks win these next two. I know the pain of losing in the finals even as a young guy, and I can’t imagine Thornton and Marleau and those guys going through that.

When we lost in Game 6 to Detroit, I remember walking into the room after the handshake, and certain guys were crying. I let out a tear. How can you not? To be so close … at that exact moment, I remember thinking, I wish we didn’t even make the damn playoffs. Of course, you realize later it was an amazing experience, but in the moment, to have spent all that energy and emotion over 2½ months, with every guy in that room playing injured, it feels like it’s all for nothing.

It’s so heartbreaking. That’s why the Cup is so amazing, because you remember the guys who sacrificed everything and lifted it, but you don’t remember the guys who sacrificed everything and were a bounce or two away. What they did was just as impressive.

Rupp
See, this is why we waited for you. The emotional punch. Good job, bud.

Whitney
Thanks for having me, Rupper. It was a blast. I’d like to think we left it all on the ice.