Peter Laviolette's focus is where it should be, on preparing the New York Rangers for their next game, against the Montreal Canadiens at Madison Square Garden on Thursday. But his excitement level about what's to come this weekend is high, and for good reason.
Laviolette will tie an NHL record by coaching in his fifth outdoor game when the Rangers play the New York Islanders in the 2024 Navy Federal Credit Union NHL Stadium Series at MetLife Stadium (3 p.m. ET; ABC, ESPN+, SN, TVAS) in East Rutherford, New Jersey, on Sunday.
One of Laviolette's former teams, the Philadelphia Flyers, will play the New Jersey Devils at MetLife Stadium on Saturday (8 p.m. ET; ABC, ESPN+, SN360, TVAS2).
Only Joel Quenneville has coached in five NHL outdoor games. Alain Vigneault, Claude Julien and Mike Babcock have each coached in four.
"There is no question that this game is different," Laviolette said on the episode of the "NHL @TheRink" podcast that came out Wednesday. "It's still worth the same two points. There's no extra value to it from the columns. It's a win or a loss. It's worth two points or none or maybe one. So, in that regard everything is the same. But I will tell you in my experience in the outdoor games the atmosphere of being outside, the rink being in the center of a football stadium or a baseball stadium with that many people, it's markedly different.
"I think our game is just awesome, but when you go to the outdoor game it is a different level of being awesome. Every one that I've been to the day kind of takes over and it certainly feels like it should be worth more than the two points because of the atmosphere, the fans, the buildup and the hype, the amount of fans and the way it's presented. I think it's just a really good day for hockey."
For Laviolette, though, as special as the game Sunday will be, it'll be hard to top his first outdoor game, at least from a personal standpoint.
That was more than 14 years ago, the 2010 NHL Winter Classic between the Flyers and Boston Bruins at Fenway Park in Boston on Jan. 1.
Laviolette was hired by Philadelphia just 28 days earlier on Dec. 4, 2009, replacing John Stevens, and here he was at Fenway Park, a heck of a place to be for a guy who grew up in Franklin, Massachusetts, about 45 miles from the iconic home of the Boston Red Sox.
"I was born and raised in Massachusetts and I was a Red Sox fan," Laviolette said. "Kind of like Madison Square Garden, I understand the history and what Fenway Park means, the Green Monster, all of that. My dad's 80th birthday we brought him and we sat on the Green Monster as a family. That's all he wanted. We said, What do you want to do?’ and he said, 'I'd like to sit on the Monster for my birthday.' So we did it and it was spectacular, by the way. If you ever get an opportunity to do that, do it. But the fact that I was hired two weeks or so before the Winter Classic and it was in Fenway and I got an opportunity to coach the Flyers and be a part of my first Winter Classic there probably rings in as a little more special just because of some side details."
The Flyers lost that day, 2-1 in overtime on Marco Sturm's goal.
Laviolette also coached the Flyers against the Rangers in the 2012 Winter Classic at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. They lost 3-2.
He was behind the bench for the Nashville Predators against the Dallas Stars in the 2020 Winter Classic at Cotton Bowl Stadium in Dallas. Nashville lost 4-2.
One year ago this Sunday, he was coaching the Washington Capitals in the 2023 Stadium Series against the Carolina Hurricanes at Carter-Finley Stadium in Raleigh, North Carolina. The Capitals lost 4-1.
Laviolette is 0-3-1 in outdoor games. He laughed about that when it was brought up on the podcast, cracking a joke about why it even needed to be mentioned in the first place.
"I obviously know what's gone on in my career," Laviolette said.
Winning on Sunday would fill out his outdoor resume, but Laviolette said his personal record is not on his mind.
The Rangers (34-16-3) have won five games in a row. They're in first place in the Metropolitan Division. They want to keep it rolling.
"We want to have success for the day, for the game, for our fan base," Laviolette said. "I think that that really trumps everything. Does it check that box for me too? I guess so, but that's not my hope or my priority. My priority is for our guys to go out and play well, try to do the right things and win a hockey game. Like I said, it is a different day. It really is. We were in the one in Carolina last year and it was fantastic. They did a great job of putting that game on. It was the night. It was the lights. It was the atmosphere. Everything was awesome. I wasn't disappointed because I didn't get to win. It wasn't like that. I was disappointed because I don't think our team got what we wanted out of the day, which was to be successful. That's what it is really about."
In addition to Laviolette, Devils forward Ondrej Palat joined the podcast to talk about the Stadium Series and what playing against the Flyers at MetLife Stadium will mean to him and his team.
The "NHL @TheRink"podcast is free and listeners can subscribe on all podcast platforms. It is also available on NHL.com/multimedia/podcasts and the NHL app.
