Stadium Series rekindles Stanley Cup bond between Brind'Amour, Laviolette

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Rod Brind'Amour and Peter Laviolette will be standing on opposite benches Saturday, the night sky over their heads, 57,000 fans screaming around them at Carter-Finley Stadium.

They've gotten used to being on opposing benches. It will be their 10th time coaching against each other, though the 2023 Navy Federal Credit Union NHL Stadium Series between Brind'Amour's Carolina Hurricanes and Laviolette's Washington Capitals (8 p.m. ET; ESPN+, ABC, SN360, TVAS2) will be their first matchup in an outdoor game.
So, yes, the setting will be different, particularly for Brind'Amour, who will be attending his first NHL outdoor game in any capacity, but the admiration and respect the two coaches have for one another will be the same as it has been for nearly 17 years.
That never wavers. It can't with the history they have together.
"The greatest hockey moment in my life, winning the Stanley Cup, was because of him," Brind'Amour said of Laviolette. "So, I owe him a lot of gratitude. When we're playing against him, I try not to think that way, but he's been a great influence on me as a player and as a coach."
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The greatest hockey moment for both of them came on June 19, 2006, when the Hurricanes won their only Stanley Cup championship in a 3-1 Game 7 win against the Edmonton Oilers in the arena that is just across the parking lot from where they'll meet Saturday night.
Laviolette coached that Hurricanes team. Brind'Amour was its captain.
"Rod was a guy who embodied everything you would want in a hockey player and a captain," Laviolette said. "He was not the only force, but the driving force behind a team that found success and ultimately won a Stanley Cup. And he was the captain of the team."
It's not surprising to Laviolette that Brind'Amour has carried his success in the sport into coaching the Hurricanes.
Carolina is third in the NHL in wins (210), points (456) and points percentage (.667) since Brind'Amour took over as coach to start the 2018-19 season.
"It's been really good to see 'Roddy' and the success that he's had," Laviolette said. "It's well deserved. Like I said, he does all the right things on a daily basis. He sets the right tone for a team. He did it as a captain and now he's doing it as a coach. It's what seems like a natural progression almost and he's getting better at it and more experience at it."

Only four active coaches in the NHL have more experience than Laviolette, who will be coaching in his 1,406th NHL game, trailing Paul Maurice of the Florida Panthers (1,742), Lindy Ruff of the New Jersey Devils (1,685), Darryl Sutter of the Calgary Flames (1,452) and John Tortorella of the Philadelphia Flyers (1,439).
Brind'Amour talks about how much he's learned from Laviolette.
"It was just how he treated the players, and, from my standpoint, it was he let the players win and lose the games," Brind'Amour said. "Like, 'I'll give you the plan. Here you go. Now, you've got to go out and do it.' And I think a lot of coaches maybe do a little too much and I think he put a good plan in place and trusted the players to go do it."
Laviolette has been a coach in the NHL since 2001 and Brind'Amour is one of two former players he has coached against.
The other is Doug Weight, who played 23 games for the Hurricanes in 2006 and coached 122 games in the NHL for the New York Islanders, four against Laviolette when he was with the Nashville Predators.
Brind'Amour played 288 regular season games and 25 in the playoffs under Laviolette.
"Initially it was kind of awkward for me," Brind'Amour said of coaching against Laviolette. "It was kind of weird. But now we've done it a few times so the newness has gone away. But it's always special."
The setting Saturday night, the fact that it will be Brind'Amour's first NHL outdoor game and the first for the Hurricanes, should make the Stadium Series coaching matchup extra special for both men.
Brind'Amour got here via a trade from the Philadelphia Flyers on Jan. 23, 2000, before Raleigh became the hockey market it is now, before being a Caniac was a thing.
Laviolette got here on Dec. 15, 2003, after the Hurricanes had been to the Stanley Cup Final in 2002, just when hockey in the market was starting to pop.
Together they made the champagne flow by helping deliver the Hurricanes and the market its greatest hockey achievement, a Stanley Cup championship.
And now they get to share the stage again, this time as competitors on opposing benches, a parking lot away from where they shared their greatest hockey moment, in a signature event that speaks volumes for how far the Hurricanes and hockey here has come.
But Brind'Amour didn't want to start waxing poetic about all of that just yet.
"Ask me after the game," he said. "But yes, I think it's pretty cool for me. It's a memory with the history we have, but obviously I'd like it to be a good story and not the other."