«On n’est pas ici pour avoir un prix de participation» - Kent Hughes

Canfuse didn't have the Berlusconi.It's not Mike Matheson, it's Trevor Letowski.

Let's go.You built your team in terms of composition, but also in terms of speed.I'm going to take you back in time a bit.Are you able to share with us how you felt when you were hired as a DG?You had never done that.It's a world that was, in a way, a little unknown to you.

And how did you find pleasure in building that team?

I think, Anthony, if I try to...At first, I wasn't sure if I wanted to take that position.I think that Gord said to me, you've spent 20 years telling all the other managers how to manage a team.Why not put your neck on the line?And you have the chance to do it with a team that's going to build, so you're really going to be able to do it.We say in English, put your fingerprints.

How to build a team the way you want to do it.I'm happy to have accepted to do an interview and take the job.It's probably the best four and a half years of my professional career.I love hockey.I really liked the luck of being an agent, but at my core, I'm much more Someone who is interested in how to build a team, how to play as a team.So, I'm proud of what we've accomplished.

Hi Ken.Hi.If we go back a few months, March 6, the deadline for the transactions.At the end of the deadline, there was a little disappointment in your voice.You told us, ah, I'm not close enough to make a transaction.In the end, nothing happened.

We're diving in today.You're in the finals of the ESL.Did it surprise you to push there?And does it come faster than you thought?

Yes, I think it's a question that has been asked to me several times if we were ahead of where we planned, certainly in January 2022.But honestly, coming here at the moment, I think with respect to the players and the coach, Even if the managers often look forward, we really want to live in the moment.

Hello, Kent.Hello.Your fans love you a lot, and your fans love your coach a lot.Can you reassure them about Martin's status, the fact that he's not with you?Is he leading the team tomorrow?

Yes.It's nothing serious.Not like, what was it, 2023?I'm asking about Marty.

He should be here tonight.Okay, very good, very good.There aren't many observers right now who give you a real chance to win this series against the Hurricanes.That wasn't the case in the two previous series, even if Tampa had a good season and the Sabres had a good season.

Do you think your team, the players, the coaches, approach this series differently, I think we had a 21 % chance of winning the series, and Tampa had a 19 % chance of winning 4 -1.So I think it's been two series that we've already been underdogs.Caroline has a very good team.It's been a long time since they've had a good team.I think it's four conference finals in eight years.So we have a lot of respect for the organization, for the team.

But we didn't come here, like Martin said, to have a participatory.We're here to try to win.

Sorry, Trevor.Make you sit there for a bit.Ken, I'm curious, even before you drafted Lane, you knew him for quite some time.I believe his age group was similar to your, the same as your son's, right, if I'm not mistaken?So, you know, there's always been the question of whether he could defend at this level.I think you guys probably had the same question when you drafted him.

What has been your vantage point to watch his evolution as a defender from draft A till the guy you watched in these two series?And where do you think the strongest evolution has come in that element of his game?

Well, I think when you're like young hockey players that you watch coming up through the ranks that are, especially those that are extremely talented offensively, I think at lower levels a lot of their energy is devoted more to the offensive side of the game.The work ethic was always obvious.You get to the National Hockey League and you realize that it's hard to score goals.You can't afford to give up goals and start behind the eight ball.And it's probably required Lane to be more balanced in his approach.But, I mean, the underlying thing for him is his quickness lets him be effective offensively.

It lets him be effective defensively.He does it in a different way he always did.His work ethic was always there.He's just leaned on more to do it.And I guess what we've seen is against the bigger guys where you would have had some concern like you know it's kind of like a point guard defending Shaquille O 'Neal.You got to steal the ball.

Lane steals the puck.He's been so effective at it.What's that?Meaning like When you have a heavy guy, a big player who's kind of going to protect the puck and kind of lean on you with the body, kind of like boxing out in basketball, when the guy's backing up towards the net, Lane's figured out his way of doing it, right?It's getting inside your hands, getting inside the stick, and turning the play, and he never quits.So when you think you have him beat, he turns around and steals it from behind.

I have a question for both of you, and you could answer first, Trevor, but it applies to Kent also, because you said that he He feels at home being a general manager and building a team, but he had a past as a coach, and I would like his coaching perspective on this.When you look at the style of the Hurricanes, or series in general, are typically won by teams that employ their style the most, that get to their style the most.And when you play the Hurricanes, it's almost a given that their style will prevail for large swaths of games.

Just how do you balance trying to get to yours, but also Absorb the style that they have I'm curious what both your perspectives are on that Yeah, I mean obviously I mean we're we know Carolina real well just playing them in the regular season It's a team that I would say is just ultra consistent in what they bring to the table.There's there's urgency to their game.There's anintensity to their game.It's pretty unique in the regular season in the NHL.Anytime we play them, it feels a little bit different than the other teams.

That's a credit to them.We feel we know what they are, but at the same time, our focus is just about us.you know, getting our group reset after, you know, a long series of ups and downs again for the second time and resetting and just getting excited for the opportunity and finding our game.And we feel we have to continue to elevate it, you know, to push these guys.

You want my coaching opinion?I think there's always a balance, right?And I see Marty, Trevor and our coaching staff every day trying to strike the balance.between preparing for your opponent and playing to your identity.Carolina, maybe more than any other team, and I don't say that knowingly, just more from an observer's perspective, I think they're really focused on how they play and less about how everybody, who they're playing.And we played Tampa, very gifted offensive team, very focused defensively.

And I think when we came into the Buffalo Series, guys felt there was a little bit more room.to play our game.But then we also realized when you focus too much on how much room you have and not the defensive side of it, that was a really dangerous team to play against from an offensive perspective.And we saw it in spurts in the game.So I suspect throughout the coursethis series, like the other ones, there'll be ups and downs.

We have to play our game.I truly believe that.I don't know how any organization in this league can be successful giving itself a facelift every time they play a new opponent in terms of how you play.So that doesn't mean that you can afford to ignore and not make the necessary adjustments to deal with the style of play.

Question for you both also.I want to include Trevor, obviously.You can answer in French if you feel like you can't.When it comes to managing the ups and downs throughout the first two rounds, your point of view of your coaching staff and the way they were able to manage that against very good teams who are well coached, obviously, and also, Trevor, the point of view from the players and managing the ups and downs, and how do you feel this young group responded to the adversity?

For me, just being inside the room and looking back at the last month, it's been just an abundance of experience that we've gotten.Obviously, we're well aware of Carolina's history, and I know Ken touched on that.It's a group that's played a lot of playoff games together, and we haven't.The two rounds we went through, we went through a lot and I think we learned a lot.We played poorly at times and we played very well at times.We're going to have to take that into this series because there's nothing else.

We're an excited group.We're excited for this opportunity.You know, looking back it's, we're real happy that we were able to go through that and how many times you get game sevens, back to back?like that.It was kind of a roller coaster.If I go back to the Tampa series, we felt game six in particular was arguably the best game that we played to try to close them out and we lost that game.

We didn't play well in game seven, found a way to win it.I think those were two huge learning experiences for the group and for guys that haven't been through it a lot.And we got some of that, again, in the Buffalo series.In particular, in game six, we just weren't good enough, and they showed it.When you're playing this caliber of team and, you know, we've played real good teams and we're going to get another one, I think those are invaluable experiences in a real short time.I mean, you can play, you know, a few years of playoffs and maybe not get those type of games and that like with so much at stake like in long series like that.

So, you know, we feel lucky to have gone through that and we're still standing and you know, there's a lot of belief in our room.

In the difficult moments, I think the 7th game in both series, but in particular with Tampa, because we got dominated for three periods.But it's up to the coaching staff to come back after each period and to continue to do what we need to do.the team.We are close, success is there.In the 17th game at Buffalo, we saw we left well.We lost our game a little bit for two periods, but in addition, again, instead of just continuing to fall back, the team came out and you have to give a lot of credit to the coach to be able to We have to find ways to show the team that we can do it.

It's not easy at times.

Martin often says that he sees it as a father with the players, that he is a very proud father of the team's success.I don't know about you, where are you in the family tree, but when you take the time to watch...Don't say grandpa.No, I...It's not me who said it, it's you.What makes you the most proud when you see the intimate moments with the players, Martin, the celebrations?

What brings you the most pride with this group?

It's a professional sport, but it's still a group of people, and I'm not just talking about the players and the coaches, but everyone who works for the Canadiens.We work hard, we love each other, so to see a team that didn't win a lot of games at the start, Especially, I think, when I arrived, I thought it was so dark around the team.We were losing.No one was talking after the game.Not in the plane.There was no noise.

So, really happy for everyone to be able to live on the other side of all this.So, it makes me proud, but more happy for them.

Just, Ken, my French is terrible.Marty's coming tonight.

Mine is, too.

It's better than mine.