The Post’s Steve Serby sat down with Pete DeBoer, who has led the Devils to the Stanley Cup Final in his first season as coach.
Q: Coaches in other sports you admire?
A: I’ve got a lot of time for Tom Coughlin with the Giants, just because of how principled he is … how he doesn’t tell you how good he is at what he does, he lets his results speak for itself.
Q: He’s like you in that way?
A: (Laughs) I don’t know about that, but I got a lot of time for him.
Q: Have you met him?
A: I’ve never met him, no.
Q: You’ve never spoken to him?
A: No. Just admired his work from … an arm’s length.
Q: What traits would you define in a Pete DeBoer hockey player?
A: I think honesty, integrity … willingness to work and put the work in to prepare yourself to win.
Q: How would you say you motivate?
A: I think I motivate by preparing the team, and then holding them accountable within the room to each other. It’s not done publicly. It’s done behind closed doors.
Q: Do you have any favorite inspirational or motivational sayings that you’ve picked up from other coaches or generals or anything?
A: Lou Lamoriello gave me a book the first day I was on the job here of Vince Lombardi quotes, I could read those all day long. There’s something for every day and every problem you’ve got.
Q: You have a 12-year-old daughter (Abigail) and two younger sons (Jack and Matthew). What did they, or your wife (Susan), ask you about your shouting match with (John) Tortorella?
A: (Laughs) I’m trying to remember . . . my daughter gets very embarrassed by her father, like any 12-year-old does. I’ve got to drop her off a block away from school, and she walks the rest of the way (laughs). The boys love any kind of confrontation. She’s a little different (laughs).
Q: What did your wife say to you?
A: My wife’s pretty fiery. She was probably yelling as much as I was (laughs).
Q: Who would you be more likely to have dinner with — John Tortorella or Dale Hunter?
A: (Laughs) I think the most likely dinner that I could have where we wouldn’t end up throwing food at each other would be Dale right now (laughs).
Q: Did you as a kid have a dream about hoisting the Stanley Cup?
A: Yes.
Q: Tell me about that dream.
A: The first time I saw it firsthand. One of my best friends is Adam Graves. He had a Stanley Cup party the year [the Rangers] won in ’94 at his mother’s and father’s farm in Ontario, and I got to spend a day with it. It was an amazing day, and something you always dream about, having the opportunity to do something like that.
Q: He let you touch the Cup and hold it?
A: I don’t believe I touched it, I think you’re still pretty superstitious then about not touching it, but we were around it … it was a great day.
Q: What’s it like for you right now being four wins away from the Cup?
A: You don’t let yourself go there. You’re in the moment, in the preparation. It’s win Game 1 and go from there.
Q: You mentioned Monday that Mike Richards would run somebody over with his car to win a Cup … and then visit him in the hospital. Would you?
A: I think I would (laughs). I’d visit him in the hospital after though (laughs).
Q: Boyhood idol?
A: Darryl Sittler, who was captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Q: Why him?
A: A guy from small town Ontario, captain of a team that at that time was on every Saturday night. It was a tradition in my house to watch Hockey Night in Canada every Saturday night, and sit around the TV, and he was the guy you saw every Saturday night.
Q: Did you go to watch the Leafs a lot?
A: Couldn’t afford Leaf tickets, never went and saw one Leaf game. At that time, my dad could afford Buffalo Sabre tickets, and I went a handful of times, we drove to Buffalo to watch the Sabres, just because they were a little cheaper and a little easier to get than Leaf tickets.
Q: What kind of a player were you?
A: I was a guy that had to be one of the hardest workers, and one of the most prepared in order to play, just in order to compete as the levels got tougher and tougher.
Q: Was your nickname “Bullet?”
A: It was (laughs). How did you get that?
Q: I did some homework. What was the origin of that?
A: I was a 14-year-old playing Junior C hockey in the town I grew up in. I was about 145 pounds, and couldn’t shoot a puck to break an egg so, it was a nickname made in jest about my lack of power in my shot at that point in my career (laughs).
Q: If a team takes on the personality of its coach, what do you hope the personality of your team is?
A: I would hope we’re hard-working, honest, and that we win or lose with class.
Q: Biggest coaching influences?
A: Pat Quinn, when I played in the Vancouver Canucks system, he was running it … Paul Maurice, who gave me my first job in coaching … and then all the coaches I worked with at Hockey Canada through the years on the international stage — the Brent Sutters with the World Junior teams … you take something from all those guys … Ken Hitchcock last year.
Q: Mark Messier was the 2010 Team Canada GM at the World Championships in Germany. What was it like working with him?
A: It was an incredible experience being around him for a month. Him and Craig MacTavish — Mac T was the coach — you had heard the legend of Mark Messier the leader, but to actually experience it, hear him speak and address the team was … sometimes the legend doesn’t live up to the billing. In this case, it exceeded it.
Q: You have a law degree — what kind of law were you going to practice?
A: I hadn’t decided on a specialty yet, but I had worked and done some criminal, I had done some corporate commercial. I was kind of feeling my way around deciding what area I wanted to specialize in.
Q: Do you think this might be more fun than a career in law?
A: (Laughs) I would say that’s a safe bet.
Q: What have you learned about Marty Brodeur coaching him that you didn’t know about him?
A: I just think how great players like him handle pressure. I think that’s what separates them. A lot of times it’s not the sheer talent, it’s the mental toughness at tough points that makes a great.