OverDrive - Maroon on the Stanley Cup experience, the successful mentality and the favourites for the cup

Episode Date: December 1, 2025

Former NHL Player and Stanley Cup Champion Patrick Maroon joined OverDrive to discuss the experience winning three Stanley Cups, the mentality of a locker room on a winning team, how teams look to begin the season, the favourites for the Stanley Cup and more.

My name is Maria. Okay, I lied. It's Mary. But I just got back from a European-style holiday on MSC Cruises. And it made me want to be more European. Oh, the restaurante. I mean restaurants. Nightlife and shops in La Galleria.

Sorry, sorry. Even North American stuff like water slides and a sports bar and the views were bellissima. Okay, this is a problem. Book and save. Get drinks and Wi-Fi included. Visit MSCruises.ca, or contact your travel agent. Let's holiday.

Restriction supply ships registered in Panama and Malta. Here's Pat Maroon joining us. How are you guys? Good, how are you guys? We're doing very well. That's four straight years in the cup final. Like if someone in Florida called you right now and said, how do we possibly pull this?

How do we keep our body upright for that? What would you say to them? I mean, geez, it's hard to keep your body maintained. But the biggest thing, all in those cup runs is staying healthy. And, you know, it's all about luck, too, you know, having the guys that your main guys your key guys staying healthy but you know obviously down the fourth cup there cup run pointer was out surelli was out we have some key guys out so eventually your body's going to take a toll when you play over you know 300 games and three years

no kid so pat are you were there ups and downs during those seasons where obviously you go through stretches where maybe the team isn't playing very well, but was there always a belief in that dressing room that you could get back there, or were there times that you guys had to have, like, closed-door meetings and say, hey, let's get our act together type of thing? Yeah, we had closed-doors meetings for sure. I think that's just playing the right way, and there's a reason why we went to three Stanley Cup in a row for, you know, the team we had, obviously the skill set and the guys up front with Kooch Stammer Point and, you know, you can just name a list of guys, Kowlorn, a lot.

I mean, there's key players for us, but I think, you know, you're going to go through some lowest through the season where you've got to get your, you know, get a kick in ass once in a while from the coach or from, you know, the team itself and the leadership group. They're like, hey, listen, like, we have a good team to go back to the Sanctum finals. I was like, what's not getting away from what got us there to last two years. So I think just some of that voice in and understanding, you know, differently, you know, we had Hagel and Paul for the third run.

So bringing those guys in, let them learn the culture and understand how we play the right way and bringing them on board. And so, I mean, just having those meetings are always good. With Patrick Maroon. So your first cup, Pat, was obviously in 1819 with the Blues. and that was when, you know, early January, famously, everyone continues to reference it, St. Louis, like, dead last in the West or maybe even in the league. And then Biddington comes up and Burrubah gets hired and, you know, obviously Craig is up here in Toronto and the least are not off to the greatest start. Can you take us back in the room, like at that point when everything started chugging for you guys, you know, in the second half of the season?

and you talk about belief and culture and all that. Was there anything in particular that you had to tell yourselves that made you believe you could actually get to the finish line because it's one of the great turnarounds in NHL history? Yeah, I mean, I think culture is a huge thing, in my opinion. I think it starts in the locker making sure everyone's feeling good, you're hanging out, and you have that belief system in the room. And I think when Barubi came in, he basically took the standings off the wall.

listen, if you guys don't want to play the right way and play hard, then you guys are just going to keep fighting this for a long time. And I think he sent the message clear, loud and clear for us. Like, listen, we're not the fanciest team. We don't have any big hitters, but we have the type of team that can wear teams down throughout the course of a playoff run and throughout the season. So to me, like, what do you guys want to do with it, right?

And, you know, we did have O'Reilly. We had Schenner. We had Teresanko. we did have some stars, you know. But I think at the end of the day, you know, Petrolandryl. But the end of the day when Bitter came in, you know, not saying Jake Allen didn't do well, he did an amazing job. But when he came in, he kind of helped us, you know, reamper team and kind of, you know,

make that second and third save. And Jake Allen was a huge piece of that, too, you know. But I think with Ruby, he just got the message clear to us. And if you don't want to play the right way, you'll just sit up, sit in the stage. hands and watch. So to me, that was a good message because we had the makeup of the team. We had the heaviness of the team.

It was just putting it all together. We had the off-ice stuff going. We were all close. We had a closest team. And in my opinion, it was just, you know, figuring it out on the ice, and we ended up doing that. We've heard Chief talk about playing the right way because he's been kind of harping on it because

of the least struggles recently. Can you kind of take us behind the curtain until what he actually means by that? Because I'm sure some people listening are like, why is the coach always saying that these guys need to play the right way or else it's going to be painful? Like, what does the right way mean to you? Well, to me, it's like, are your stars willing to play the right way? Are they willing to live to fight another day at your own blue line?

Are they lived to fight another day at, you know, the far blue line in the ozone? Are you willing to, you know, chip hawks into an area where your line-making goal get it? Are you willing to grind teams down and not just hoping teams? open plays in the middle and chasing offense like are you willing to play the right way? I think that's what he means by that like diving deep into that like to me it's

it's a simple way of playing you know and if you look at Cooch in the playoffs I think is dump rate in and the playoffs is probably like 75% you know you know are you are your star players willing to

make an adjustment for your team so it's a trickle down effect if that make sense because if you're third and fourth lines you're just you know making skill plays east west all the way through then they're going to do it right are you willing to sacrifice your shift or three shifts are you willing to sacrifice a game when you're up you know two on with 10 minutes in the game 10 minutes in the third period to dump it in or chip it out right are you willing to make that play you know like or you live you know that's this team management that's this team team

team gamemanship for me and it's the difference between you know the teams that have been winning like look at the Florida for example all they do is hard rim it get it back and they just wear you down you know they're willing to sacrifice just a little bit in the D zone

and ship it out and have those guys skate onto it then you know then hard rim it you know I think that's just the way to play and listen like do they have stars on the team yeah but do they have the McKennons or the Kuturoffs or the Matthews, no, they don't.

But all those guys are buying in and one play the right way. And that's why they've had success the last three years. And obviously Tampa, St. Louis. And we can talk about Colorado, but, you know, they played the right way too. They were willing to sacrifice. So it's like a matter of like, are you willing to buy in? Are you just willing just to put your, go out there, throw your sticks on the ice and say, screw it, I'm all by myself.

With Patrick Maroon, you know, you mentioned Colorado, they've lost one, this year you know everyone's starting to talk about like what this could look like like Boston a few years ago when I think they had 134 points or something crazy like that You know you look at that many Hayes? Yeah it was a lot

Yeah a lot of points like they never lost They won like 65 games Or something 63 games Jesus You know you look at Colorado and how good they are Dallas has been really good You know do you see a clear

Are they like a clear cut cup favorite for you Pat, or is it too early to really even determine that? I mean, it's all too early. Like, I mean, look at the East standings right now. I think the bottom team is like five points out of a playoff spot. So, like, we don't even know. People peak at different times. People, you know, teams peak at the beginning of the year.

Then they kind of take a dip, right? Like with Minnesota, they peek all the way through, I don't know, same end of Christmas. And then they had that big downfall going into the playoffs, you know, So teams peak at different times throughout the year. Fortunately, I know you guys, Toronto's like, they're struggling, but what are they, three points out of a playoff spot, not even, five points. Like, it's not like they're grinding right now. And we can talk about the Thanksgiving.

If no one's in a playoff on Thanksgiving, they're not going to make it. But I think it's changed over time. It's like 75%, you know, don't make it, you know. So, again, but to me, I mean, obviously Colorado is a team. probably to beat right now just the way they're playing, but you never know. I mean, Tampa's on a seven-game win streak right now. Florida's, you know, starting to win again, and they're struggling. So it's like, you know, teams are going to peak at different times.

You know, some teams peak after Christmas, some teams peak before Christmas. So there's a lot of good teams right now. Everyone's good right now, and that's our league has taken the next step. I mean, look at the San Jose's right now and the Chicago's of the world. they were last year. There's no easy game anymore. And you can look back from four or five years ago, yeah, you can

go into, you know, I don't know, I'm trying to think of a team like in Chicago and you know you're going to win. Now, there's no easy game on the schedule anymore. And I think people need to realize that, you know. So to me, I think teams

are going to start peaking at different times of the year. And Colorado, yeah, favorite. I had Vegas. but Vegas you know they're starting to pick it up um but it's a different animal though when you get down to the nitty gritty of it in my opinion um you know March and April you know I think it's to me it's that's when hockey really starts to take off absolutely especially with the Olympics this year like I'm sure there's a lot of focus on that making the team getting there and surviving and then post Olympic break it's just going to be a race Like, it's just going to be crazy.

For sure. So I just, you know, after, obviously after the Olympics, you know, that's when the ice starts getting smaller. It shrinks a little bit. It's harder. It's harder to score goals. You know, teams are, you know, trying to make the playoffs. They're fighting for their lives, you know. Like, that's when the games are starting to get tough.

And everyone's at peak form at that time, too. Well, Pat, it's been great catching. up with you, man. We appreciate you doing this, and we'll catch up again down the road. Thanks so much. Thank you. And all the best of the least. I have good belief in Burubi. He'll get them back. Okay. That's what people want to hear up here. Positive thoughts. That's what we're looking for. Positive vibes. It's okay. It's only December 1st, boys. Okay. We're chugging along towards the playoffs. Appreciate it, Pat. Thank you. See ya. Just Pat Maroon. holiday all in one place

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