Pete DeBoer, Joe Pavelski meet again in Western Conference Final

Golden Knights coach Pete DeBoer and assistant Steve Spott received a text message congratulating them on the Game 7 win over the Vancouver Canucks on Friday night. The note also said the three wouldn’t be talking for a while.

The sender was Joe Pavelski, DeBoer’s longtime captain in San Jose and now a key player for the Dallas Stars. Coach and captain reached the Western Conference Final last postseason together, and this season they’re back on different teams.

“He’s got his game face on,” DeBoer said. “There’ll be no communication. He’s there for one thing, and that’s to win, and you respect the hell out of him for that attitude, because when you were coaching him, that’s what you loved about him and that’s what carried a lot of the teams we had through the runs that we went on.”

When DeBoer arrived in San Jose in 2015, one of his first moves was to stick a “C” on Pavelski’s sweater. It turned out to be a good choice.

The two won 32 playoff games in four seasons together, tied for the second-most in the NHL in that span. They reached the 2016 Stanley Cup Final and lost to the St. Louis Blues in the Western Conference Final last season.

Pavelski missed seven games last postseason after receiving a cross-check from Knights center Cody Eakin in Game 7 of the first round. The play resulted in a controversial major penalty that allowed the Sharks to come back from a 3-0, third-period deficit.

Pavelski left for Dallas last offseason, lured away with a three-year, $21 million contract. DeBoer was fired in December and hired by the Knights on Jan. 15.

Being separated hasn’t diminished how much respect the two have for each other. DeBoer heaped praise on Pavelski, tied for second in the NHL with 30 playoff goals in the past five years, during the postseason.

“I ran into the Dallas coaches in the bubble here prior to everybody getting started, and Pav’s name came up and I said, ‘That’s one guy you don’t have to worry about this time of year,’” DeBoer said Aug. 21. “I knew a fresh, healthy Joe would deliver, and he has. He’s been fantastic for them.”

Family time?

The start of the conference finals means players’ immediate family members (spouse or partner and children) can join them in the bubble, according to the NHL’s Phase Four protocols. There’s still work being done to make that a reality.

The NHL is discussing the logistics of getting the families to the secure zone in Edmonton, Alberta, with various Canadian government and health officials, a league spokesperson said. Defenseman Nick Holden, a father of four, said his family is not coming for the Western Conference Final, but he hopes they would be able to travel if the Knights advance to the Stanley Cup Final.

“There’s not really much of an update,” Holden said. “Obviously, the government’s playing a big role in this, trying to keep everyone safe.”

If families arrive, they will be provided with separate hotel rooms and be required to quarantine for a time before they can move in with a player. They will be subject to the same daily COVID-19 testing and temperature screening everyone else in the bubble has to go through.

Contact Ben Gotz at bgotz@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BenSGotz on Twitter.