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Hi Barry, we found you when we were channel hopping one night and loved what we saw. It looks like the sport's in a bit of a boom at the moment?

Yes it is, we changed the rules a little bit and that made for more offence to our game. The athletes are bigger and better than they've ever been before, just like in every other sport, and ratings are up big time. All the star players have been involved in the play-offs. They've been fantastic already, with the biggest part to come.

You took the LA Kings to the final when you were coaching in 1993. Tell us about that?

We lost it, so that's hard for me to think about. I played for it and didn't win it. It's an unbelievable honor, that's all you dream of as children is to get your name on the Stanley Cup, and I got that close but didn't.

What, in your opinion, is so special about the Stanley Cup?

Well, the Stanley Cup came from Canada, Lord Stanley of Preston, the Governor General of Canada, when it was a British colony, donated the cup in 1892 and we've been playing for it ever since. It's the oldest trophy in American sport that's played for, probably three times older than the Super Bowl or any of the other championships in the United States, and what makes it special is it's a cup.

Well obviously...

No, you see the Super Bowl is not really a trophy, it's a title, but in hockey you actually play for the Cup, that makes it unique in American sport.

We like the idea that all the winning players get to have the trophy for a day each...

It's really unique, it's not just the players, it's the trainers, the owners, the scouts, everybody in the organisation gets the trophy for one day. There are unbelievable stories. I know it was found at the bottom of Mario Lemieux's swimming pool, you get everything, guys who eat cereal out of it with their children, I've seen pictures of babies laying in the cup, it's been lost, it's been thrown in the river, you've got a tremendous history. Now they have a guard who goes with it everywhere. When it goes to a player's house anywhere in the world the guy goes with it 24 hours a day.

Detroit Red Wings are the holders and are through to the last four, but nobody's retained it since they did in 1998. Why is that?

Well, number one it's very hard physically to win it. To win the Stanley Cup you have to win four rounds of seven, so you could be playing 28 games, and you could be playing them in two months, so you are playing once every two days for two months and it really takes a pounding on you. It goes to the middle of June, and the camps open up on September 1, so you basically have just two and a half months off if you get to the Stanley Cup final. It's hard to get guys willing to pay that price two years in a row. And of course the teams that didn't win all re-tool and get better, and as you're playing your butt off, and all your guys are getting hurt, the others are getting trade-ins and getting better. There's so much parity in the NHL right now that a couple of players here and there change it completely.

How important is end-of-season form to a team's chances - Pittsburgh Penguins and Chicago Blackhawks both finished fourth in the regular seasons but were first into the semi-finals...

It's much more important how you are playing when you enter the play-offs than where you finish. We've already seen the number one seed in the whole thing go out in the first round, San Jose Sharks, and the number two seeds Boston went out to Carolina. It's much more important how you are playing at the end of the season. Both Pittsburgh and Chicago were going great going into it with winning streaks at the end of the season, I think Pittsburgh went something like 17 and 3 the last 20 games. They were on a roll.

Tell us about Sidney Crosby, the Penguins' big star...

He's unbelievable, he just beat Alex Ovechkin in game seven to take his team through. He's 21-years-old, not even in the prime of his life yet and he's the best player in the world. He's the face of the NHL, all the marketing campaigns are built around him, he's just a fabulous, fabulous player.

Penguins have got Evgeni Malkin as well so that's two of the top three players on the points rankings...

Well Malkin is only 22 and he won the scoring race this year in the NHL but he's still second to Sidney. Crosby is the star of the show.

So the big question, who's your fancy to win the trophy?

I've liked Detroit from day one, they won it last year and added Marian Hossa to their team, they know how to win, they are playing great. My hockey bet would put Detroit and Pittsburgh in the finals.

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ESPN America has the most comprehensive coverage of the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs, available every weeknight until the end of the season, including the Finals and highlights show, NHL On The Fly. For details visit: www.espnamerica.com