Stars Forward Matt Duchene Describes How Messy Exit From Nashville Fuelled Breakout Start This Season

Dallas Stars forward Matt Duchene was on the Spittin' Chiclets Podcast Tuesday, where he sat down for a lengthy hour long interview and went over several topics like the current state of the Stars, his religious background and many others.

The most revealing topic of discussion was his departure from the Nashville Predators following the 2022-23 season. The interview was a rare one as Duchene goes into detail about his emotions during everything that transpired and how it effected him during last season.

Duchene explained the day he found out about the news of his buyout and explained the emotions in the moment as if he experienced a family member passing away.

"I was just devastated, I was committed I would've never left Nashville," he explained "I was blindsided cause then 30 minutes later I'm on waivers for buyout and I was just wondering what is happening."

He expanded and explained how much he pleaded to stay saying "It killed me" and that he called and "begged them not to do it" while he cried.

"I haven't eaten in two days, I'm an absolute mess, I haven't cried more than I have in my life, I'm not a crier I can be emotional but I'm not a crier," he said "I cried my eyes out. I actually got a call from another team and the owner called me and I literally started crying on the phone with him."

Duchene goes on to explain how the struggles snowballed over into last season and following a foot injury, he recalled thinking that he was at his breaking point and started to see sport psychologists for his mental health.

The people he'd met with described what he was feeling as all the lasting emotions finally emerging in one moment and that it was overwhelming for Duchene to process everything during the season and he noted that it took until the offseason for him to be able to fully process everything.

His emotional state was holding back his performance in the playoffs as he noted feeling like he was unable to get into a groove and that he couldn't manage the stress of feeling the need to compete at his best when the team needed him.

"I've never grieved anything in my life and grief in the psychology world apparently is not linear and it comes and goes at times," he said "I felt like I was doing a lot of really good things, making plays but I couldn't get that last 20 per cent that I normally have."

He finally managed to break through the sober state after fully breaking down in tears to assistant coach Misha Donskov before game six of the second round versus the Colorado Avalanche.

The chat with Donskov, who had experienced grief himself after losing his father, helped Duchene finally bounce back as he scored the game winning goal in double overtime to send the Stars to the Western Conference Finals.

"I played the way I felt like I could play and it was a wild ride and it's crazy how that moment goes back to June 30th the year before, almost a full year."

This season, we are finally getting to see what a physically and mentally healthy Duchene looks like and it's resulted in 13 goals and 17 assists for 30 points in as many games this season.

Duchene noted the entire experience he can now use as motivation and now he looks to this season as part two rather than a new season.

"Being able to help the team win and not having my best was kind of an empowering experience and it motivated me that the next time I get that chance I'm not going to be going through what I just went through, I'm gonna be better and that was my motivation every day when I stepped into the gym," he said.