Veteran puck maestro Paul Maurice has prowled the rink boards for more than 26 seasons for five NHL teams (and a Russian one as well), and now he’s finally knocking on the Stanley Cup door. But this time it’s really for real. His Florida Panthers have a commanding 3-0 series lead over the Edmonton Oilers, unlike last year when the cats battled the Las Vegas Golden Knights in the Finals only to wither, 4-1. And this time around, the Oilers don’t happen to have Wayne Gretzky, “The Great One,” or Mark “The Messiah” Messier to bail them out.
Mr. Paul Maurice: It’s High Time to Cuddle with The Cup, Eh?
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The bespectacled Canadian from Ontario has been at it a good while. The long and winding road has taken the head coach from the Hartford Whalers who then became the Carolina Hurricanes to the Toronto Maple Leafs to way out west with the Winnipeg Jets, and finally to the tip of the sunny Florida peninsula where his Panthers like best to roam (especially if there’s a so-called Alligator Alley game or two in sight against their arch rivals, the Tampa Bay Lightning).
Before turning into the astute coach now seen behind the Panthers bench, Maurice even laced up his skates with the Windsor Spitfires of the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) back in 1984. He tried to work his coaching magic with a Russian squad skating for Metallurg Magnitogorsk in the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) in 2012, despite the sub-zero temps, air safety worries, the distance from his dear family, and slight language barrier.
What’s It Like to Play for Paul Maurice?
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What do Paul Maurice’s players say it’s like to backcheck and forecheck for a task master such as him?
“He’s such an amazing coach. He’s the best one I’ve had. He’s gotten me to become a better player than when I first started here. I’ve got nothing but good things to say about him. I’ve got a ton of respect for him, and I think all the players, first and foremost, you really want to win it for yourself and your teammate next to you. But I think a guy like Paul, it means a lot to him, from all of us, seeing what he’s done for us the past two years. We definitely want to get it for him,” Florida’s flying forward Matthew Tkachuk claimed.
“It’s tough to explain how much he’s done for the franchise himself. He’s an amazing leader, he demands the most out of his players. But he’s also willing to do it himself, which makes it all that much better when we do it as well. So, it would definitely be extra special to do it for him, just because of how much he’s done for us,” added Panther forward Ryan Lomberg.
Well, when you’re on the verge of winning it all, the guy in charge usually gets his due credit. But Paul Maurice coaches a cut above, according to center Evan Rodrigues. He signed as a free agent with Florida last July, and calls playing for the wizened coach “a pleasure, (and) a treat.”
“(He’s) really good at reading the room, really good at knowing what we need, when we need it. I think that’s the biggest quality I can take away. He knows when a team needs a joke, and he knows when a team needs a kick in the back end. He’s been incredible for us all year, and yeah, really enjoy playing for him,” Rodrigues ranted.
Most NHL pundits predict that Paul Maurice will be sharing some bubbly with his Panther charges in short order. After all, only four teams in the history of the venerable NHL have ever bounced back from a 3-0 deficit to have their names carved on the Cup.
Nothing Like A Winning Coach with A Sense of Humor
With hard rubber disks whizzing everywhere, foes trying to remove your head, and fisticuffs never far off, it’s good if your coach knows how to be humble, have a laugh, and win a lot at the same time, like Paul Maurice. “I think my enjoyment of the game, and this is new for me, comes from my understanding I’m really not that important here. And I mean that. I’m not. There’s a great line: ‘Don’t be so humble. You’re not that good.’ It’s the players, and when they’re going, they don’t need me. And if they’re not, they kind of need you a little bit, but these guys have figured that out anyway,” the head honcho explained.
Earlier this year, when ESPN’s Emily Kaplan asked Coach Maurice in a snap interview what he was seeing right after New York opened the scoring, he replied, “We´re all right. Nobody’s been arrested yet.”
And when the Rangers scored a last-second goal to pip the Panthers a while back? Did Paul Maurice catch that goal, and what did he think? “Do you know what? I haven’t seen it yet. Because, I don’t know if you’ve been to the maze down here (in Madison Square Garden), but our video guy is three zip codes away from our locker room. I haven’t seen it, I haven’t seen my video guy. I’m not sure he still works for us,” the coach quipped.
When Paul Maurice finally lifts the Stanley Cup, rest assured that zip codes from Ontario to the southernmost tip of the Florida Keys will also erupt.
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