FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Tomas Nosek was experiencing each hockey participant’s worst nightmare.
It was extra time in Sport 1 of the Stanley Cup Ultimate, and the veteran fourth-line ahead for the Florida Panthers was sitting within the field for a delay of recreation penalty after flipping a puck over the glass with 1:42 remaining in further time. He may solely watch helplessly from there as Edmonton’s Leon Draisaitl scored the sport winner on the following energy play.
That was a devastating second for Nosek. The response from coach Paul Maurice was to make sure that the crushing feeling would not linger.
“You simply remind him after the sport of being down 2-0 to Toronto [in the second round] when that [fourth] line got here in and adjusted every thing for us,” Maurice mentioned in his postgame media availability. “And the way we aren’t right here [in the Final] with out Tomas. It is a powerful break. So, we’ll simply make sure that he would not eat alone tonight. He is received a number of individuals sitting at his desk and reminding him how good he is been to us.”
Nosek did not see that sort of empathy coming. The 32-year-old has skated for 5 NHL golf equipment in his profession and referred to as the interplay with Maurice following his gaffe particular in comparison with different dressing rooms.
“He is an incredible individual. He mentioned some issues that he did not must say, however he mentioned it,” Nosek mentioned. “And that is what makes him, for me, a very, actually good coach and a very good individual as effectively.”
Like Nosek, Maurice has journeyed across the league. It is at his sixth cease — behind the Panthers’ bench — the place he has created his most interesting work. It is not simply that he has guided Florida to a 3rd consecutive Cup Ultimate, the place the Panthers are vying for a second straight title after claiming the group’s first one 12 months in the past. Maurice has been on the heart of his group’s cultural motion.
Earlier than Maurice arrived in 2022, the Panthers have been a superb group on the cusp of greatness. Three years later, Florida is verging on dynastic territory.
That is not all Maurice’s doing, after all. However whether or not he takes credit score or not, Maurice has been a linchpin in making the Panthers shine, each as a bunch and people.
“Each single man respects him a lot,” ahead Sam Bennett mentioned. “When he speaks, everybody’s listening, and I feel the group’s actually simply purchased into the tradition that he is carried out into this group. We’re all keen to do no matter it takes and play that tough model that he retains preaching to us, night time in and night time out, and we have all simply purchased into that over time.”
IT WAS JUST PRIOR to Christmas in 2021 when Maurice believed his time was up.
He had been the Winnipeg Jets’ head coach for 9 seasons and will see, with the group limping via a 4-7-2 stretch, that they wanted another person to begin calling the pictures.
“In case you’ll enable me some vanity, I really feel I am higher positioned than anybody to know that they want a brand new voice,” Maurice mentioned whereas saying his resignation. “They want anyone that may get them to that subsequent place.”
Sarcastically, the identical would shortly be true of the Panthers. Little did Maurice know on the time he was the best man for that job. As a result of when Maurice was bowing out in Winnipeg, he cited a lack of ardour for the sport itself and swore that with out recapturing it, “you may’t be pretty much as good as you would be or ought to be, and that is how I really feel.”
Whereas Maurice was considering his future, the Panthers have been basking of their current. Florida tore up the NHL with a 122-point displaying in 2021-22 to earn the franchise’s first Presidents’ Trophy because the league’s prime regular-season group. That accolade did not serve them effectively within the postseason although, the place Florida flamed out in a second-round sweep by the Tampa Bay Lightning.
It was Florida, then, that wanted the brand new voice. After the season, GM Invoice Zito parted with interim head coach Andrew Brunette, who had taken over when Joel Quenneville resigned in October following sexual assault allegations reported by Kyle Seashore in opposition to the Chicago Blackhawks throughout Quenneville’s tenure there.
Regardless of how far Brunette had taken Florida, Zito wished to woo another person for the everlasting position — and Maurice was keen to present his previous love one final probability.
It has been a match made in heaven, in additional methods than one.
Maurice was barely within the fold when Zito rocked the hockey world with a blockbuster commerce in July 2022, transport the Panthers’ prime scorer Jonathan Huberdeau and defenseman MacKenzie Weegar to the Calgary Flames for ahead Matthew Tkachuk.
That haymaker dwarfed the Maurice information, however each acquisitions have been integral to redefining the Panthers’ model. Tkachuk exemplified the kind of bodily centered construction Maurice was sermonizing. Virtually in a single fell swoop, Florida had discovered concord between a celebrity and coach. Simple sufficient then to get everybody else on board too, what with Maurice’s knack for understanding how you can learn his room.
“He is open, sincere and speaks his thoughts,” ahead Evan Rodrigues mentioned. “I do not suppose he holds again by any means. [He’s] very good. Is aware of sort of what to say and when to say it, and does an excellent job of motivating us.”
1:27
Matthew Tkachuk: ‘Once we’re enjoying at our greatest, we’re fairly onerous to beat’
Matthew Tkachuk speaks with Emily Kaplan concerning the Florida Panthers’ pursuit of back-to-back Stanley Cup championships and what it might imply for his or her legacy.
Speaking could be one in all Maurice’s biggest strengths — except it is about himself. Maurice earned his 1,000th profession win when Florida topped Edmonton 6-1 in Sport 3 of the Cup Ultimate on Monday, an accomplishment he declined particularly commenting on. However Maurice was touched to listen to Bennett’s feedback concerning the Panthers’ esteem for his or her coach, calling it “a really type factor” for his prime skater to say about how Maurice has dealt with main the Panthers.
“In case you stroll into the room and also you simply inform the reality,” Maurice mentioned, “whether or not they need to hear it or not but it surely’s the reality, and over time you would look again and say what that individual advised me was the reality, you may have respect for that, I feel. So I work onerous at looking for the reality day by day after which simply telling it as merely as I can with the occasional joke slipped in. Most instances I am the one one which thinks it is humorous.”
Carter Verhaeghe cannot suppress a smile when requested about Maurice and the quirks that make him a novel character in at present’s recreation.
“He is one in all a form,” Verhaeghe mentioned. “We see his humorousness with [the media] and he sort of has the identical humorousness with us. He retains every thing mild however makes you need to work; and for the best causes, for one another. At any given time, he is aware of what the group wants … it retains us unfastened and centered on the identical time.”
Luckily for Maurice it is not his comedic timing that has cemented the Panthers’ standing as a vacation spot spot for gamers — notably these in the hunt for revitalizing their résumé. Whereas it was once — and nonetheless is — thought that Florida’s lack of state revenue tax is what drives NHL free brokers to their doorstep, the pull of a Panthers’ sweater goes past the potential to avoid wasting money. Florida is 141-87-18 underneath Maurice, a perennial playoff powerhouse and wields some type of elixir that, when injected into numerous newcomers, has resulted in a few of their greatest years ever.
Simply ask A.J. Greer.
The veteran signed a two-year take care of Florida this previous July 1 and posted a career-high 17 factors within the common season on his technique to being a key piece of the Panthers’ impactful fourth line throughout this postseason run. And the best way Maurice has made his unit with Nosek really feel necessary is testomony to that ability Maurice has in getting probably the most from his group.
“Each participant that comes into this group elevates their recreation and will get to a sure level the place you are like, ‘Wow. Why wasn’t he like this within the different organizations?’ It interprets from the top coach,” Greer mentioned. “He is loads of totally different coaches that I’ve had sort of mixed into one. He is sort of only a full bundle of with the ability to encourage us and elevate our video games mentally.”
0:36
A.J. Greer helps Panthers regain 2-goal lead
A.J. Greer scores early within the second interval to assist Florida regain a two-goal benefit over the Hurricanes.
It is turn out to be the usual in Florida that getting into the den comes with excessive expectations for hovering outcomes. Nobody epitomizes that greater than Maurice. There is a core perception in his system and the way he needs to run the group, however private evolution has taught Maurice to be much less inflexible in his on a regular basis method to the sport.
“I’ve spent loads of years on this league grinding and spitting nails each single day,” Maurice mentioned. “It is too onerous to do. You will have to have the ability to discover locations the place you may chuckle just a little bit and revel in it. As soon as you already know everybody’s going to work their butt off, it is simple to do.”
That interprets into how Maurice places the Panthers via their follow paces throughout the playoffs. Florida did not get on the sheet in any respect after profitable Sport 3 and held solely an optionally available follow the morning earlier than Sport 4. Maurice is open to adjusting the Panthers schedule as they go, and in tune with what gamers must be profitable, a significant mixture that enables Maurice to know when it is the best time for a skate — and simply how lengthy to maintain it going.
“In my relationship with these gamers, [I ask], when was the final time we added a drill or a skate to follow? I have not achieved it in three years,” he mentioned. “All I do is as quickly as I feel I get them to the brink, I shut follow down. Then you definately get to have a superb time. In case you imagine that you have labored as onerous as you may, then there’s nothing left to do.”
THEY SAY WINNING can change a person. Maurice, apparently, just isn’t one in all them. Not less than to not his group, who’re nonetheless getting the identical ol’ chestnuts from their chief even after hoisting hockey’s holy grail a season in the past.
“He [brings] just about the identical stuff. Nothing actually modified,” Anton Lundell mentioned. “I feel you guys know, too; he is received loads of issues to say, so it is not just one or two issues. He all the time switches it up and rotates his quotes. Nevertheless it’s enjoyable to be right here, and as a bunch we like him.”
If there was a shift in Maurice in any respect it has been a optimistic for the Panthers. Florida’s street to the Cup Ultimate this 12 months was rockier than earlier than, oscillating between dominant stretches and spans of adversity that drew questions on their means to contend for back-to-back championships.
Maurice saved the Panthers even-keeled via these highs and lows till Florida had absolutely blossomed.
“He is the identical man, the identical coach,” defenseman Gustav Forsling mentioned. “Possibly even higher, most likely. He is actually good. He is nonetheless very a lot taking a look at each recreation and he is studying into every thing. And he is giving us the very best probability to win each night time.”
That could be Maurice’s biggest superpower — a capability to instill confidence. Whether or not Florida is up or down in a postseason sequence — as they’ve been at instances this spring — the Panthers do not panic. They do not crumble. Stumble, possibly. However the security internet is there. It comes from Maurice and his philosophies which can be well-received as a result of they work. Florida can belief that if it follows his lead, good issues occur.
And the Panthers may very well be days away from proving that truth. Once more.
“I do not suppose he is modified since profitable [the Cup]. He is the identical,” Bennett mentioned. “He may be onerous on us. He is onerous on us when he must be. After which he is relaxed with us when he is aware of that we’d like [it], so I feel he actually does have a superb really feel for what our group wants. All of us have probably the most respect for him.”
