The Paul Maurice Impact: The true influence of Panthers coach

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Tomas Nosek was experiencing each hockey participant’s worst nightmare.

It was extra time in Game 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 the whole lot for us,” Maurice mentioned in his postgame media availability. “And the way we’re not right here [in the Final] with out Tomas. It is a powerful break. So, we’ll simply be sure 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 known 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 have to say, however he mentioned it,” Nosek mentioned. “And that is what makes him, for me, a extremely, actually good coach and a extremely good individual as nicely.”

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 had been group on the cusp of greatness. Three years later, Florida is verging on dynastic territory.

That is not all Maurice’s doing, in fact. 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 prepared to do no matter it takes and play that tough model that he retains preaching to us, evening in and evening out, and we have all simply purchased into that through the years.”

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 by means of a 4-7-2 stretch, that they wanted another person to start out calling the photographs.

“When you’ll enable me some conceitedness, I really feel I am higher positioned than anybody to know that they want a brand new voice,” Maurice mentioned whereas announcing his resignation. “They want any person that may get them to that subsequent place.”

Paradoxically, the identical would shortly be true of the Panthers. Little did Maurice know on the time he was the fitting 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 nearly as good as you could possibly be or ought to be, and that is how I really feel.”

Whereas Maurice was considering his future, the Panthers had been basking of their current. Florida tore up the NHL with a 122-point exhibiting 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 nicely 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 Seaside 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 function — and Maurice was prepared to present his previous love one final likelihood.

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 trade 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 news, however each acquisitions had been integral to redefining the Panthers’ model. Tkachuk exemplified the kind of bodily targeted construction Maurice was sermonizing. Nearly 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 realizing the right way to learn his room.

“He is open, sincere and speaks his thoughts,” ahead Evan Rodrigues mentioned. “I do not assume he holds again by any means. [He’s] very sensible. Is aware of sort of what to say and when to say it, and does an important job of motivating us.”

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Speaking is perhaps certainly one of Maurice’s biggest strengths — except it is about himself. Maurice earned his 1,000th profession win when Florida topped Edmonton 6-1 in Game 3 of the Cup Final on Monday, an accomplishment he declined particularly commenting on. However Maurice was touched to listen to Bennett’s feedback in regards to 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.

“When you stroll into the room and also you simply inform the reality,” Maurice mentioned, “whether or not they wish to hear it or not nevertheless it’s the reality, and over time you could possibly look again and say what that individual informed me was the reality, you will have respect for that, I feel. So I work laborious at looking for the reality on daily basis 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 singular persona in in the present day’s recreation.

“He is certainly one of a form,” Verhaeghe mentioned. “We see his humorousness with [the media] and he sort of has the identical humorousness with us. He retains the whole lot gentle however makes you wish to work; and for the fitting causes, for one another. At any given time, he is aware of what the group wants … it retains us free and targeted 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 — significantly these seeking revitalizing their résumé. Whereas it was — and nonetheless is — thought that Florida’s lack of state earnings 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 form of elixir that, when injected into numerous newcomers, has resulted in a few of their finest 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 approach 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 vital is testomony to that talent 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 lots of totally different coaches that I’ve had sort of mixed into one. He is sort of only a full package deal of with the ability to inspire us and elevate our video games mentally.”

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It is develop into the usual in Florida that coming 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 desires to run the group, however private evolution has taught Maurice to be much less inflexible in his on a regular basis strategy to the sport.

“I’ve spent lots of years on this league grinding and spitting nails each single day,” Maurice mentioned. “It is too laborious to do. You’ve gotten to have the ability to discover locations the place you may chortle a bit of bit and luxuriate in it. As soon as everybody’s going to work their butt off, it is simple to do.”

That interprets into how Maurice places the Panthers by means of their follow paces in the course of the playoffs. Florida did not get on the sheet in any respect after profitable Recreation 3 and held solely an non-compulsory follow the morning earlier than Recreation 4. Maurice is open to adjusting the Panthers schedule as they go, and in tune with what gamers have to be profitable, a significant mixture that enables Maurice to know when it is the fitting 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 never performed 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 definitely get to have time. When you imagine that you’ve got labored as laborious as you may, then there’s nothing left to do.”

THEY SAY WINNING can change a person. Maurice, apparently, will not be certainly one of them. At the least 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 lots 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 constructive for the Panthers. Florida’s street to the Cup Ultimate this yr was rockier than earlier than, oscillating between dominant stretches and spans of adversity that drew questions on their potential to contend for back-to-back championships.

Maurice stored the Panthers even-keeled by means of these highs and lows till Florida had totally blossomed.

“He is the identical man, the identical coach,” defenseman Gustav Forsling mentioned. “Possibly even higher, in all probability. He is actually good. He is nonetheless very a lot taking a look at each recreation and he is studying into the whole lot. And he is giving us the perfect likelihood to win each evening.”

That is perhaps Maurice’s biggest superpower — a capability to instill confidence. Whether or not Florida is up or down in a postseason collection — as they’ve been at instances this spring — the Panthers do not panic. They do not crumble. Stumble, perhaps. 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 assume he is modified since profitable [the Cup]. He is the identical,” Bennett mentioned. “He will be laborious on us. He is laborious 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 really feel for what our group wants. All of us have probably the most respect for him.”