Panthers coach Paul Maurice ready to keep Stanley Cup

There were three television stations to watch in the Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, from Paul Maurice's youth. A French station. WKBD from Detroit, 300 miles south. And CBC, where his family gathered every Saturday night when the kids weren't playing hockey to watch that week's game on “Hockey Night in Canada.”

“My mom made a pot of spaghetti or chili, and we watched hockey,” the Florida Panthers coach said.

His first memory is at the age of 5.

“You knew you were getting old when you could make it to third period,” he said. “That's the way, I mean, my mom would make popcorn with, you know, half a pound of butter, and your glass, half a glass of Coke, that you got was just smeared with butter and there was salt everywhere.

“That's what I remember from when I was growing up and it was Saturday night hockey. Still a little too young to appreciate those early years, but when I was in my mid-teens it was the Edmonton Oilers, they are in their prime.

“(Edmonton stars) Wayne Gretzky and Paul Coffey played for the Sioux Greyhounds, my hometown team, and they sometimes played street hockey on the tennis courts across the street from my house. My father and mother still live there. So that's where it became the dream, right?”

The dream comes true as the Panthers bounce back from their ugly Game 4 in the Stanley Cup Final and win Tuesday night's Game 5 in Sunrise. Edmonton's Connor McDavid, the game's most dynamic talent, remains the great hockey story in the hunt for his first Stanley Cup in this series.

Maurice is a miniseries in pursuit of his first cup. He's a hockey lifer, at age 57, and the fourth and winningest coach of all time (and the losingest coach of all time).

He appeared to hit a career wall when he resigned from the Winnipeg Jets during the 2021-22 season. Something wasn't right. Maybe it was the end?

So Tuesday's Game 5 begins with Maurice fishing for walleye in Canada's Lake of the Woods after that season. His phone rang. He didn't know the number and didn't answer.

“I got a text: 'Pick up your phone,'” he said.

It was Panthers general manager Bill Zito who made the decision and soon came another decision – the hiring of Maurice – that put the franchise on the cusp of its first title. Maurice too. Ultimately, despite all his wins and all his years with mediocre rosters since becoming a wunderkind NHL coach at age 28, he ended up with a ready-made team that only needed his structural organization and dramatic leadership.

“I don't do much behind the bench, really,” Maurice has said in various ways as these playoffs grow longer.

It's more the players' game now, just as it is with most sports that reach this point. Maurice underplays his role, but his toughest performance came when he arrived before last season, deploying his defensive system and getting players to sign up all the way to the last Stanley Cup Final.

He was asked what he would say if he knew or was told during last spring's lopsided loss to Vegas that he would be in charge in this final.

“It would have made my life much worse if I knew that,” he said. 'And you'd think that was crazy, wouldn't you? Because it would have taken every minute of joy, of adversity, of life out of my life. The journey is where the friendships and all the funny stories that aren't funny to anyone else but we think are hilarious happen in the year we didn't know. The art of striving for excellence is without the guarantee of reward.”

This way Maurice can be the philosopher-coach. He has the vocabulary and voice of a Shakespearean actor to be the leader-coach, comedian-coach or demanding-coach, all in rare ways that showcase his personality, from quoting actor Will Ferrell after a loss ( “Everyone's freaking out!”) or about his in-game tirade to players: “I thought they needed some profanity in their lives.”

Maybe they need more after the ugly Game 4 loss. Maybe they just need some tactical reminders. Maurice's role, as mentioned earlier in these play-offs, is now simple: “What do they need from me? What is the tone of our day? So we have a lot of days where it's not funny. If we don't like the way we played, we deal with it head-on… and with respect. But those are immediate days.”

“I think the one thing I'm trying to do, other than reading the team, is making sure everyone understands what an incredible time this is.”

That's another rarity: a coach who invites everyone to appreciate the climb as it happens. Saturday, after a morning practice in Edmonton for Game 4, he said, “I've been selling 'Enjoy Your Day' here for two years and probably before that, and I'm tired of the other days that aren't as good. I'm going to fucking enjoy the morning skate on a day like today… I refuse to not be in a good mood and enjoy it.

The kid with the buttery smudges on his Coke glass who watches hockey with his family has spent three decades of his entire coaching life chasing this Cup: hired, fired, changed cities and sometimes even returned to the city. During these playoffs alone, Maurice faced off against Peter Laviolette, the coach of the New York Rangers, for whom he left a note in the office when Laviolette replaced him in Carolina. When Maurice subsequently replaced Laviolette, Maurice received a note in return.

His career has everything but the one thing a great coach needs. Being considered a great coach is also non-negotiable.

“As you get older, you get a different perspective on life and what is important and valuable,” he said before this Finale started. 'I have to win one. No, it won't change the part of my life that has absolutely nothing to do with hockey.

'But that's the truth. That's how I feel. I've been working on this thing for 30 years. I wouldn't mind winning one.”

He will get another chance on Tuesday evening.