Paul Maurice: Florida Panthers Back Home, Game 6 of Stanley Cup Final on Tuesday

Paul Maurice: Florida Panthers Back Home, Game 6 of Stanley Cup Final on Tuesday

what stuck out to you from that game particularly on the defensive side of things we skated well i think that was the foundation of um our ability to defend we skated well and we stayed fairly close together on the right side second row uh Matthew Kachchuck was just saying that it was essentially 50/50 for him to play to start the playoffs how have you seen him progress physically through these playoffs and and what just does he mean to this team who it was he played about 12 minutes the first night and and played him because he played a game with a broken collar bone and figured out how to get through the game i think he had our three best chances to score that night against Vegas so he could adapt his game very well and we knew he wasn’t at 100% or close to it actually and then I think the last three games he’s played have been the best of the playoffs by far so he’s back he got to a block that he was probably in the Toronto series late Toronto early Carolina that that he had come to full health but there’s still the mental part about what you can how far do you want to stress that taking hits given hits and things like that and then as this series he’s back to full um full health and and when that happens you know you’ve seen that line then become a very good line on both sides of the puck they were producing great numbers at the start but um uh loose isn’t the right word but they weren’t able to defend as well as they can now back left paul you knew going to training camp you’d be defending a championship what is what have you learned or what’s been different than what you expected about what it’ be like to try to defend it than what you maybe expected first day of training camp i don’t think the playoffs are any different right i think everybody’s really excited the it was a challenge this year trying to understand um you you you come in with a terrible perspective because when we won last year the narrative I’m not talking about your narrative the general narrative is that you won all 16 playoff games and you won 82 regular season games it was just brilliant everything was perfect so uh and then the the emotion that energy level you don’t have that kind of drive of chasing something and you also played a whole bunch of hockey so are they trying to figure out the days maybe a better way to put it I we could probably all of us who work in this game can look at the NHL schedule when it comes out and figure out when your team’s going to be when you’re going to be good all of that and and you know it and then this year happened and we had you know we went to Finland we last exhibition game was in Quebec City it was I was still on the party tour for the first little while just things that we had to deal with ring ceremonies stuff like that so trying to figure out then we would we played three games at the end of November we played Toronto at home after we had lost six to seven games we played Toronto at home then went back to back with Carolina and we won all three of the games and we looked right and that was kind of when we saw right we’re okay here we just have to manage this a little bit but you know this is three years that the reality is and a lot of these guys have played 300 plus games i mean how have they done it physically mentally emotionally i mean we know they’re great players yeah i I felt when we came into the playoffs it was like right back to any of the other year like like we weren’t we had Matthew was the only question mark in terms of health we were healthy and we weren’t like for four weeks before but we got healthy at the right time and there was this great sense of excitement that came back that we didn’t feel all year they’re very very fit group and we’ve got good depth left side first row what kind of comfort level do you have in your lineup no no what comfort level in your lineup oh where you you know you don’t have to you’re not changing anything you’re just I mean that you feel Do you feel extremely comfortable with the guys you’ve got out there every night but yeah but it’s all health-based right like we’re we’re pretty healthy team fortunately at this point and we’ve got good players and having been like there’s a real advantage at times for your injuries that happen during the year because it forces you to play people so there wouldn’t be a substitution that we would make now that would be a change for our group where you’re how is this going to impact it if Bquist would were to come in and play on any one of the lines he’s already done it right so they they’ve through injuries and travel and all the things and you get into stretches where guy the chemistry is off so you fool around with the lines the fact that these guys have been together the core of them for three years there isn’t an adjustment that we would make in our lineup that would change the room we’ll take a few more for coach left side second row how would you describe the emotions going into game four last year your first chance to close it out and I think you guys had a a plane of full of family and friends and what did you learn from that that you can change yeah there there’s a whole bunch of things that we had never before part of it is how do you handle families on an elimination game because it’s a pretty normal thing for a team that’s in the elimination game setting they bring families in but that’s the first time we had ever done that so there’s a whole bunch of stuff that you have to go through the first time and then there’s all these superstitions you don’t want to talk about it do you want to talk about it well things there’s things you have to talk about and then you put in the cart before the horse like all of that stuff kind of got dealt with that last year we went through it for the first time and now um just getting ready for the hockey game like it’s a different set of emotions for us left side second row paul in the in the in the times when you’ve not been able to close out an opponent in a series Carolina Toronto and then obviously the Oilers last year is are there any common themes that you’ve seen in those games um I I don’t think so i think if you don’t have the ability where you’re not here so we figured out a way to end the series that just they’re good teams like I think what it is is well we finished 13th edmonton finished 11th so there’s an idea then that hey you don’t have to finish first right to get here okay but that’s not the I think the most important idea is there’s 16 good teams right so you just you’ve played well and you’ve put yourself in a position to eliminate the other team well it’s not guaranteed because the other team’s pretty darn good so um there’s nothing learned where you’d say “Okay now we’ve figured it out.” Because if you figure that out you’d win next year you’d win 16 straight right you just it doesn’t work like that left side first row hey Paul uh how much has having these quick starts to the games multiple goals in the first period of every game in the series allowed you as a coach to kind of allow your group to dictate the tempo of the game and play Florida brand of hockey i think it’s been the great challenge actually because we’ve we’ve had leads in games and we’ve had them evaporate i mean what’s their They are built to attack and when the pressure comes off a team uh and that pressure you know you get up a couple of goals on the other team their risk profile changes well that’s the most dangerous team in the National Hockey League when the risk profile changes for us the second one would be the Tampa Bay Lightning when they’re down a goal or two they are incredibly hard to handle um and it’s in the style of game that they’re very very good at so there’s just been more time where we’ve we’re playing them at their best like the attacks the goalending I know I know what the numbers are i get all of it but the goal the number of really really good saves that happen in each game i don’t I don’t I I think we have the lead there at their best we’ll take two more questions left side second row paul I know the old cliche is backs against the wall the owners are what’s it like playing best player in the world who’s so desperate to win a Stanley Cup Conor McDavid yeah I I don’t think anybody saves it for the elimination game right like I I think there’s a certain freedom that comes into a game seven concept whether it’s game five six or seven and that freedom allows them to start the game kind of with that attack mindset um and and that will make them very dangerous right from the start last question standing up on the left side paul you’ve been through this three times now and there’s a lot of hidden people in this run and one of them is always the third string goalie who kind of takes a beating the whole playoffs gets guys ready and for a year and a half now it’s been Evan Cormier i’m wondering if you could talk a little bit about the importance of those guys and particularly Evan well the answer to that is in the room at the end of the game so it it happens to be the VTEC gets the game puck uh last year Yona Gajivich didn’t play a game for us he got a game puck so they are all an incredible part of it right they’re in their playing cards there’s no stratification in our room based on how many playoff games that you’ve played these guys it’s just them all the time so when he made you know an incredible save today the guys are banging the boards they’re chirping they’re having a good time i I I expect based on how I watch them move around each other they feel like a really important part of it because they are they’re all the pieces that go to go into it everybody’s got a job and we all have to do just that so I I like the way these men interact with each other because I think it’s it’s really makes them feel a part of it and that then brings out the best of their personality so we get to see them if they’re funny or whatever it is that they do um that we get to see their personalities

Florida Panthers coach Paul Maurice meets the media in Fort Lauderdale after a light practice before Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final on Monday, June 16, 2025, at the IcePlex.

The Panthers hold a 3-2 series lead and are a win away from repeating as Stanley Cup champions.

Game 6 of the Cup Final is Tuesday in Sunrise at 8 (TNT).

On Monday, Five Panthers were announced to their country’s Olympic teams: Sasha Barkov (Finland), Matthew Tkachuk (US), Sam Reinhart (Canada), Uvis Balinskis (Latvia), and Nico Sturm (Germany).

The Panthers Are Back in the Cup Final: https://floridahockeynow.com/florida-panthers-5-carolina-hurricanes-3-game-5-ecf-may-28-2025-back-to-stanley-cup-final/

How Brad Marchand Joined the Florida Panthers: https://floridahockeynow.com/brad-marchand-joins-florida-panthers-how-it-happened-nhl-trade-bruins/

2024 Stanley Cup Champions Honored at the White House: https://floridahockeynow.com/stanley-cup-champion-florida-panthers-honored-at-white-house/

Florida Panthers, Tampa Bay Lightning Bringing Hockey Outdoors – In Florida: https://floridahockeynow.com/nhl-outdoor-hockey-miami-tampa-florida-panthers-lightning/

The Florida Panthers Get Their Rings. They’re Spectacular: https://floridahockeynow.com/florida-panthers-get-stanley-cup-championship-rings-theyre-spectacular/

The Florida Panthers Are Stanley Cup Champions: https://floridahockeynow.com/can-you-believe-it-florida-panthers-are-stanley-cup-champs/

Saturday, the Panthers led 2-0 in the first off goals from Brad Marchand and Sam Bennett.

Marchand got his second in the third, with Sam Reinhart and Eetu Luostarinen closing the scoring for Florida.

Sergei Bobrovsky made 19 saves.

Florida is 10-3 on the road this postseason and 2-1 in Edmonton — so far.

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Video Courtesy Florida Panthers / Panther Vision