Paul Maurice, Florida Panthers Head Home: Game 3 vs. New York Rangers on Sunday

Paul Maurice, Florida Panthers Head Home: Game 3 vs. New York Rangers on Sunday

be lows what’s the key to kind of weathering that and kind of waiting for your moments in games well first sensing it on the ice um there are times you kind of need to stop a bleeding or cut things off and you just want to play as in that time as simple a game as you possibly can uh just drop your your risk profile right down so nothing through the middle nothing that you can’t control in terms of where the puck is and then be patient in the game not passive just patient right Paul we knew their power play was a strength you your PK was a strength you guys were six or six on the PK so far just the importance of if you guys are taking H is the fact you are have been able to neutralize their power play and the importance of that moving forward yeah I I think it’s the it’s the maybe right now the strength in the first two games the strength of both teams has been their penalty kill that that’s the one piece and we scored last night on our power play but it’s the one piece that’s been strong um they’re haven’t been long power play flurries where where you’re under siege um they had a they had a good one good shot off the flank last game but the penalty kill on both teams been outstanding left side second morning coach um on barov we know what he can do defensively he wins the sky and he’s generally looked at as that 200 foot player but do you think classifying that him as that almost underrates him offensively and and we saw what he did last night and kind of he can have has the ability to take over yeah I I think uh if if you go back to actually the goal we scored in here we batted it out of the air Dove and kicked it over to the other side um but it’s it’s funny because I thought the same thing last year about Patrice berser on and I think he’s got five of them so Parky still got some time um but we rarely talked about the fact he’s over a th000 points I believe and and an incredible offensive player that slot hole he would find it better maybe than anybody and it’s interesting cuz rarely do we do that we almost always kind of I a spotlight the offense of a player and um usually if you’re talking about a really good defensive player that’s just it he’s just he’s a grinder kind of in that old school M but Sasha’s not I mean he’s the very high end of his game may actually be offensively but he wins the sky because he won’t cheat that he won’t he won’t push that he’s never in behind the play he’s is you know he does what’s right every time when he touches the puck or at least tries to side Paul you you’ve said after each game in this playoffs that there’s more offense on the ice that it hasn’t happened yet that it’s been difficult do you get a sense that it’s going to come or is this what we’ve seen in the first two games what we’re going to get for however long the series no I think you’re going to get flurries of it I don’t both teams are pretty good defensive teams right their gaps are good their sticks are good they have and now even if you were just an offensive team it’s the Conference Final so everybody’s blocking shots everybody’s doing all the hard thing so I think you’re going to see uh the game will break loose for five or six minutes because I what I mean by that just even going through last night for both teams there’s passes that are being missed or or or maybe at times even almost too safe a play but and I and I think that that will e and flow a little bit in game and and just to followup I want to ask you you mention the other day that you were talk that in dealing with games like you would you said oh I’m doing mindfulness and and I’m doing this and that and and I’m just curious your your mindset during the playoffs for the last two years has been pretty even keeled and humorous and and whatever else I’m just I’m I’m curious if that’s just your personality or if that’s a learned trait that you’ve had to come up with to deal with this job no well a fair amount of change the way I approached this job in the last two years for sure um also I mean I I come off the ice during the regular season like mad sometimes right and I’ve had a few you know snarky press conferences where I’m being a jerk but that’s just the mood that I was in at the time it’s just true but for the most part like none of you played it’s not your fault if we lose you didn’t really help us if we win so I’m not really mad at any of you when I come in here and if you take a shot at me well okay that’s your job like that’s part of it so I don’t come in here angry I also you know I I have a responsibility to kind of lead certain in in the tone and the mood of of how how we approach our day and we we we do spend a lot of time talking about handling your day so the game is gone and today we have something that we need to get done there’s recovery there’s travel and there’s family time so we want to live in this day and then I’d like to be a bit of an example the the breathing stuff just good cuz I drink too much coffee keeps the heart rate down side uh Paul just uh two questions one follow up on on what Sean was asking you I i’ I talked to a couple guys that had you in Carolina both times and they said that the second time it felt like it was a different version of the same person yeah like were you a different person from when you were the youngest coach in the league and oh yeah I had no idea what I was doing like none right I had two years head coaching experience in the Ontario Hockey League and I wasn’t ready to be an NHL assistant coach and then in November I became the head coach so I was way and over my head I was learning on the Fly the next time you come through you know I did eight years and I think my first tour we won a conference Championship but we were still pretty thin at the time um and then yeah you come back so a American Hockey League yeah you come back at 11 years pro instead of zero years pro so you’re completely different with that and then another big inflection point would be coming here um a completely different perspective I think early on I would say that that that’s all I that’s all I am was as a hockey coach and Carri the wins and losses to every day there was no separation of days if you lost your your days were lousy until the next win right of a better appreciation for just the presence of handling every day now that would be the big change that and I Jimmy once said to me in my first year he said the toughest part for you is just figuring out what door to walk into into each building so I was starting from scratch man you know how do I get into the door first and you get some time on the clock and then you you know what door to walk in yeah that’s so funny I was just telling uh couple of the guys same thing as a young sports writer how to get into building was like the most intimidating thing right and then you and then you got to write something you got to put it out there and then everybody’s going to just know different than me everybody judges I I don’t I read some articles cuz some of them I really enjoy and then the comments are just awesome to me right like I think I get ripped you guys I think get it worse than we do because there’s some people that that just don’t like what you write and it’s it’s they’re angry about it because they’re like fans right so if it’s not the most positive article about their home team you guys suck yeah so you know what we’re all doing the same thing when you walk in your first day you got a lot to learn yeah I completely relate to that on similar question um um you Bill Zeno was I was shooting the breeze with him last night he told me a hilarious story about um when he was telling you the dress code for the team playing that you said to him well I’m going to still wear a suit and he’s like no you got to wear that like when did this conform do you think in the NHL that everybody like even Bill Garen came from the L larella school and he wanted everybody suits ties and even that’s changed and I don’t like it and I don’t like it cuz I can’t pack for it I’m still the only guy that goes out for dinner all dressed out like like the Panther coach right they I like a shirt and tie or a suit and shirt on travel days it’s easy to pack I understand it I did it for whatever it was 25 years and I get here what so in uh yeah I I went to Russia kind of in the early teens there and when I came back I get hired into Winnipeg and guys are wearing jeans on their off day and I’m going what is going on what happened in one year in the National Hockey League went to jeans on their off day so it’s casual I’m beating this one up but it’s true it’s a shift and then bills more casually dressed so I just decided not to fight it

Florida Panthers coach Paul Maurice speaks on the day after his team’s 2-1 overtime loss to the New York Rangers in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference final on Saturday, May 25, 2024 in New York.

The best-of-7 series is tied 1-1; Game 3 is in Sunrise on Sunday at 3 (ABC).

Rangers Tie up Panthers in OT: https://floridahockeynow.com/new-york-rangers-2-florida-panthers-1-ot-game-2-eastern-conference-final/

Lomberg May Have Hit of the Playoffs: https://floridahockeynow.com/panthers-vs-rangers-game-2-lomberg-has-hit-of-playoffs/

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On Friday, New York took a 1-0 lead on a goal from Vincent Trocheck at 4:12 of the first period; Carter Verhaeghe tied it at the end of the period on a power play chance.

Barclay Goodrow won it for the Rangers in OT.

Sergei Bobrovsky made 29 saves in the loss.

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Video Courtesy Florida Panthers