Paul Maurice, Panthers Pregame: New Jersey Devils at Florida; Nov. 20, 2025
The message is is actually not about you. When you when you think of Jack and the amount of hard work that goes in by the player tenfold is mom and dad and amateur coaches and the uh the team it takes to get a guy here. So what do you want if you’re a part of his family, a part of his circle? It’s a huge day. You want to see him having fun. I want I want him to enjoy the game. Don’t want him to be nervous for the national anthems. Take it all in. He’s never going to forget this. He will tell the story. What was your first game? This is a milestone in a young man’s life and an incredible accomplishment. I just want to see him find a way to enjoy it. We just talked to Maggie Samskevich and said told him, you know, your your attitude towards it. He said, “No, that was very helpful that when you talked to him, he was like, okay, just go out, have fun.” Yeah. They they I would imagine the pressure they put on themselves is is equal to the size of the milestone, but I don’t want that, right? Like they will look at this as such a huge game. I got to play great tonight. It’s my first game, right? Such a big deal. It’s really not going to affect the outcome of his career, right? But it’s still a huge deal. So, you want to take it all in. Like, if he gets a hat-tick tonight, he’s not getting a 10-year deal tomorrow, right? If he’s minus two, we’re not ending his career. Like nothing’s really going to change. It’s just the first step and it’s an incredibly small step, but it is a huge milestone. I want him to be able to take it in. I want them I want them all of it. The national anthem crowd, speed of it. He won’t have seen this. The exhibition is not like regular season, which is not like playoffs. It has to be experienced. Um, we’re looking forward to it for him and and I I’ve got lots of faith in this young man. He’s an unusual player. He’s he’s he’s got a lot of really strong pro attributes at a young age. He’s very mature. Uh, but he’s inexperienced at the NHL level and that’s what this is all about. Looking back to last game, obviously an unusual game, but big possession overs for you guys. Feel like you guys control play for much of the games. What do you want to see carry over from that game? Yeah, it’ll be it’ll be hard for the analytics to look the same. You catch a team on backto-back nights, the style of defense there, they they have a tendency to uh to be a little bit more passive in the Dzone, which creates more time for the other team. So, it won’t look like this tonight because these guys run fairly close to our systems defensively. They’re going to be hard gapped. You’re not going to have the puck for very long. It’ll be physical probably in both ends of the ice and then just all speed straight through the middle. really high-end skill on their top two line. So, this will be very fast tonight. It will be physical. Both teams should make it hard to get to the net. Um, analytically won’t look like our last game. Paul with he’s gone obviously in and out of the line. He’s been through that last few years. Just what what have you learned about him? How much have you seen him grow in terms of handling when he’s off when he’s not in the line of hand? Yeah, there’s he has to do in the in between. He’s over that curve of what to expect in a game tonight. uh in terms of just the systems of hockey. He he knows what his routes are and and what to expect as he’s not wasn’t a young man when he came in, but again as an inexperienced player, you suffer greater ups and downs in the game and the the effect of that is also um augmented in your mind. You make a mistake, you carry it longer than you should, you do something good and next thing you know you’re hanging around behind the net with the puck, right? So just he’s leveled out the emotions of his game. I think he’s always a strong finisher in in his games. Second and third period are stronger than his first. So he’s leveled that out as well. He’s a better first period player now. Given all the injuries, how would you put into words impact from a leadership standpoint? Uh elemental. We’ve needed it. We have good men and leaders and a core in there. Um, but they’re not the the loudest group, right? We have We need that energy right now, especially at this time of year. And it’s the injuries, but it’s also um a little more of a veteran team, experienced players that have been in the room, played a lot of hockey. It’s November that we’re trying to find that juice, that energy every single night. And he’s been a driver out for us. center.
Florida Panthers coach Paul Maurice speaks before his team plays the New Jersey Devils on Nov. 20, 2025.
The Panthers are coming off a 8-5 win over the Vancouver Canucks in which Florida set a franchise record with 16 players recording at least a point — including goalie Sergei Bobrovsky, who took over ninth place on the NHL’s all-time wins list.
Sam Reinhart had three assists, Seth Jones scored twice; Brad Marchand extended his scoring streak to 11 games.
Defenseman Jeff Petry played in his 1,000th NHL game on Monday and will be honored before tonight’s game.
Jack Devine will make his NHL debut.
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Video Courtesy Florida Panthers / Panther Vision