Paul Maurice does not light into his team on the bench very often, but when he does, the Florida Panthers usually kick it into gear.
As was the case on Tuesday night in Raleigh, it just takes a minute for them to fully get going.
Maurice’s rant came during the second period with the Panthers down a pair of goals to the Carolina Hurricanes.
Florida was held to three shots on goal in the first and, by the end of the second, still trailed by two and had all of eight shots against Fredrik Anderson and the Canes.
“It did nothing, it changed nothing,” Maurice said afterward. “It was the third period. The players handled all of that.”
The Panthers certainly did.
Florida scored four goals before the 10 minute mark, completely taking over their game with the Hurricanes and rallying for a 5-2 win.
This came just five days after the Panthers trailed 3-0 to the Hurricanes midway through the third and roared back and won 4-3 in a shootout.
The Panthers went into their three-day Christmas break riding fairly high: Florida has won eight of its past 10 games with its only losses coming on the second half of a back-to-back in Denver to the Avalanche and Saturday at home to the Blues.
“We weren’t happy with our first two periods,” Anton Lundell said. “It was one last period before Christmas, so we left it all out there. We went out, gave it everything we had, and I feel like we got some energy from that.”
Maurice’s tirades have become famous mainly because he does not do them — in public, anyway — all the time.
One of the last ones came in Game 5 of the Boston series in 2024 with the Panthers answering his call almost immediately.
Tuesday, Brad Marchand (who was on the other bench during that second round series in 2024) was intently listening to Maurice as he cajoled his team into getting into the spirit of the game.
Again, it did not kick in until sometime later.
That was the case during perhaps Maurice’s most famous rant which came in 2023 when the Panthers were in Toronto.
The Panthers were on the verge of being knocked out of the playoff race yet showed up flat in Toronto despite getting ripped on local radio by Keith Tkachuk.
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Maurice ripped into his team something fierce that night, but again, they did not answer the call until the third when they tied up the Leafs — and eventually won in overtime.
“I was responsible for the first two [periods] and I didn’t have my team ready to play,’’ Maurice said. “Credit to them for understanding the importance that, even if you’re going to lose the game, you have to play a certain way. And we had not played the way we needed to play.’’
Sometimes, it just works that way.
The Panthers got a fire lit under them — even if it took a few minutes to feel it.
“You can feel and see how we responded after those two periods,” said Niko Mikkola, who got the Panthers scoring going 3:53 into the third.
“I am really happy with how we started in the third. We started hitting, and that was the key.”
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