Prior to the Florida Panthers’ Game 7 of their second-round Stanley Cup playoffs series against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Sunday, coach Paul Maurice took a moment to send his “deepest sympathies and condolences” to Winnipeg Jets forward Mark Scheifele, who he coached for nine seasons, after Scheifele’s father Brad died unexpectedly on Friday.
Scheifele played for the Jets on Saturday and scored a goal in the team’s eventual 2-1 overtime loss to the Dallas Stars in Game 6 of their Stanley Cup playoffs second-round series to end their season.
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“The Scheifele family is very close,” Maurice said. “And I think just as an observation from last night, the display of courage and focus for Mark to do what he did was a greater display of the power of family — not just of the Scheifele family but the Winnipeg Jet family for him to play with his brothers, and that extends out to [Jets coach] Scott Arniel and [general manager] Kevin Cheveldayoff and [owner] Mark Chipman and all the Winnipeg Jets fans. They built a culture of family there that allowed that inspiration to happen. So again, a thank you to them for that display, and also our condolences to them.”
The emotions were high in Dallas on Saturday. The Jets found out the news about Scheifele’s father when they got to American Airlines Center on Saturday morning for their pregame morning skate. Arniel at that point went back to the team hotel to talk with Scheifele. A few hours later, Arniel told reporters Scheifele would play in Game 6 because, “Mark really wants to play for [his dad].”
When the game ended and Winnipeg’s season ended, his teammates took the moment to surround Scheifele, who eventually had an extended embrace with goaltender Connor Hellebuyck as the teams took to center ice for the traditional post-series handshake line.
“It’s obviously an extremely tragic situation, and our deepest condolences to Mark and his family,” Panthers forward Brad Marchand said. “The worst possible thing you can go through is losing a loved one. What he did last night was was incredible. There’s very few people that could have found the strength to play through something like that and to go out and to play the way that he did and step up for his team, his family must be extremely proud of him and his dad would be. So much respect and and love for him and his family. What he did was incredible last night. Those moments are much bigger than the game. You could see after the game everyone was sharing their love for him and his family. Very, very tragic and extremely sad situation, but incredible moment for him.”