SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) \u2014 Paul Maurice is not the same person or coach he was when he got his first job in the NHL at 28 years old in the mid-1990s with the Hartford Whalers. He followed that organization to Carolina, went to Toronto, returned to Carolina and spent nearly a decade in Winnipeg.<\/p>\n
The culmination of those three decades came last year when he coached the Florida Panthers to the Stanley Cup<\/a>. Now the 18th coach in NHL history<\/a> to win it back to back after the Panthers defeated Edmonton in six games in the final,<\/a> Maurice is the same guy his players have gotten to know and follow since he arrived in the summer of 2022.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think he\u2019s changed since winning,\u201d playoff leading goal-scorer Sam Bennett<\/a> said. “He\u2019s the same. He can be hard on us. He\u2019s hard on us when he needs to be, and then he\u2019s relaxed with us when he knows that we need to, so I think he really does have a good feel for what our team needs. We all have the utmost respect for him.\u201d<\/p>\n Maurice, now 58, thought that was a nice thing to say. But what has allowed him to earn that respect from within the locker room?<\/p>\n Unsurprisingly, his words.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you walk into the room and you just tell the truth, whether they want to hear it or not but it\u2019s the truth, and over time you could look back and say, \u2018What that person told me was the truth,\u2019 you\u2019ll have respect for that,\u201d Maurice said. “So, I work hard at trying to find the truth every day and then just telling it as simply as I can with the occasional joke slipped in. Most times I\u2019m the only one that thinks it\u2019s funny.\u201d<\/p>\n It’s a different kind of funny that Maurice almost stopped coaching after stepping away from the Jets in 2022.<\/p>\n \u201cI had four of the best fishing days of my life in June,\u201d Maurice said after lifting and kissing the Stanley Cup again. \u201cAnd then on June 4, my phone rings and it\u2019s a number I don\u2019t know so I don\u2019t answer it. Why would I? And then I get this really profane text from Tripp Tracy, I believe, \u2018Answer your phone\u2019 with other words mixed in. And it was Bill Zito.\u201d<\/p>\n Maurice returned the call, took the job and the rest is Florida hockey history.<\/p>\n The Panthers have won 11 of 12 series since Maurice took over. Not once was he close to the Jack Adams Award as coach of the year, but that’s a regular-season trophy, and he has done nothing but win in the playoffs.<\/p>\n \u201cHe really has control of this team,\u201d Bennett said. \u201cThe team\u2019s really just bought into the culture that he\u2019s implemented into this team, and we\u2019re all willing to do whatever it takes and play that hard style that he keeps preaching to us night in and night out and we\u2019ve all just bought into that over the years.\u201d<\/p>\n A.J. Greer, one of several additions who weren’t part of the 2024 run, said Maurice is a unique combination of a motivator who is also analytical and technical.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s kind of just a complete package of being able to motivate us and elevate our games mentally,\u201d Greer said. \u201cHe\u2019s also a guy that can really translate prior games into a meeting and point out what we need to be better at. He sees the game incredibly well.”<\/p>\n Zito credits Maurice and his staff, along with ownership and the lifestyle in South Florida, for making the Panthers an attractive destination for free agents and players with no-trade clauses who can choose where to go.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s a very bright man,\u201d Zito said. \u201cHe\u2019s a teacher, he\u2019s a coach. He\u2019ll push, he\u2019ll pull, he\u2019ll harp. But you don\u2019t want to disappoint him. His character is so high that, working with him, he makes you want to be better because you don\u2019t want to disappoint him.\u201d<\/p>\n There is good reason for that beyond Maurice’s affable personality. From Bennett to Niko Mikkola, Nate Schmidt and many, many others, players who were either adrift in their careers or looking to get on track have thrived playing for him.<\/p>\n \u201cThey give you a blue print of how he wants you to play, and he molds that around your strengths as a player and he doesn\u2019t ask you to do more than what you should be doing,\u201d said Schmidt, who got a glimpse into Maurice playing one season for him in Winnipeg. “It\u2019s not the easiest system just to jump into, but he expects a certain level out of each guy and if you give that to him, there\u2019s no problem. And that\u2019s something that I find it was freeing for me, and once you kind of settle into how he wants you to play and into what kind of role he wants you to be in, it takes a lot of the pressure off.\u201d<\/p>\n The past several months has been about the pressure of defending a title, but Maurice has enjoyed this run more, acknowledging \u201cyou\u2019re allowed to enjoy it a little bit more\u201d with your name already etched in hockey’s hallowed trophy.<\/p>\n The win was Maurice\u2019s 86th in the playoffs, matching Ken Hitchcock \u2014 who coached Dallas to win a Cup in 1999 \u2014 for 13th on the career list.<\/p>\n The game Tuesday night was Maurice’s 2,091st game as a head coach in the NHL, more than anyone except nine-time Stanley Cup-winner Scotty Bowman. He has some time to catch up to that record, but Maurice has not been at a loss for words going for his second as his popularity among players grows.<\/p>\n \u201cI think you guys know, too: He\u2019s got a lot of things to say,” center Anton Lundell said. “But it\u2019s fun to be here, and as a group we like him.\u201d<\/p>\n AP NHL playoffs: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/stanley-cup<\/a> and https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/nhl<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SUNRISE, Fla. 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