LAS VEGAS — The pleasure Paul Maurice felt on the morning of the beginning of the Stanley Cup Final was additionally tinged with unhappiness. The veteran coach knew there have been solely at most seven extra video games left to play.
He had developed a larger appreciation for this second with the Florida Panthers, 21 faraway from his first journey to the ultimate. Bruce Cassidy felt the identical method being again as coach of the Vegas Golden Knights three years after falling one win brief with Boston.
One of them will hoist the Cup for the primary time, and their presence within the ultimate is proof of why NHL groups trying to win put a precedence on skilled coaches. Often derided as “recycled” or “retreads,” coaches like Maurice and Cassidy present tangible worth navigating essential conditions.
“Depending on where your team’s at likely dictates to some extent the decisions that you’re going to make with respect to that position,” stated Vegas basic supervisor Kelly McCrimmon, who fired Peter DeBoer after his crew missed the playoffs final 12 months and turned to Cassidy, who was recent off being dismissed by the Bruins. “We felt for our organization, a successful, experienced coach was the right coach for our team.”
So did the Panthers, who final season gained the Presidents’ Trophy as the perfect crew within the common season and misplaced within the second spherical of the playoffs below interim coach Andrew Brunette – in a head job for the primary time. Maurice in December 2021 stepped away from his third NHL job and twenty fourth season with Winnipeg and provided the sort of regular hand GM Bill Zito was in search of to take Florida to the following degree of contending for a championship.
“You have the experience, it’s invaluable,” Zito stated. “Maybe you’re a little more savvy. And a collective experience that breeds wisdom has significant value.”
PHOTOS: Paul Maurice and Bruce Cassidy teaching in Stanley Cup Final reveals worth of expertise
Maurice, whose crew misplaced Game 1 on Saturday and can look to even the sequence Monday, sees the worth in having the ability to take on this expertise greater than in earlier many years. His calm demeanor helped the Panthers go from down 3-1 within the first spherical to Boston to profitable that sequence and two extra to succeed in this level.
“I think the biggest part of experience is maybe you have a little bit of understanding of the pressures of both rooms,” Maurice stated. “Over time, when you go in and play a team like Boston, what their room’s dealing with, what your room’s dealing with, what’s that room like at 3-1, what’s your room like at 1-3, so that helps.”
It helps to have the fitting match between gamers and a coach. Veteran ahead Eric Staal has believed for a while, “This group needed Paul, and Paul needed this group.”
Staal would know. Maurice was his first coach within the professionals again with Carolina in 2003-04. Maurice was fired after the Hurricanes gained simply eight of their first 30 video games, and substitute Peter Laviolette coached them to the Stanley Cup in 2006.
Maurice is a special coach now. He mirrored Sunday on how when he broke into the NHL within the mid-Nineteen Nineties, all coaches did was growl at gamers, whereas now it’s about connecting with them and figuring out what buttons to push.
“He understands not only the game but players and people and how to articulate what he’s trying to (say),” Staal stated. “He’s got a tremendous skill in that.”
Cassidy possesses an identical ability, which has developed since a failed stint in Washington as a younger, inexperienced coach in 2002-04 and helped the Bruins make the playoffs six years in a row, reaching the ultimate in 2019.They nonetheless fired him after a first-round exit final 12 months.
He was out of a job for per week.
McCrimmon noticed a coach, who like Tampa Bay’s two-time Stanley Cup champion Jon Cooper, had sturdy depth of data from spending an extended interval in a single group. And is sweet at this teaching factor.
“We’re in the winning business,” McCrimmon stated. “He’d done lots of that, so that’s why we brought him in. And I think that he’s met our expectations and more along the way.”
Cassidy in contrast this cease – attending to know numerous new folks and making a giant life adjustment – extra to Washington than Boston. But he’s 58 now and 20 years higher than he was with the Capitals.
“Now I have a resume,” Cassidy stated, “so it’s a little easier to walk into a room and sort of command the group.”
Command is strictly what he did final spherical when the Golden Knights, up 3-0 of their sequence towards Dallas, misplaced two in a row to ship the sequence to a Game 6. Center Chandler Stephenson stated Cassidy held a gathering earlier than that recreation to ship the message, “let’s close this out,” and Vegas performed arguably its finest recreation of the season, not to mention the sequence.
Stephenson in contrast that to his final journey to the ultimate, with the Capitals in 2018 once they had equally seasoned coach Barry Trotz and beat Vegas for the Cup. The looseness Trotz displayed and the significance of it Stephenson now sees in Cassidy.
“I think just knowing what to expect, knowing what it’s like and to react and not really overreact is a big thing,” Stephenson stated. “He’s been through it. He knows.”
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Follow AP Hockey Writer Stephen Whyno on Twitter at https://twitter.com/SWhyno
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