SUNRISE, Fla. — Paul Maurice by no means thought-about himself retired. He was good.

Here’s what meaning: When Maurice stepped down as coach of the Winnipeg Jets in December 2021, it wasn’t clear if he would take one other job. Some groups known as. He’d hear. He’d then grasp up the telephone nonetheless satisfied that his time could be higher spent persevering with to fish for walleye on Lake of the Woods, the place he has slightly spot.

And then the Florida Panthers known as.

“Pardon the pun,” Maurice mentioned. “I was hooked.”

This isn't any wild fisherman’s story anymore. The Panthers are within the NHL’s remaining 4 for the primary time in 27 years, set to tackle the Carolina Hurricanes within the Eastern Conference Final beginning Thursday. They’re eight wins away from their first Stanley Cup. So is their coach, somebody with the sixth-most common season wins in NHL historical past however who has but to hoist the grandest silver chalice in all of sports over his head.

“I think he’s got a phenomenal feel for what we have in our locker room and what he needs to do to push our buttons to make us play at our best,” Panthers ahead Eric Staal mentioned. “I wouldn’t be the first guy to say I think he’s a phenomenal coach. He’s our leader and we’re really happy to play for him and play for each other. For sure, he has a great pulse on what we have. And we want to continue to just keep building this thing as the playoffs can move on.”

If any participant can communicate with authority on the trajectory of Maurice’s profession, or his effectiveness, it’s Staal. Maurice was his first coach - satirically, with Carolina in 2003. He’s performed for 9 different coaches, and now's reunited with Maurice with the Panthers, with the Hurricanes ready for them in a matchup to resolve which membership will signify the East within the Stanley Cup Final.

Can Maurice be a yeller and screamer? Oh, completely.

Can he even be a comic? Oh, completely.

Maurice’s viral rant on the bench in late March throughout a Florida recreation at Toronto is without doubt one of the greatest moments of the Panthers’ season. He shredded his workforce, a profane rant the likes of which he not often if ever doles out publicly. “A nice opportunity to share my feelings,” he known as it.

The Panthers received that evening, kick-starting their push to the playoffs and so they haven’t stopped kicking since.

“He’s coached probably over 2,000 games in the NHL,” Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov mentioned, coming shut however barely overshooting Maurice’s whole of 1,871 video games together with playoffs. “He literally knows every situation, how to handle it. He’s the guy we trust, the guy we believe and love playing for. He knows what to do and he tells us the right thing.”

The screaming moments are uncommon. The humorous ones occur with much more regularity. Maurice isn’t a management freak; the locker room belongs to the gamers, with a little bit of steering from the coaches’ workplace when wanted. He famously says he doesn’t even coach Sergei Bobrovsky. (“I know nothing about goaltending,” Maurice says, and he’s not kidding.)

He drew hysterical laughter in a postgame interview when chiding the media for not believing within the Panthers (and with just a few alternative profanity drops in there as properly). He is aware of when to be critical and sarcastic, doesn’t thoughts taking a couple of minutes to inform a narrative, and cringes when anybody tries to present him the credit score for Florida’s success.

“Fit,” Florida normal supervisor Bill Zito mentioned. “This was about fit. He was the right fit.”

Zito knew it earlier than Maurice did. Other groups had known as Maurice to gauge his curiosity, and Maurice all the time had the identical response.

“There was no fit,” Maurice mentioned.

There’s that phrase once more. Everything wound up becoming completely in Florida. Zito known as Maurice late final spring to schedule a extra formal telephone assembly to speak in regards to the Panthers. It was an hour, after which an hour became two, after which Maurice discovered himself flying south to go to Zito’s house. A five-hour assembly adopted on Day 1, a 10-hour assembly adopted on Day 2.

“I guess it was a job interview,” Maurice mentioned.

Zito’s supply was wild: Take over a workforce that simply had one of the best common season within the NHL, solely to sputter within the second spherical of final 12 months’s playoffs, and assist change every thing. Change the strategy, change the enjoying type, and switch a regular-season juggernaut into an actual playoff contender. That was daunting sufficient; then got here a critical roster shakeup within the commerce for Matthew Tkachuk, adopted by a run of accidents that clearly no one noticed coming. Year 1 may have been a catastrophe; Florida was thisssss near not making the playoffs.

Then got here the rant, then the Toronto rally, then a shocking win over a record-setting Boston workforce in Round 1, then ousting Toronto in Round 2. And right here they're, within the convention finals. Starting in Carolina, no much less.

All three of Maurice’s youngsters have been born in Raleigh; he was the final coach of the Hartford Whalers and the primary coach of the Carolina Hurricanes when the franchise relocated there. One of his gamers on his final Carolina workforce was Rod Brind’Amour, who now coaches the Hurricanes. He nonetheless has shut mates within the group and raves about how sensible a coach he thinks Brind’Amour is.

Fishing can await just a few extra weeks. There may be a Cup to catch first.

“I knew this was going to be hard,” Maurice mentioned. “But this is the stuff that makes you excited.”

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