One year since Paul Maurice was hired, the Panthers know they picked the right man for the job
Friday marked exactly one year since the South Florida media was introduced to Paul Maurice.
A day earlier, the Florida Panthers announced the franchise had hired Maurice to be the 18th head coach in team history.
He arrived with as the seventh-most winning head coach in NHL history, with 775 victories under his belt spanning 14 seasons spent with the Hartford Whalers/Carolina Hurricanes franchise, the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Winnipeg Jets.
"To be given this opportunity, it's humbling,” Maurice said at his introductory press conference on July 23, 2022 at FLA Live Arena. “They've got a lot of really strong pieces here.”
It may have taken a little time, but Maurice showed that he was right man for the job, building those pieces into a beautiful hockey-playing machine that came three wins shy of winning the Stanley Cup.
Things weren’t all sunshine and rainbows for Maurice and the Panthers on their way to that incredible playoff run.
The team faced some serious challenges during Mo’s inaugural season behind the Panthers bench, battling through injuries, illnesses and a non-sensible travel schedule, all while learning a brand new system that was quite different than the hockey they’d been playing the past few years.
To the veteran coach’s credit, he never wavered in his demeanor, his positive attitude or his delivery of the message that when things clicked, the team would be far better off.
This was best put into words by Panthers General Manager Bill Zito earlier this week.
“I'm privy to day-to-day things that others aren't,” Zito said. “You would not able have been to tell in our locker room, October 15, November 15. December, January, February, you wouldn't tell a difference in Paul Maurice. He was the same coach, the same guy. Nothing changed. When we were down, okay, we're down. We've got to make up some points in the standings. Okay. No problem. It was that same leadership.”
There was one point in the season in late December when the Panthers sat nine points behind the final playoff spot, with three other teams to climb over.
Maurice remained calm, cool and collected, understanding that his team was in an extremely tough spot and having faith that things would eventually turn for the better.
He was right.
“I use ‘emotional intelligence’ a lot when I talk about Paul,” Zito said. “He does a great job of, it's actually, I'm paraphrasing and stealing from one of our players…he physically just smashed the guys in training camp, but never emotionally or mentally. He built them up. And so, watching that occur on a daily basis through the season was it was a real blessing for me, to be able to learn and be able to see and to be able to continue to have confidence. It never waned, but it's just keeps getting reinforced more and more. And that's really the hard times, right? That's where you need the character. And to get through our third coach in three years, a completely new defensive system, and we're playing one-on-one, man system in our end. It took months for the guys to fit, ‘oh I'm supposed to go there,’ you know, it takes a while.”
Florida grew into an incredibly tight-knit group, from the players and coaches to the medical and training staff, and even the equipment guys. The camaraderie among the Panthers was noticeable, it was infectious and it’s something that will build beyond just this season.
Maurice has played as big a part in that as anyone.
“Change is hard,” Zito said. “And he just maintained that even keel through the whole thing and was the same person.”
The Panthers front office saw it, the players lived it and the team’s fans, they couldn’t have been happier to see the kind of success they’d been hoping for and dreaming about for decades.
“You guys, we all live here, just the buzz about hockey and the Panthers around town, it was actually tons of fun,” Zito said. “From the romantic side of pro sports, where you're a fan, and people are cheering for you, I thought that it brought the community together. It was exciting. We’re very, very fortunate to be a part of it.”