Florida Panthers hold a full team practice at the Baptist Health IcePlex in Fort Lauderdale on Feb. 12. A big topic of discussion when it comes to the success of the Florida Panthers is the team’s style of play. In the year and a half since Florida hired Paul Maurice to be the team’s head coach, he has been patiently implementing some very specific systems. Without showing any disrespect to something that is complicated and complex, the thought process behind what the Panthers are trying to do can be simplified like this: playoff hockey, all the time. Image [https://thehockeynews.com/.image/c_fit,h_600,w_600/MjAwNjE3OTM2NjIzMjQ4NDky/img_6014.jpg] Maurice wants his team to be experts at playing the kind of hockey that comes out once the postseason arrives. There is more hitting, less scoring, more overall effort and emotion. It’s not easy, and it takes the life out of you. Last season’s run to the Stanley Cup Final put Maurice’s systems on display for the hockey world to see, and everyone got a front row seat to just how scary the Panthers can be when firing on all cylinders. We’ve heard Maurice and the Panthers speak about their style of play and how difficult it is to perform game in and game out, so over the past few days, I went around to several players, and Maurice as well, to ask them a simple question. What makes it so difficult? Here’s what they had to say: Evan Rodrigues: “It's hard. We're a team that, when we leave games, we're usually battered and bruised and not feeling our best, but I think everyone in this locker room knows that that's what it takes to win. We've had stretches during the year where we play a softer, more puck friendly game and try to be cute with the puck, and that's just not a recipe for success for our group. If we want to be successful, we have to be hard on teams, finishing our hits, and that's a lot harder of a game to play than to just be free flowing and trading chances with the other team.” Nick Cousins: “I just think we have four lines that can get on the forecheck, finish checks, hard to play against, in your face kind of playoff style hockey that is not really fun to play against. There's no room out there, we play a hard gap game and don't give the other team much off the rush and make them play in their own end. I feel like that's how we've had success the last year and a half that I've been here. It's not easy, but we have all four lines that can play the same way, so it helps.” Carter Verhaeghe: “It's physically demanding, obviously, and I think everyone has to be on the same page and everyone has to be going hard, because if one guy goes hard and the next guy doesn't, then that guy's work is kind of useless, you know what I mean? When the games become more important, it's easier for guys to all be working together, that kind of thing.” Brandon Montour: “I think it's just a mix of everything because we've got a fast team that plays fast, we move the puck quick, use each other as a five-man group and then obviously our forecheck. We have speedy forwards that can get on the forecheck, play their defense pretty hard, and our defensemen like to get up and make some plays in the o-zone, so I think the quicker, the more physical we are, it's tough for any team.” Anton Lundell: “I feel like the way we play, you need to really be into it. It's all about effort, all about compete, you need to grind it out every shift. Some nights you may not feel too good, but you need to find a way to bring 110% on the table. That's what we all crave from each other, we push each other, and the coaches are pushing us, and at the same time we want to be at our best. It takes a lot. We try to do it night after night, and sometimes it might be hard to get to that level, but that's why we're here building and that's what we're working for, so we're ready for the playoffs, and then hard is normal.” Josh Mahura: “Number one, it takes five guys on the ice being on the same page. It's an all-out effort. I think sometimes it gets tough to do every single night, but at the end of the day, that's our job and that's what's expected of us. I think some nights it obviously looks better than others, but the end result and the end goal is always the same for us. It's not looking at the end of the game, but the process that goes through to it and what we're able to do. Its hard work and its five guys being on the same page. It can be tough to do it each and every night, but that's always the plan.” Jonah Gadjovich: “I think just the intensity that we bring. I think that having that intensity every shift, every night, is pretty hard to do in an 82-game season. But we have a big goal at the end of this and we know that that's how we have to play if we want to achieve that.” Paul Maurice: “It's a very aggressive game. So you're not giving ice…there's only really one piece of our game where we have patience. What we're trying to do is recreate the environment of the second and third period as often as we can. We don't want to slow down through the neutral zone, we don't regroup the puck and run a lot of routes in order to break something loose. It's really not that difficult to explain. If you watch a whole bunch of playoff hockey, we're trying to play that game, which is hard, which we would all agree. The playoffs are a very, very intense, very physical game, but I don't think you could play that for 82 (games). Just with travel alone, you don't have the energy level…but we're trying to. We're gonna ask them to do it. So it's very, very difficult to play that way, it's physically taxing to play that way. It's also, at times, not a lot of fun. We don't play an easy game. We can't. Because…we're not that good, in that, we could play the talent-based game, but I don't think anybody is (that good). Whoever we've decided is the most talented team in the league, if they come out and play on their talent, they're gonna lose. There's just so much more to this game than talent, and when you get to the 16 (playoff teams), those are 16 good teams and they all have a band of talent. They're within range of each other. Is there a most talented team? Yeah, there's one that's going to be a little bit better, we can all argue, and we would have to argue because there's no way of proving that talent. You can argue that this is the most talented team, but they're not much more talented than the next team that that they can beat them on talent alone. The deciding factor in all this will be the compete and the will. So then it can't be just emotional, right? Because that's what playoffs are, a lot of it is just emotional, so you have to have developed that compete and the will in the non-emotional times, so it becomes habit.” LATEST STORIES FROM THE HOCKEY NEWS - FLORIDA Sergei Bobrovsky stays hot, named NHL's Second Star of the Week [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/florida-panthers/latest-news/sergei-bobrovsky-stays-hot-named-nhls-second-star-of-the-week] Getting healthier, Aleksander Barkov looking more like his usual, dominant self [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/florida-panthers/features/getting-healthier-aleksander-barkov-looking-more-like-his-usual-dominant-self] Paul Maurice wins 850th NHL game, claiming fifth place on all-time list [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/florida-panthers/latest-news/paul-maurice-wins-850th-nhl-game-claiming-fifth-place-on-all-time-list] Three takeaways: Tkachuk, Bobrovsky spark Panthers 4-0 win over Colorado [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/florida-panthers/features/three-takeaways-tkachuk-bobrovsky-spark-panthers-4-0-win-over-colorado] Panthers pick up resounding win over struggling Avalanche [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/florida-panthers/latest-news/panthers-pick-up-resounding-win-over-struggling-avalanche] Image [https://thehockeynews.com/.image/c_fit,h_600,w_600/MjAxNjQxMjA5NjI4NzMxMDIz/unnamed.jpg]
