Maurice rediscovers passion for hockey as Panthers coach

TORONTO --Twelve months ago, Paul Maurice no longer had a passion for hockey.

"What was I doing at this time last year? Honest to God, I have to tell you, I had the four best fishing days of my life," he said with a chuckle on Friday.

My, what a difference a year has made for the 56-year-old.

Today, the zeal, the drive, the motivation is back. Hired by the Florida Panthers as coach on June 22, 2022, his team holds a 2-0 lead in the best-of-7 Eastern Conference Second Round against the Toronto Maple Leafs heading into Game 3 at FLA Live Arena in Sunrise, Florida, on Sunday (6:30 p.m. ET; TBS, CBC, SN, TVAS).

"This might be too much of a simplistic answer, but it's true," he told NHL.com. "I'd lost my love of the game. And it was affecting me. And I found it again.

"This has been a challenging year for everything we've went through. But at the same time it's been fun for me."

It has been an emotional journey back, to be sure.

On Dec. 17, 2021, Maurice shockingly announced he was resigning as coach of the Winnipeg Jets. It was his 24th season as an NHL coach and ninth with Winnipeg, and he simply was burned out.

He didn't know if he'd be back in the hockey world again. Frankly, he wasn't sure if he wanted to. The sport at times was the furthest thing from his mind, especially when the walleye were biting.

Then all that changed.

Maurice was driving to Winnipeg from his cottage on Lake of the Woods in northern Ontario in early June when he got a call from Panthers general manager Bill Zito. Florida hired Maurice, even though he hadn't been actively promoting himself for another job.

RELATED: [Complete Maple Leafs vs. Panthers coverage]

There were growing pains at first. But in this moment in time, they seem so very long ago.

The Panthers finished 42-32-8, were the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference and pulled off a stunning first-round, seven-game upset of the Presidents' Trophy-winning Boston Bruins. Now they have the upper hand against the Maple Leafs and are two wins away from reaching the Eastern Conference Final.

Maurice ranks sixth in NHL history with 817 wins and fourth in games coached with 1,767 behind Scotty Bowman (2,141), Barry Trotz (1,812) and Joel Quenneville (1,768). He is 817-712-138 with 99 ties through 25 seasons with the Hartford Whalers/Carolina Hurricanes, Toronto Maple Leafs, Jets and Panthers.

He is 47-54 in 101 Stanley Cup Playoff games, including coaching the Hurricanes to the 2002 Stanley Cup Final, where they lost in five games to the Detroit Red Wings.

In a wide-ranging interview with NHL.com, Maurice discussed why Florida is a good fit for him, the reasons for its postseason success and the impact center Sam Bennett and forward Matthew Tkachuk have had this season.

First off, what led you to leave your life of angling leisure and get back into the game?

"It's funny how life works. It was in very early June. Everything was perfect. I truly wasn't missing anything. I wasn't yearning for anything. I'd had two teams reach out to me from the time I stepped down to the time I'd stepped back. It was easy for me. I didn't see a fit. I wasn't interested. I'm good. And then Panthers GM Bill Zito called. And he said: 'I'm just seeing what your interest is.' And I said, 'I'm interested in the Florida Panthers.'"

Why the Panthers?

"There's a back story there, but really it was just a conversation. There were people I knew in the organization. Bryan McCabe's there (as director of player personnel). I had a great relationship when I coached the Leafs and Bryan was there (as a defenseman in 2006-08). I really enjoyed being around him. He does a great job as does Roberto Luongo (special adviser to the general manager). Tuomo Ruutu (assistant) is on the staff, he played for me in Carolina. I had all these Florida connections I'd almost forgotten about. It was like: 'Oh, that guy's there.' But at the end of the day, Bill Zito has the natural ability to get you interested. Not as a salesman. It's a completely natural thing for him. He has a passion for the game and for life that's contagious."

Do people on the outside really understand how burned out you really were when you stepped down from the Jets job?

"The answer is no. It's also something I'm not going to go into detail about. The most succinctly I can put it is: I needed to be off the bench for me personally."

You spent much of the season changing the system and the style of this team. What can you say about how the players have bought in?

"They have been just wonderful. Truly. And for me, this is the biggest impact players like Tkachuk and Bennett have had for our team. It suits their games. There's buy-in, sure, but I've got a bunch of players here that can play that way, that can play that hard. They do. So we had enough players here that do. And it's just a natural progression of strong teams. That's all."

Explain exactly what the new system, the new style, really is. Is it simply going from a more north-south blueprint to east-west?

"The most simplest way of explaining it is this: We were predominantly a rush team last year. Brilliant at it. Really good at it. For the most part, well, I have to qualify it a little bit. The rush game disappears in the playoffs. I say that to you now except it's pretty evident it still exists. Historically, though, the rush chances go down. So you can still be a pretty good rush team but we needed to develop another piece to our game we just didn't have at the time."

As you mentioned, Tkachuk and Bennett are keys in that. How much does their swagger bring confidence to the rest of the team?

"I would change the word from 'swagger' to 'intensity.' Because I think there's an idea or story out there about those two guys. And you have to put Nick Cousins in there as a line. He's been great for those two guys. They just play with a highly consistent intensity, and they almost don't have to wind themselves up to do it."

How did Tkachuk endear himself to both you and the organization so quickly after being acquired in a trade (on July 22) with the Calgary Flames?

"I was new here too. I'd been down here a week and Matthew had decided to come in. And one of the equipment managers came in and said: 'He took all of us and our families out for dinner.' He comes from a long understanding of how important the support people are. I put coaches in that category too. The guys that wear suits. The guys that wear track suits. The girls that work for our team. Everybody that's here, it's natural to think that he's just a naturally caring person. Which is not what I expected. I've got the Winnipeg-Calgary thing going on there when I was with the Jets and he was with the Flames. I had some interesting words for him back then. What I've discovered here: He's a wonderful, wonderful teammate. He's not just a player, he's a teammate to everybody."

How important is this current postseason run for the health of the franchise, the fanbase, and the direction that both are heading in?

"In our market we're always looking to add fans. But I think the biggest impact … well, look at Carolina and how that building is always sold out. After Jimmy Rutherford ran that team for four or five years, it became a [heck] of a franchise. For our group, what I think it will do is solidify Panthers fans who have come in and been a part of it. Sure, you want to grow the game and reach out to other fans in the market. But the people that have the sweaters, the people that have the season tickets, they get the payoff for that investment. And that keeps them fans for hopefully at least 10 more years, right? It's about people who have been with you for so long, getting a payoff. You've earned it."

Do you think there will be many Maple Leafs fans in the building, even though ticket purchases were limited to U.S. addresses earlier in the week?

"The Maple Leafs will be well-represented. It's a function of the great state of Florida. There are people from all over North America who live here, and a lot of them support the teams they grew up with."

Finally, having coached in Winnipeg and Toronto, you know and understand the pressure that comes in those markets. Given the Maple Leafs might be feeling a bit of heat after two home losses, how imperative is it to get off to a quick start in Game 3 and put the pedal to the metal from the get-go?

"I'm going to answer this a little differently than you posed your question. We just played nine straight games. A game turns on an inch. Inside the post versus outside the post. A completed pass versus a failed one. We have not dominated any of those nine games. That's not a Panthers thing, that's a playoff hockey thing. So the mantra is, pedal to the metal every time, not just in this series. Nothing changes. The puck drops, you go as hard as you can, that's it."