Maurice talks Panthers facing Golden Knights in Cup Final in Q&A

SUNRISE, Fla. -- Paul Maurice has the utmost respect for the Vegas Golden Knights.

With him having said that, the mandate for the Florida Panthers coach is to try to find a way to defeat them in the 2023 Stanley Cup Final.

"They have a heck of a team," Maurice said. "At the same time, this is a wonderful time for us. This is what you play for."

The Golden Knights reached the Final with a 6-0 victory against the Dallas Stars in Game 6 of the best-of-7 Western Conference Final in Dallas on Monday. Vegas next faces a Florida team that will have had nine days off before Game 1 in Las Vegas on Saturday (8 p.m. ET; TNT, TBS, truTV, SN, CBC, TVAS).

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The Panthers have not played since defeating the Carolina Hurricanes 4-3 in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Final at home Wednesday. Florida, which swept the series, will be making its second appearance in the Final, the first coming in 1996.

In a recent interview with NHL.com, Maurice previewed the series, discussed the impact coaches like he and Bruce Cassidy of the Golden Knights have had in their first season with their respective teams, and addressed how Vegas has been able to be competitive consistently during its first six seasons in the NHL.

First off, this is an intriguing matchup between two experienced coaches in yourself and Bruce Cassidy, with each of you hired last June. Prior to this, you had two stints behind the bench with the Hurricanes along with coaching the Toronto Maple Leafs and Winnipeg Jets. Cassidy comes in with previous runs with the Washington Capitals and Boston Bruins. Why have you both had such an impact here in your first season?

"You could say the same about Pete DeBoer, who is in his first year in Dallas and did a great job. I think sometimes a bit of experience helps you navigate teams that have enough talent and just need to change direction. I know Vegas missed the playoffs last season but you can't ignore the fact they lost about 100 man-games to injury, which can't be dismissed. So having a little of that veteran [coaching] experience helps at times."

You've coached against the Golden Knights in the Stanley Cup Playoffs once before, in the 2018 Western Conference Final when you were with the Jets. The only thing standing between you and your second Stanley Cup Final, the first coming in 2002 when you coached Carolina, was that expansion Vegas team. You won 4-2 in Game 1, then lost the next four. How crushing was it to lose to a first-year team with a berth in the Final at stake?

"I didn't come away from that series as distraught as you might think. I think we had the third-youngest group of forwards in the NHL at the time. Guys like [Nikolaj] Ehlers and [Patrik] Laine, they were just kids. We had just defeated Nashville in a hard seven-game series and it took its cost on us for sure. I felt our goalie (Connor Hellebuyck) was good. … It's just that I felt we still had to learn a lot up front about how hard you had to play. And I knew how good that Vegas team was."

Even though that was an expansion team, one that didn't really have any stars aside from goalie Marc-Andre Fleury?

"I didn't feel like it was a missed opportunity because I didn't look at them as an expansion team. They had a different set of rules for the expansion draft than previous teams had had. They put together a good team, a veteran-ish team. It was almost as if they had a whole host of 'B' players, really solid, really experienced. When Seattle came in (as an NHL expansion team last season), I think they had more young players, which is why Vegas might have been a bit further along in their first year. They won getting there. They didn't fluke. And the team they were in that series, and the team they've had the following five years, again, they haven't been flukes."

In that time, while there still are mainstays from that first season like Reilly Smith, William Karlsson and Jonathan Marchessault, the team you'll be facing has made some significant changes to bring in some top-end talent since then, like defenseman Alex Pietrangelo and forwards Jack Eichel and Mark Stone. How impressed are you at what this organization has accomplished in such a short period of time?

"I think they were in a good position to do that right from the start because all of those players coming in, they didn't have a lot of huge contracts. At least I don't think they did. But for the most part I don't think they had any albatrosses they had to take. So it was a really unique expansion situation that, because of the rules, the League put them in position to put a very good team on the ice right from the start. And they did make some great moves from there, filling some holes. They've also had some good players kind of come in and out of there too. They've moved on quickly from guys to kind of stay at their peak."

How do they compare now to that 2018 edition?

"I think they're better now probably than they were then because of the players you mentioned that they've brought in."

Finally, you are coaching in the Final for the first time since 2002, when you helped the Hurricanes get there before losing to the Detroit Red Wings in five games. No offense to that Carolina team, but if you compare that roster to the one here in Florida, you seem to have more top-end talent now in players like Matthew Tkachuk and Sergei Bobrovsky. What's the biggest difference for you heading back to the Final 21 years later?

"I think the biggest difference right now is just perspective, right? Like, I can truly kind of sit back and allow myself to enjoy this because I know you can enjoy this and work hard and sharpen your game. But at the same time, take the people in. Take the time with the people around you to enjoy it together. The doctors. The trainers. Addy (vice president of communications Adelyn Biedenbach). All the people around. The players have themselves and certainly I enjoy interacting with them. But it's the medical guys and equipment guys, those are the people we were really happy for after Game 4 because a lot of them have been here a long time and haven't got to the Final. So it's just nice. It's a great time. That's how I feel. It's really not about me. I'm just thankful that I get to enjoy it with them."