FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Not long after the Florida Panthers won the Stanley Cup this past June, coach Paul Maurice was asked by a reporter about his team’s monumental achievement.
Maurice was understandably emotional after finally capturing the Stanley Cup after almost 30 years of chasing it down.
He spoke of what this meant for his family, friends, and players.
Maurice then gave a heartfelt shoutout to the team he left in 2021.
“If I could have one thing more,” Maurice said on the ice as his team celebrated around him, “it would be for the Winnipeg Jets to win the next Stanley Cup.”
On Saturday, the Jets -- the team Maurice coached for parts of nine seasons before he stepped down Dec. 17, 2021 -- visit the Stanley Cup champion Panthers at Amerant Bank Arena (7 p.m. ET; SCRIPPS, SNW)
It is the first of consecutive games between two of the best teams in the NHL.
The Jets (15-2-0), who host the Panthers in Winnipeg on Tuesday, were 15-1-0 before a 4-1 loss at the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday. They are the first team in NHL history to win 14 of its first 15 games.
Florida (11-5-1) got off to an 11-3-1 start before consecutive home losses to the New Jersey Devils by a combined 10-3 score.
If the Jets are going to fulfill Maurice’s wish to win the Stanley Cup this season, they may have to go through his Panthers to do so.
Maurice, who joined the Panthers on June 22, 2022, is 0-3-1 against the Jets with Florida. The Panthers have been to the Stanley Cup Final in each of his first two seasons with the team.
“We're coming up on three years, so it's good to see people you haven't seen for a while,’’ Maurice said Thursday. “I think the far bigger story is where they are right now. They're on an absolute heater, and they have earned it all. They are a contending team now, and it should make for two great games.’’
Maurice resigned as coach of the Jets 28 games into the 2021-22 season, after going 315-223-62 in 600 games, including a trip to the Western Conference Final in 2018. At the time, he said he felt the team needed “a new voice. They need somebody to help them get to that next place. ... It's the right time for it, and I know that.
"I'm so attached to this group, and I know they need something new."
He was replaced that season by Dave Lowry on an interim basis before Rick Bowness coached the Jets the past two seasons. Bowness retired after last season and was replaced by Scott Arniel, who had been Winnipeg's associate coach the previous two seasons.
Maurice sees Winnipeg as a legitimate championship contender and says he could not be happier for the organization and, especially, the community to which he still has close ties.
Maurice’s daughter Sydney still lives in Winnipeg, and the Maurice family spends its summers not far from the city.
“I left at the right time,’’ Maurice said with a wry grin. “I gave them a chance. There are a lot of really good hockey players there. Good people, too.
“I think I'm happy because it was almost at an inflection point when I left. They did a miraculous job in finding the right kind of people to build that team.
"The bones were there, but they added some really important people. It's not always easy to do that in Winnipeg, because there are players who don't like playing there. But they've done an incredible job finding men who love what they're doing.”
Throughout the offseason, Maurice was congratulated for winning the Stanley Cup and reminded of what he said about the Jets.
He says he meant what he said.
“You know, it came out my mouth because, well, it was just all emotion at that point,’’ Maurice said.
“That's the way I felt. It was just such a wonderful feeling. And the Winnipeg Jets are a special story. It is a different market, a close-knit community, and all the good things we love about our sport are right there.
“So you want that success for them. I hope they have great success and the franchise stays there for a very, very long time.”
