First Shift 🏒
The two coaches for the Global Series in Tampere, Finland have come a long way.
Stars coach Pete DeBoer and Panthers coach Paul Maurice actually met back in 1984 when DeBoer started his junior career with the Windsor Spitfires, a team where Maurice was already a leader. The two became fast friends and eventual roommates. Maurice helped get DeBoer into coaching and they eventually each stood up for the other at their weddings.
Asked about the relationship, DeBoer said it is close.
“We ended up being roommates, worked together, and he gave me my first coaching job,” DeBoer said. “Our wives became good friends. Lots of connections, good memories. I can’t believe it’s been 40 years.”
Maurice is in his 28th year of NHL coaching. DeBoer spent a decade in Major Junior and has been in the NHL for the past 17 years. Each has had tremendous success. DeBoer has helped the Stars to a Western Conference Final appearance in each of his two seasons in Dallas, and his teams have been a step short of the Stanley Cup Final in five of the past seven seasons overall.
That makes this meeting in Finland special.
“We’re both on the back nine of our careers, we’ve got a long history and it really has come full circle,” DeBoer said.
The two coaches have had their share of battles, but the two games in Finland are special. Dallas and Florida are in different conferences, and this will be the only time the two coaches see each other this season – unless they meet in the Stanley Cup Final.
They had coffee together and have been able to chat, which is rare during the season. But DeBoer said their relationship means that there is an easy bond no matter what circumstances arise.
“We all have friends where you don’t have to see each other for a long time and it all picks up,” he said.
Maurice said the friendship is one that simply works.
“We just became friends easily,” Maurice said. “He’s got a wicked sense of humor, he is an incredibly bright guy. He’s really funny and he laughs hard. So, if you are with him for a while, you walk away and you haven’t laughed that hard in a long time. You are not sure if it’s that funny, but you just join in on the laughter. He’s a good man.”
Which makes this little adventure all the more special.
“We started our career together, almost accidentally,” Maurice said. “We had no idea what we were doing and we ended up in the National [Hockey] League.”
Very successful in the National Hockey League.
