How Paul Maurice found peace being ‘just a piece’ — and how that’s helped the Panthers

At various points during a season, Florida Panthers coach Paul Maurice’s press conferences have the potential to become stuff of legends. The 57-year-old coach, in the midst of his 26th season behind an NHL bench and second with the Panthers, knows when to lighten the mood with either quick-wit sarcasm or deadpanned replies. Sometimes, that’s by being self-deprecating. He boldly and with quick wit assured the media after Florida’s Game 3 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning in the opening round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs that “we may not be the most talented team, but we don’t suck.”

After Florida’s Game 4 loss to the Lightning, he made quips throughout his press conference about how the media work room felt like a sauna and he planned to stay in there for a few extra minutes to lose some weight. And at several points this season, he’s reminded everyone that forward Sam Reinhart is a fantastic player — unless the people listening are trying to sign him this offseason; in that case, “he has a bad attitude.” That’s the Paul Maurice the public gets to see in addition to his work behind the bench on game day.

The person his players and the rest of the organization sees on a daily basis? That’s a little different. “Up here, I ramble like a bumbling idiot,” Maurice said from the lectern on Thursday after practice. “In there, I kind of listen a little bit more.” For someone who has been in the business as long as Maurice — his 1,848 regular-season games coached are second in NHL history only to the legendary Scotty Bowman — he has learned to adapt his philosophy and coaching habits over his career.

Since joining the Panthers ahead of the 2022-23 season, Maurice said he has an understanding that he is one part in the grand scheme of the organization’s master plan. He doesn’t need to have his hands in everything. “I’m less stubborn than I used to be,” Maurice said, “for sure. … I don’t know. I just got to a place where I know that I’m a piece and I’ve got a job to do. I know what that job is and I work hard and I enjoy it.” And he’s been successful at it, too. In his first season, he took the Panthers from a run-and-gun team that excels in the regular season but has deficiencies in the postseason to a defense-oriented team that can thrive in any situation. The Panthers went through their lumps early in his first season but found a way to sneak into the playoffs and run all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals.