Mixed emotions for Maurice Love him or hate him, ex-Jets coach on verge of hoisting Stanley Cup with Panthers By: Mike McIntyre Posted: 5:19 PM CDT Friday, Jun. 14, 2024

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 14/06/2024 (475 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

If Winnipeg Jets fans and former coach Paul Maurice were to post their relationship status on Facebook, the most likely option would be “It’s complicated.”

There are countless people around here who still love everything he did for the club and the community, despite the dubious way his nine-year tenure ended in December 2021. There are others who hold him in contempt, believing he overstayed his welcome and nearly ran a promising roster right off the road.

Depending on which side of that spectrum you might fall, you’re likely either cheering wildly right now or holding your nose at the fact Maurice and his Florida Panthers are one win away from capturing a first-ever Stanley Cup. They now have four cracks at it, starting Saturday night in Edmonton.

One thing is beyond dispute: Maurice is now an incredible 7-0 vs Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl in his playoff career. He clearly possesses the secret sauce when it comes to containing the dynamic duo.

Perhaps much of what he managed and learned while behind the bench with the Jets when they swept the Oilers during an empty-arena, first-round pandemic series in 2021 is now paying dividends on an even bigger stage with the Panthers holding a 3-0 edge.

Maurice has twice been to the Final — with the Panthers last season, and with the Carolina Hurricanes in 2002. Both ended with him watching the opponent parading the silver chalice around the ice. It sure looks like third time is going to be the charm.

Maurice sits near the top of most NHL coaching records. His 1,848 regular-season games are second only to the great Scotty Bowman. His 869 wins are fourth all-time, trailing only Bowman, Joel Quenneville and Barry Trotz. (And, as his vocal critics will readily point out with glee, his 736 losses are No. 1 by a healthy margin).

The one glaring gap on the 57-year-old hockey lifer’s resume has been a championship.

“As you age, you get a different perspective on life and what’s important and valuable,” Maurice said at the beginning of this best-of-seven series. “I need to win one. No, it’s not going to change the section of my life that’s not related to hockey at all. But that’s the truth. That’s how I feel. I’m 30 years into this thing. Wouldn’t mind winning one.”

Maurice’s best qualities, the ones we saw in spades here in Winnipeg, are shining through right now.

He’s a Hall of Fame soundbite, delivering gem after gem while behind the podium. Whether it’s self-deprecating jokes about his potty mouth or stating that his feelings don’t matter “because this isn’t the Oprah Winfrey show,” Maurice is at his best when the cameras and microphones are in his face.

The sport itself is better when Maurice is front and centre. It’s obvious his demeanour has a calming effect on his players, especially when the pressure really ramps up.

Of course, you have to do more than talk a good game to have success at the highest level. Maurice is reminding everyone he can be a heck of a motivator and leader of men, as proven by the way he has his Panthers playing for a second spring in a row.

Consider this: They’ve gone an incredible 15-5 in these playoffs so far against the Oilers, the New York Rangers, the Boston Bruins and the Tampa Bay Lightning. Those four teams went a combined 196-99-33 during the regular season and finished first (Rangers), seventh (Bruins), ninth (Oilers) and 13th (Lightning) in the standings this year.

Florida, which tied Winnipeg for fourth, is just mowing down quality competition.

Sure, it helps to have a goaltender like Sergei Bobrovsky playing out of his mind and a Selke Trophy winner such as Aleksander Barkov making life miserable for McDavid and Draisaitl. If you want to blame a bench boss when things aren’t going well, you have to tip your cap when the opposite occurs.

“He’s such an amazing coach. He’s the best one I’ve had,” forward Matthew Tkachuk told reporters recently.

“He’s gotten me to become a better player than when I first started here. I’ve got nothing but good things to say about him. I’ve got a ton of respect for him, and I think all the players, first and foremost, you really want to win it for yourself and your teammate next to you. But I think a guy like Paul, it means a lot to him, from all of us, seeing what he’s done for us the past two years. We definitely want to get it for him.”

Maurice could never quite get it done in Winnipeg, coming closest in the spring of 2018 when the Jets made it to the Western Conference Final, won the first game in convincing fashion against Vegas, then seemingly ran out of gas and watched the Golden Knights reel off four straight wins, then lose in the final to Washington a couple of weeks later.

That was supposed to be the start of something special around here, with the bar raised to new, exciting heights. Instead, it was the beginning of the end for Maurice’s tenure, a slow and, at times, painful burn that ended with his stunning resignation.

There’s no sense in recycling everything that went wrong, but it was clear he had lost the room. That’s been proven by all the talk that has followed in the last couple seasons about fixing the broken culture that was running wild and contributing to puzzling stretches of truly erratic, unpredictable play.

Maurice deserves to wear his share of that. The buck stopped with him, and his message had obviously grown stale. Of course, we’ve now seen interim coach Dave Lowry and his successor, Rick Bowness, run into many of the same issues, suggesting there’s plenty of blame to go around.

The bottom line is Maurice and the Jets needed to go their separate ways. And they did, in a somewhat messy fashion.

The hope following every break-up is that sides will eventually find themselves in even better situations. Although the jury is still out on that in Winnipeg despite some serious flirting with success this past season. Maurice and his new puck partner are now stealing the show at hockey’s big dance.

No doubt that’s got a lot of folks around here with conflicted feelings right now.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

X: @mikemcintyrewpg