How does Paul Maurice get Panthers back on track after loss? ‘I call them names' — and more East final notes

New York Times

5 days ago

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — On the last off day in the Eastern Conference final, we got (largely) to the bottom of what Florida Panthers forward Brad Marchand didn't eat during the second intermission of Game 3. 'Blizzard-gate' has since been fully resolved.
On Tuesday, the morning after the Carolina Hurricanes avoided a second sweep by the Panthers in three seasons with a 3-0 win, we got a glimpse into Paul Maurice's post-loss schedule for his team.
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'We have, I think, a fairly defined structure to how the day was going to go today,' Florida's head coach said. 'The first four or five minutes, I would call them names.'
He was kidding, mind you. Funny guy. Odds are you've heard a bit about that over the past few years.
He continued, adding that you couldn't get away with quite the same insults as in the old days.
'The names aren't nearly as good as they used to be,' he said. 'They're just not. And then we talk about pieces of our game — well, basically, I show them the video that attaches them to the names that I've called them.
'And then we're gonna do a bunch of video on something technical about where we gotta be a little bit better, where we can get better, so they can see it.'
Maurice — again, he was kidding — was answering a question about his team's receptiveness to criticism. He said once a year, he'll show them a clip of 12 or 15 instances of soft play and call them out.
'We know that's not how our team plays,' he said, 'so they respond to that.'
Fair enough. That particular tactic was not on the docket for Tuesday, but you can bet that Florida's play in the third period came up a time or two. The Panthers, down 1-0, went most of the last 20 minutes without mounting a sustained push. The numbers don't quite bear that out — scoring chances at five-on-five were even, for one — but both Maurice and the players who spoke Tuesday were unimpressed with the effort.
'In a game that I didn't like, I didn't think we got dominated,' Maurice said. 'I thought it got lousy in the third when we just started opening up, trying to get that last one. They're throwing pucks in behind us, there's breakaways and odd-man rushes that we don't like at all. We don't think they're necessary even when you do open your game up. They were good. That's the fair assessment of that game last night.'
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The change from Game 3's third period, when Florida turned a 1-1 game into a beatdown, was stark. Carolina coach Rod Brind'Amour has spent a chunk of the series lamenting his team's inability to score first, and on Monday, the script was flipped.
'I think they were trying to make a push, maybe they were getting ahead of the play and cheating a little bit,' Panthers winger Carter Verhaeghe said Tuesday, echoing something Brind'Amour and his players said in the aftermath. 'I think we could take advantage of that a little bit; when we knocked pucks down, we'd have odd-man breaks. And I think in (Game 4) we were obviously chasing. And being behind, teams lock it down.'
In that last bit, Verhaeghe sounded more like Maurice, who'd already moved on.
'Our day is done now. The video's done. The names have been called. Then the hugs went out. That's it,' Maurice said. 'It's over. We're hopping on an airplane.'
Game 5 is Wednesday night in Raleigh, N.C.
Another pivot point in the series has come when the Panthers have the man advantage. They scored twice on power plays in each of the first games. In the past two, they're 0-for-8. Seems like Sam Reinhart, out since a Game 2 hit by Sebastian Aho, is pretty important to the operation.
Reinhart, not coincidentally, led the NHL with 27 power-play goals in 2023-24 and was tied for 10th this past regular season with 13.
On Tuesday, the Panthers were asked what has changed at five-on-four with Reinhart watching from the press box.
'It's just moving the puck quicker, getting to open spots and kind of creating more chaos,' Verhaeghe said. 'It's been kind of choppy a little bit, not moving the puck as quick, not being on the puck with puck recovery and stuff like that.'
Evan Rodrigues used the phrase 'a little stagnant' in describing the unit.
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'We were trying to be too cute. A lot of our goals that we've scored in the series on the power play have just been net-front traffic and putting pucks and bodies there,' he said.
'And I think we tried to make too many plays. I think we were a little bit perimeter-(oriented), making plays around on the outside. And I think we just gotta simplify.'
Reinhart, defenseman Niko Mikkola and fourth-line winger A.J. Greer all skated on Tuesday and are tracking to be game-day decisions, Maurice said.
'It's what we expected. It's what we hoped for,' Maurice said. 'So we'll put them on the ice again (Wedesday). Maybe twice.'
Mikkola and Greer, both injured in Game 3, were replaced in the lineup in Game 4 by Uvis Balinskis and Nico Sturm. Jesper Boqvist took Reinhart's place on a line with Rodrigues and Barkov, but by the end of the game, Marchand had seen some significant time there, too.
For the Hurricanes, Brind'Amour had no updates on defensemen Jalen Chatfield (lower-body injury) or Sean Walker (upper-body). Chatfield last played on May 12 against the Capitals; Walker was injured in Game 2.
'Obviously, it would be great if we could even get one of them back in there,' Brind'Amour said. 'I think we'll know more (Wednesday).'
Their status would seem to directly determine whether we see more of rookies Alexander Nikishin, who's taking Chatfield's place on a pair with Dmitry Orlov and set up Florida's first goal on Monday, and Scott Morrow, who played well on a third pair with Shayne Gostisbehere.
Hurricanes winger Seth Jarvis turned in some Maurice-esque sarcasm when answering a question about 'remembering being young' like rookies Nikishin and Logan Stankoven, who scored off Nikishin's setup.
Jarvis, 23, is in his third NHL season.
'I'm only a year older than these guys, man. I don't know why you think I'm 40,' he said.
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'I mean, yeah, last year it was crazy. I understand what they're going through, but these young guys nowadays have all these crazy personalities and they handle the pressure really well. They've done a great job of (dealing with) what whatever's gone on around them.'