On a practice day on Tuesday, Panthers head coach Paul Maurice reluctantly discussed the Sam Bennett hit on Anthony Stolarz.
Do you anticipate that the Maple Leafs will try to use the Anthony Stolarz injury incident as motivation?
Maurice: I didn’t think they appeared under-motivated in the game. How motivated do we want to go here? I think both teams will be equally motivated.
What have you learned about Sam Bennett in your time coaching him in Florida, and what makes him so effective in the playoffs?
Maurice: He is effective all year long. He brings an awful lot of speed in the middle of the ice. That is really the connection between him and Matthew Tkachuk. He brings that speed. Matthew has the hands to find him in holes.
In terms of giving our team different looks, you have the Barkov look, and then Lundell is coming into his own. You have three different lines that play a different style of game based on speed, more than anything else.
Bennett talks about playing on the edge without crossing it. What does the line look like for you when he is playing on the edge?
Maurice: He plays hard.
There was a hit from two-and-a-half years ago that you guys have shown four thousand times. There was a parking ticket seven years ago that I think made the video.
He was on the power play. He had the puck. He went to the net. He has the puck, and he is going to the net.
I understand. Call the fire department, put your hair out, and let’s move on, please.
The edge? He plays hard. He has the puck a lot. If he doesn’t have the puck, we have a system that says you have to hit the guy with the puck. There is your line.
I knew you weren’t letting this go.
There are certain players on teams who you love when they’re on your team but hate them when they’re not, such as a Dale Hunter. Where does Bennett fit into that group of guys?
Maurice: I don’t think even close. We are six games into the playoffs. He took a puck outside the crease, and now he is a villain.
I expected that one when I got up this morning, but it still surprises me. There were far more egregious collisions in that game last night, but we won’t be talking about those today, I would imagine.
Having coached two years in Toronto, does it surprise you?
Maurice: No, it doesn’t, and I am not actually upset about it. I am really not. You know what you are getting this morning. You know where this is going.
Honest to God, I have seen every hit Sam Bennett has thrown since he was 12 years old on TV this morning. I get it. Go ahead and run with it. We’re good. The puck is going to drop.
Are these kinds of discussions good for hockey? It is a fun thing to talk about to get people interested in the game?
Maurice: None of the things we are discussing here today with this group is good for hockey. It just hasn’t reached a high enough level. Most of my answers haven’t been great. What was great for hockey was Colorado-Dallas and Winnipeg-St. Louis. That was great.
We didn’t play very well, so I am not in a great mood. My job didn’t get done last night, so that is important.
Most of this is tempered by the fact that [Stolarz] is one of our guys. We love that guy. If I had thought Sam crossed the line or an edge, I would probably be more careful with my words a little bit. I just didn’t think it happened, but I was pretty sure it was going to be like this this morning.
Aaron Ekblad will return to the lineup again in Game 2. What are you hoping he will bring to round out your blue line?
Maurice: In this last game — Game 4 — was possibly the best game I have seen him play for us. He was just closing gaps. He was up the ice in the rush. He puts the rest of our defense core into a different structure of matches.
He has been really good for us. We missed him for quite a while. It is just a little bit of structure for our team.
What are you looking to improve about the performance after the Game 1 loss?
Maurice: There will be a list of things, but at the end of the day, you have a style of play and an identity. We didn’t give ourselves much of a chance to get to that early in the game. We got a little better as the game went on, but the score changes the way both teams play it. Sometimes, both teams’ risk profile changes. You don’t want to put too much into a third period when you are chasing the game by three.
