Paul Maurice, head coach of the Florida Panthers
Paul Maurice, head coach of the Florida Panthers

Ahead of Game 2, Panthers head coach Paul Maurice discussed the likely frosty reception for Sam Bennett from the Toronto crowd, the difficulty of defending William Nylander, Aaron Ekblad’s return, and Matthew Samoskevich entering Florida’s lineup.

Morning Skate Lines – Game 2

It remains to be seen if the Leafs will give Sam Bennett any extra attention, but the fans will probably be on him.

Maurice: Are they bringing their skates?

This is not unfamiliar territory for Bennett to be in the spotlight. What do you make of how he responds in this kind of situation?

Maurice: He is our leading scoring forward. He will play an honest, hard game the way he always does. I don’t think he hasn’t in the past. There haven’t, believe it or not, been that many situations. He will be fine.

And I appreciate the concern. I felt that. I think he is going to be okay.

What is the biggest challenge involved with defending William Nylander, who seems to be on a bit of a roll right now?

Maurice: His ability to control the puck, change angles, and change directions is elite. There may not be anybody better than he is. What he can do with the puck is challenge, but really, it’s the players away from the puck. He can beat a guy 1v1 and take it to the net, for sure, but it is the ice created by his movement that allows the other players to get open with good hands, and they can get to the net.

We would view him in whatever that percentage is; the top five percent of guys in the league who all have something unique in their offensive game. It’s different but similar in effect to Kucherov in how he can get a puck off the wall to somebody open a whole bunch of different ways. It is the same idea.

They are going to get theirs. He is going to generate. He just is. You want to make sure you are not putting him in a position where you are feeding him.

The Panthers are 18-10 overall on the road since the start of the 2023 playoffs. What is it about the makeup of the team that makes it comfortable on the road?

Maurice: We are not a team that is a heavy match team. It has a lot to do with it. We don’t have to come out of our rhythm of the game when we go on the road. I don’t pull lines off the ice. We have a general thing we want with our forward matchup and a more specific D match. That would be true of most teams, I think.

There is not a big change for us in what we do. We haven’t, in the past, relied on feeling good to win. We don’t have to snap it around. We will talk about our execution twice a year. We don’t need it to be pretty or beautiful on the road. Our style suits that kind of game.

In which areas are you looking for improvement in Game 2?

Maurice: We felt we were behind it a little bit in how we moved our bodies and the puck. We were behind in our game. That would be similar to Game 3 in the Tampa series. That was what we felt we needed to be better.

With Aaron Ekblad returning to the lineup, what does he bring in terms of breaking the puck out against the Toronto forecheck?

Maurice: He came into the league as a puck-moving, point-generating defenseman. We asked him to modify his game a little bit. He and Gustav really developed a strong chemistry playing against the other team’s best.

His Game 4 (vs. Tampa) was outstanding, just with the gap closures. He did move the puck, and he scored a goal that got called back due to an offside, but it was really good. He scored a huge goal at the end of the game for us to tie it.

He can do a bit of both.

This has been a tough season for Ekblad. How has he handled the layoffs?

Maurice: First of all, the quality of his play this year was really high. We thought it was really good. It had followed the path over the last three years with his growth in the role.  His game was really good.

You are out, but you are not injured. That hardly ever happens. And he is alone; he is isolated, and he can’t really talk to anybody.

If there is a positive — and we’ll take it — he is in really good shape right now. That man is as fit as he has ever been in his life. Now, we get him back, and we would like to keep him for more than a couple of games.

We will take it that we have survived without him. We missed him. He is a big part of what we do.

You are looking toward the end of the year to build the group as a feel. We got Seth (Jones) in, and Aaron is still on our team. We had a block of four games with three shutouts and a 2-1 win against Tampa at home. Everyone is pretty excited about the way we look, right? And then we can’t find it. He gets the ankle bracelet put on him, and we don’t get him back.

We are just kind of getting to learn what we look like with everybody in.

How would you assess Matthew Tkachuk’s post-season so far? How close is he to his best hockey?

Maurice: I would say his production is there. He is putting the numbers up with the power play. He has been really good with that. His overall game is continuing. The further away he gets, the more reps he gets, the stronger he gets, and the better he gets. He is building in his game.

I only played him about 12 minutes on the first night. He is very, very good at adapting his game to survive. He played a game with a broken clavicle two days after he broke it. I think he had our three best scoring chances. He had to completely rework how he played the game. There is a balance there.

He is strong. He is right. And he is getting better.

You have three guys in Tkachuk, Bennett, and Marchand who are viewed as public enemy number one. They almost seem like they feed off the animosity from the crowd.

Maurice: I don’t think they feed off of it. I just don’t think it bothers them at all. It doesn’t affect them. If you just turn off your TV, it wouldn’t. If you stay off social media and don’t watch the highlights, I don’t think it would affect you.

When coming to the rink, I don’t think it shapes them one bit, throws them off, or wires them up. We are talking about three elite players. If they were waiting for that hatred to drive their game, it just wouldn’t happen very much.

This doesn’t really happen very many other places. I don’t think it affects them.

With Mackie Samoskevich re-entering the lineup, what are you hoping he learned from his first few experiences in the playoffs?

Maurice: We put him in a challenging situation. I think Tampa has the most dynamic rush game in the league in terms of stretching, bringing pucks back, and speed on the offside. The reads are very advanced for forwards. It takes some experience. And then throw on top of that, it was his first playoff game. I don’t have the ability to articulate to a player the difference between a regular-season game and a playoff game.

I think he learned a lot. We were mindful. Anton Lundell was a healthy scratch three years ago in his first playoffs as well. It is just an awful lot.

He gets to watch and then come back in. He needs to be the same player he was for us in the regular season. He is really quick and very dynamic. He has a really good release. He’ll be excited.

In some ways, the pressure is off him. He gets to come back in and just play.

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