Panthers head coach Paul Maurice addressed the media after a 2-0 win over the Maple Leafs in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference semifinal playoff series.
On Aleksander Barkov’s status after taking a hit from Max Domi at the final buzzer:
Yeah, we think he will be alright.
On Max Domi’s late hit on Aleksander Barkov:
I think the league looks at those things very closely, especially at that point in the game. That is their job.
"It's not a great hit, but honestly, it's also one you don't apologize for."
The panel weighs in on Max Domi's hit at the end of Game 4. pic.twitter.com/OWC9Y63Z9C
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) May 12, 2025
On Evan Rodrigues’ injury status after leaving the game in the third period following a hit from Oliver Ekman-Larsson:
He is going to need an evaluation tomorrow to understand.
On Gustav Forsling chasing down William Nylander’s breakaway in the second period:
He is such a powerful skater. He has earned a big tank on him. He can handle big minutes, and he also has a pretty impressive burst when he needs it. He’s earned that. He works so hard. Each year, he comes back a more and more fit man. For a guy at the peak level to come in as a more fit man each year is so incredible.
On whether his team can build momentum off of its best performance of the series:
I am not a momentum believer at all. We had a few good shifts early. We didn’t get scored on in the first 35 seconds, which was a nice change for us. We are mindful that it is one game.
I don’t believe in momentum and trends. The puck will drop in the next game, and we will have to fight hard to get back to what was a pretty well-played game by our team.
On Carter Verheaghe breaking through offensively in the past two games:
Through nine games, Carter has been our most consistent forward. Playoff hockey is hockey he understands. It resonates with him. It is played at an incredibly high pace and is very physical. That is where he is at his best.
Everything kind of falls in line for him. All of his reads are right. All of his physicality is right. He plays a very hard, very fast game. He sometimes needs the game to be very hard and very fast for him to excel.
I think he has been our most consistent player through nine games up front.
On his team’s improved defensive performance in Game 4:
I thought our gaps were good. I thought our forwards did some really fine work allowing that to happen. Toronto is such a dynamic team that if you don’t do enough work from the goal line to your red line, you put the defensemen in a very, very difficult position. I thought our forwards allowed the D to play well, and the D did.
On whether Game 4 was an example of his team truly playing to its identity and preventing Toronto from getting anything going offensively:
My seat is different than yours. They are dynamic and dangerous at all points. It is very similar to the feel of Tampa Bay.
I never, ever look at the shot clock. It tells me nothing in the game. I like the way we played, and that would be about the extent of it.
On the Verhaeghe-Bennett-Tkachuk unit since Verhaeghe joined the line on the LW:
Carter was very good with Barkov and Reinhart, for sure. I think Matthew is back to his full game. That was part of it. If you follow the flow chart of line changes, I think I played Matthew 12 minutes in his first game of the Tampa series, and he has just kind of gotten (going).
Now, Bennett and Tkachuk were actually the pair. But they need to be at full tilt. Carter needs a certain pace to play well, and he needs a certain intensity to play well. I think Matthew is back.
Sam Bennett has been very consistent, but in some ways, there isn’t an advantage to having Carter play with Sam and Matthew when Matthew was still trying to find his game. He was off for so very long, and he couldn’t do a lot of training. With Matthew back to his game again now, it allows Carter to go there, and it makes them a strong line for us.
On how Sergei Bobrovsky’s confidence and unflappability trickles down through the team:
I think we just totally take him for granted, which is what happens to all elite goaltenders. I can speak for myself. If he has a game where you don’t think it is Sergei Bobrovsky-like, I spend no time wondering if the next one is going to be like that.
He is his own little leadership committee there. He just goes in and gives us so many consistent looks that look like tonight. I don’t spend any time thinking about goaltending, thank God. I will just screw it up.
On the Panthers’ power play breaking through on its fourth opportunity in the first period:
Our first power play in Game 3, or maybe Game 2, was really, really good, and it didn’t score. That was kind of the message to them there. All of your most skilled players feel the weight of it when it is not going. They handled it right on the bench.
You can tell when they come back to the bench where they are at. It is frustrating for them. I didn’t feel like they got frustrated. Some things didn’t happen, but there was no frustration there.
It gave itself the opportunity to score the goal because it didn’t allow the frustrations of not scoring to come into the game. At that point, by the end of the first, it was running at 25%, which would be fairly close to the power plays we had in the first three games combined. Good on them.
