Panthers head coach Paul Maurice addressed the media after a 6-1 win over the Maple Leafs in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference semifinal playoff series.
On the importance of scoring the first goal in the game:
It felt important because that game was really fast and well executed by both teams up and down the ice early. There was a lot of really good execution in that for both teams.
Getting the first one was important. It flat-lined a little bit for us after that. Probably where the game doesn’t break is Sergei Bobrovsky. He faced two or three breakaways. I think he was the pivot point in the way the game went.
In the first six or seven minutes of the game, both teams were very well prepared and came out jumping. You get a couple of breaks, and Sergei makes a couple of saves, so you get to keep the positive vibe. You get into the second period, and the second goal is a break off a stick. That is kind of how it turned for us.
On how much of the defensive improvement is Sergei Bobrovsky finding a groove in the series and the team cleaning up the defensive play in front of him:
I think Sergei is always available to get into a groove. His prep doesn’t change. He has no idea about his stats.
Recently, and it was true in the latter half of the Tampa series, the guys in front are playing a game that he understands and has history with this year. He has had stretches this year where the shot total wasn’t big for him. He never got warmed up in the game. He never got a bunch of outside-angle shots that let him feel good about his game. It is a breakaway.
He has kind of trained himself with the style of game that we play, other than the breakaways, which is a silly thing to say. He has a fairly consistent expectation of what is going to happen next. I don’t know if it makes saving the puck any easier for him, but his anticipation becomes very good.
On whether tonight was the point where the two teams separated in the series, and the Panthers are now in control to finish the series:
That’s a beauty, Steve (Simmons). I’ve worked here, eh? It was very brief, but I have seen this.
I am absolutely not a believer in momentum. If we took that concept and applied it and felt it was true, you would put yourself in a very, very difficult position if you lost the next game.
We leave the game here, and we are going to have a certain kind of day tomorrow that we have had a bunch of times. It won’t be a happier day or a better day than other days on our travels. It is going to be exactly the same.
We expect the first six minutes of the game tonight, or the first 10 of Games 1, 2, and 3, to look exactly the same. The Toronto Maple Leafs were at least as good as us in those games. That is where it is. I do not believe in momentum.
On Jesper Boqvist recording two points and eight hits in his return to the lineup:
He is kind of a guy who scored big goals for us this year. He ended up with 12, but they weren’t the last goal in a run. Those are the fun stories for our room, when he gets one and Gadjovich gets one. Those guys work hard. They don’t get on the magazines, right? They are not at the front of it, but it is special on the bench when those guys score.
On 17 different players recording a point for the Panthers, and if this is the deepest team he has coached:
I was going to say that culturally, it is the deepest team that we’ve had. But we had some good dudes there two years ago, if you think about the Staal brothers.
We gave up nine goals in Game 5 of the Vegas series. Oh man, we had some guys in that lineup who were so beat up. The culture is good, where the guys who are in and out of the lineup feel a part of it. The coach has nothing to do with that. It is the room, and the guys.
If you are 13, 14, or 15 up front, you don’t feel it in that room. You get the call, and you go in. Evan Rodrigues was playing exceptionally well for us.
You feel a part of it when you come into the room because you have been all the way through. That’s all of the guys in the room.
On whether the Panthers’ championship experience has shone through since the midway point of Game 3, as the series has flipped:
Maybe the most important part of that is that we got beat 8-1 in Game 4 (of the 2024 Stanley Cup Final). How does that happen? We were going to win the Cup; we don’t know that yet, but you are a pretty good team at that point. You are in your second final. And you get beat 8-1. That tells you everything you need to know.
This thing is so much closer. When the buzzer sounds, you write a story, and the final score tells you how the game was played, but it is just not true. All of it is always closer than you think — every play, every shift. That is how you have to come to the rink every night.
