Ahead of Game 6, Panthers head coach Paul Maurice discussed his team’s close-out opportunity against a desperate Leafs team, his team’s defensive play, the Leafs’ opportunities off the rush in the series, and the culture inside the Panthers’ room.
Morning Skate – Game 6
Optional skate for the Panthers. Would expect the same Game 5 lines.
— George Richards (@GeorgeRichards) May 16, 2025
Toronto will be giving your team everything that they have. How do you ensure that your team navigates it and sticks to its style of game?
Maurice: Maybe the environment changes, but every team is going to do that exact idea. You are coming out, and it’s the playoffs. Flat out, you’re getting the other team’s very best.
We would possibly have a desire advantage in that we are right there for a prize. They would have a desperation advantage. It is the team that controls those things the best that has the best chance to win.
When you want it that bad, you start making plays to get it. You want to win the game every time you touch the puck. When you have desperation, it is the same idea: You want to make something happen every time. You want to control those emotions a little bit, keep the energy, and make no secret plays.
Now that you’ve had all six defensemen together for a stretch of time, what are your thoughts on the six-man unit and how they’re performing?
Maurice: The forwards will always decide how well our defense plays. They are the driver of everything that we do. And then there is a little bit of chemistry.
Forsling and Ekblad are the pair that has been consistent, but the more time that Jones and Mikkola play together… We have had enough time with Kulikov and Schmidt this year. It is the middle pair (Mikkola-Jones) that is kind of new.
The playoffs kind of put that learning curve into hyperdrive, right? You are not going through a bunch of regular-season games where the speed is different. The speed of the game will force those two men to talk on the bench. They’ll get consistent reps against a certain line. That is where we think we can get the biggest improvement quickly: playoff experience together.
You mentioned that the forwards have such a big impact on the defensive play. How important has it been to make sure the high, third forward gets back into the defensive zone and matches the Leafs‘ speed game?
Maurice: I don’t think we have a handle on it yet. Take Game 1 out, and of the last four games, Game 5 was our smallest differential in chances for and against. Our best differential was actually Game 2.
I don’t feel like we have a handle on it or have it controlled. I think we understand it, but understanding something and being able to do something about it are two different things. I think we are okay with it, but they were in alone on us a bunch of times. I don’t think we are getting rid of all of it.
That is why Sergei (Bobrovsky) is what he is to us. That is how important he is. To completely prevent it, we would have to completely change the way we play, and we are a little far down the road for that.
You have talked a lot about your 13th or 14th forward as well as your seventh defenseman being a big part of the culture. What are the ingredients to create that culture where there is no hierarchy within the group? How can it go the other way?
Maurice: When you are on a team that is struggling a little bit — when you’re grinding — and you walk into the meal room, it is always the same players at the same tables. It is all of the old guys at the one table, thinking that if the kids were better, we would win. The kids are at one table thinking that the older guys should retire because they are taking all the money. There is the disgruntled table that just hates you as a coach. And there are a few other tables.
When you walk into this room, it is different every day. It can’t be one guy, but it is the Barkov effect. If you didn’t know anybody, you couldn’t walk into the room and figure out who the best player was by the way they interact.
I will use guys from last year as an example. Ryan Lomberg and Josh Mahura were in on every joke and every chirp. If you were in the room, you’d be like, “That guy is the captain, and that guy is the alternate captain.” I don’t think you can figure that out in the room by the way they treat each other.
How rare is that type of culture?
Maurice: When I got the job, I called all the players, and I kept getting off the phone thinking, “These guys are different.” They are really unusual.
Carter Verheaghe was one of the first guys I ended up calling; I wasn’t doing it alphabetically. We talked for a little bit, and it wasn’t a hockey call. It was just an introduction call. He probably spent 80% of the time telling me about the other guys on the team. “Wait until you meet this guy; he is unbelievable,” or, “You should see his shot,” or, “What an awesome guy.”
He started asking me, “Do you have kids? How old are they? What do they do?” They are a different group of guys. It is wonderful to be around.
Niko Mikkola’s speed stats are really strong. Is his skating underrated?
Maurice: Players change over the course of their careers. They get stronger, especially those long, lanky guys. They get more powerful into their late 20s.
The better way to look at it: When you take certain players and play a different style of game where you give up ice, agility becomes far more important. There are a big chunk of teams that run basically the same systems as we do, but if you play a game where you are not giving up any ice — it is forward motion, pivot, and attack — your numbers will increase.
He is very fast in a straight line. He gets going up the ice. If you only saw that, you would say that he is one of the very best skating defensemen or players you have. If you are in the smaller area — the penalty killing idea — there are other smaller guys who kind of pivot and dart a little quicker in the agility areas of the game.
He is a very strong skater. It is just really noticeable in straight lines.
Nate Schmidt said he would’ve given a much different answer three months ago if asked about playing with Brad Marchand on his team. What would your answer have been three months ago? What has it been like to get to know Marchand? Have you ever seen players unable to bury a hatchet when they become teammates after long careers?
Maurice: No, I have never seen that at all. The handshake at the end of a series is real. They probably don’t like each other at that moment — it is very heated — but they still find a way. There is a respect amongst heavier, harder players. They understand. We take as many hits on most nights as we give. Everybody gets that.
I am not trying to be a jerk about this, but we have taken one or two events after seeing them 12,000 times. They didn’t happen 12,000 times. It happened once or twice. There are another 12,000 events, but they are just really good hockey players skating around and making plays.
I understand that it’s good for the game. People tune in and want to see it. That is what this is all about. I am not admonishing anybody for showing Benny and Marchy going at it, but it doesn’t happen as often as you might think.
When they get in the room, they’re good. They have a good laugh about it. They are both hard men. They are both competitive dudes. That is the first time I’ve used “dudes” in a press conference ever, I believe. You can scratch that for me, if you wouldn’t mind.
When we got into the first series against [the Bruins], it was on. He gave an interview in one of the Boston papers — it wasn’t a paper; it was online — and he handled it so well. I was really, really impressed with his answers. He wasn’t trying to be funny. He wasn’t taking shots. It was nasty in that series, and he said, “Hey, they’re playing hard, and we’re playing hard.”
All of his quotes were captain stuff. Great leadership. He could’ve stood in front of both rooms and given those answers, and everybody would’ve gone, “Yeah, that’s right. That’s exactly what is happening.”
That was my first insight into him as something other than a hockey player. From a coach’s point of view, there have probably only been a handful of players over the course of my career that I thought I really didn’t have a lot of respect for the way they played.
When we were coaching against him in a playoff series, I had an awful lot of respect for the way he plays, how hard he plays shift after shift, and some of the things he would do with the puck — the chemistry, and finding Bergeron on that dot over and over. We know they are going to do it, but they could still do it. We had a really high respect level for his game.
Evan Rodrigues was on the ice for the morning skate. How is he progressing?
Maurice: Better. He is at a point where he can get out for a skate. We gave him a pretty good push today. We will monitor him tomorrow and see where he is at.
