When the Florida Panthers won the Stanley Cup for the second time in a row, their locker room wasn’t the same. We saw Matthew Tkachuk dancing and drinking Champagne. We saw Aleksander Barkov bringing the Cup back onto the ice at 1:30 a.m. to celebrate the win with the arena staff. And we also saw Brad Marchand holding up the trophy and kissing it, reminiscing about his 2011 victory. But what you might have missed was Paul Maurice’s reaction to winning the trophy and touching it. In a recent press conference, he said he had touched it only once. Quite surprising, right?

When a reporter asked Paul Maurice about the Stanley Cup, saying, “When you’re holding the Cup or just looking at it these days, what are you feeling?” his response was surprising. The head coach said, “So I haven’t touched it that much. Maybe twice last year or three times. The night we won, the parade, and then the Cup day, when you get pictures with family. And then I don’t want to see it again. I don’t want to touch it again. There’s a certain amount of reverence for me when I see it.” And he didn’t stop there. Maurice’s childhood memories came rushing back when he saw his name engraved on the Cup again.

Paul continued, “All you have to do is kind of go up to it and start looking and reading names. And I don’t think I have a very good memory, but I know all of those names, right?” But when talking about the Cup again, he reiterated, “I touched it once the night we won, and then not again. We had this kind of thing yesterday with the players inviting us, so there was that one time. But I won’t—I don’t want to. I don’t want to get comfortable. I don’t want to get comfortable with it.” After Sam Reinhart showcased his four-goal heroics, Paul hoisted the Cup—but only once, as he had explained earlier.

People widely regard Maurice as someone who remained unchanged after winning his first Stanley Cup in 2023, following a 30-year coaching journey filled with challenges and perseverance. Now, he stands as the 18th coach in NHL history to win the trophy in back-to-back seasons. But perhaps he is the only one among them who rarely touches the trophy, choosing instead to let the moment speak for itself.

For the second consecutive year, Paul Maurice lived out his childhood dream

Though the Florida Panthers coach said he wouldn’t touch the trophy again, he didn’t shy away from expressing his deep nostalgia. It was a special time, the moment when Paul won his first Stanley Cup with the Panthers. He shared that lifting the cup wasn’t just his dream; it was also his parents’ lifelong hope to see him achieve that milestone.

Maurice began playing for the Soo Legion Bantam team in 1980, starting to live his mom and dad’s dream. When he won the Cup in 2023, his brother Shane told Sportsnet, “I looked at my dad Monday night and said, this isn’t about a two-month journey, this is a 29-year journey. The trials and tribulations have been there for that whole 29 years.” It took Maurice 1,985 games as an NHL head coach, across four different franchises and three firings, to finally reach hockey’s ultimate prize on Monday.

He was with the Carolina Hurricanes from 1995 to 2003, the Toronto Maple Leafs for just two years (2006–2008), and the Winnipeg Jets from 2014 until his resignation in December 2021. After stepping down, Paul Maurice began his stint with the Florida Panthers in 2022. No one would have guessed that this man would lead the team to two Stanley Cup victories in just two years and three consecutive Stanley Cup Final appearances. Paul’s journey resembles that of the Chinese bamboo tree, which doesn’t grow even an inch during its first five years, but then suddenly shoots up 60 to 70 feet in a single day.