Back in the 1987-88 season, when Jim Rutherford was carrying out a major overhaul of the OHL’s Windsor Compuware Spitfires, he did not have Paul Maurice in his plans. Not as a player, at least. Instead, he wanted Maurice to stay on as an assistant coach. “You’re angry because you’re getting cut, but he could tell, right? He could tell that my path wasn’t going to be in hockey as a player, it was going to be in coaching,” Maurice told The Athletic back in 2019. Had it not been for Rutherford’s offer, Maurice would perhaps have never laid his hands on a Stanley Cup.

After all, Maurice’s hopes of playing in the NHL were over quite early in his career, when a deflected puck caught him in the right eye and damaged his peripheral vision. And ever since he found his calling in coaching, Maurice has been quite frank about how Rutherford has had the biggest impact on him, “both personally and professionally.” One such confession came when the Florida Panthers coach sat with Dallas Stars Head Coach Pete DeBoer for a conversation over coffee during the 2024 NHL Global Series.

“I can’t tell you the number of times that I’ve acted on a piece of advice that Jim Rutherford gave me 35 years ago, if I had just listened to him,” began Maurice during his chat with DeBoer, as he recalled a piece of advice that he just couldn’t digest at the time. “‘Paul, you don’t always have to take your goalie out after a loss. You can take him out after he wins a game, too.'” To Maurice, it made much more sense to capitalize on the winning momentum.

“We just won. He’s hot. I’ve got to play him. And then, you know, Sergei Bobrovsky wins his 400 the other night, fastest goalie in the history of the NHL to get to 400, and he doesn’t play the next game,” Maurice shared. On October 24, 2024, Bobrovsky hit a big milestone with his 400th NHL career win. He made 24 saves during the Florida Panthers’ 3-1 win against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden. He just hit a huge milestone, becoming the 14th goaltender in NHL history to rack up 400 wins. What’s even more impressive is that he did it in just 707 games, breaking Henrik Lundqvist’s old record of 727 games. But rather than just going with Bobrovsky’s momentum, Maurice focused on the bigger picture.

He was mindful of the workload, ensuring long-term energy, and not pushing a key player too hard. As he went along, he noticed that he was finally putting into practice the advice Rutherford had given him all those years ago, advice he hadn’t really valued back then.

After that, during their game against the New York Islanders, Maurice gave Bobrovsky the required break and let Spencer Knight take his place. And now that the Panthers find themselves in a ditch, maybe it’s time for Maurice to look back on a few of his old mentor’s words of wisdom.

The Florida Panthers need to step up their game

The Toronto Maple Leafs managed to grab that 2-0 series lead, thanks to the boost from playing at home. This might lead to some problems for the Florida Panthers because of some historical data. What’s that all about? They’ve got a perfect record of 11-0 in best-of-7 series when they start with a 2-0 lead at home.

Every time the Maple Leafs kick off a series by snagging the first two games at home, they seem to carry that momentum through and have never lost the series from that point on. Case in point? Their recently concluded Round 1 series against the Ottawa Senators. The first two matches at Scotiabank Arena ended with Toronto coming out on top, and a win in the Canadian Tire Centre as well saw the Leafs extend their series lead to 3-0.

But things took a turn in the series when the Senators made a push to come back by winning Games 4 and 5. But Brady Tkachuk’s Stanley Cup hopes were quashed as Toronto pulled off the win, wrapping up the series 4-2 and moving on to the next round. So for the Panthers, there’s a big challenge coming up if they really want to defend their Stanley Cup.