FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — After a summer spent in the serene isolation of a remote Canadian lake, Paul Maurice, head coach of the Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers, is back. Rested and refreshed, he’s now ready to guide the team into a new season as they prepare to defend their title. Maurice’s third season with the Panthers officially begins Thursday when training camp kicks off, with his sights set firmly on another Cup victory.
Maurice spent much of his offseason unwinding on the lake, far from the noise and pressure of the hockey world. “It was just peaceful,” he said, describing quiet mornings with his wife, enjoying coffee on the dock or inside their screened porch, away from the black flies. This break from the intensity of coaching was much needed for the veteran, who had spent 30 years chasing hockey’s ultimate prize before finally clinching the Stanley Cup.
Following Florida’s championship parade, where Maurice gave an emotional and sometimes profane speech, he and his wife embarked on a three-day drive to Canada, seeking solitude and reflection. For Maurice, it was a summer filled with quiet moments, allowing him to recharge and prepare for what lies ahead.
But now, Maurice is back in South Florida, ready to start camp with one goal in mind: winning the Cup again. “I’m not looking back at what we just won,” he said. “I’m looking forward to what’s next.”
Maurice’s journey to the Cup last season was anything but easy. The Panthers had to overcome the immense pressure of a Game 7 against Edmonton after squandering a 3-0 series lead. However, they triumphed with a 2-1 win, securing Florida’s first Stanley Cup in franchise history. Maurice lifted the Cup twice—once on the ice that night and once more at the championship parade. Since then, he’s held it but hasn’t lifted it again. “You don’t win the Cup,” Maurice reflected. “You share it. It’s not yours.”
The power of the Stanley Cup, he noted, was best demonstrated in small, shared moments. One such moment came when he and his father held the Cup together, both simply smiling without needing words to describe the significance of the event. In another instance, one of his wife’s uncles, a lifelong hockey fan who uses a walker, pushed his walker aside to embrace the Cup, moved to tears.
“The power of that thing, the power of the Cup, is just silly,” Maurice said. “The best part of a day like that is watching all the people around you be happy at the same time.”
As Maurice prepares for his 2,000th game as a coach—set for Nov. 9 against Philadelphia—he is more content than ever. “In the hockey sense, in the career-achievement sense, I’m happy. Happier than ever, really,” Maurice said. But he also acknowledges that the Panthers’ Game 7 win was a crucial moment. “The one thing I have spent almost no time thinking about — because it’s almost too frightening — is ‘what if we hadn’t?’ I won’t allow myself to look over that cliff.”
Now, as he returns to South Florida and the team prepares for camp, Maurice is already thinking ahead. “What’s the remnant of the Florida Panthers winning the Stanley Cup?” he asked. “To me, it’s the small smile that people share with each other, the memory you get to keep.”
Starting Thursday, Maurice will blow the first whistle of training camp—and begin the chase all over again.
