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Maurice charmas baltimore6/24/2023 A five-hour meeting followed on Day 1, a 10-hour meeting followed on Day 2. It was an hour, and then an hour turned into two, and then Maurice found himself flying south to visit Zito’s home. Zito called Maurice late last spring to schedule a more formal phone meeting to talk about the Panthers. Everything wound up fitting perfectly in Florida. Other teams had called Maurice to gauge his interest, and Maurice always had the same reaction. “Fit,” Florida general manager Bill Zito said. He knows when to be serious and sarcastic, doesn’t mind taking a few minutes to tell a story, and cringes when anyone tries to give him the credit for Florida’s success. He drew hysterical laughter in a postgame interview when chiding the media for not believing in the Panthers (and with a few choice profanity drops in there as well). (“I know nothing about goaltending,” Maurice says, and he’s not kidding.) He famously says he doesn’t even coach Sergei Bobrovsky. Maurice isn’t a control freak the locker room belongs to the players, with a bit of guidance from the coaches’ office when needed. The funny ones happen with far more regularity. He knows what to do and he tells us the right thing.” He’s the guy we trust, the guy we believe and love playing for. “He literally knows every situation, how to handle it. “He’s coached probably over 2,000 games in the NHL,” Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov said, coming close but slightly overshooting Maurice’s total of 1,871 games including playoffs. The Panthers won that night, kick-starting their push to the playoffs and they haven’t stopped kicking since. “A nice opportunity to share my feelings,” he called it. He shredded his team, a profane rant the likes of which he rarely if ever doles out publicly. Maurice’s viral rant on the bench in late March during a Florida game at Toronto is one of the biggest moments of the Panthers’ season. He’s played for nine other coaches, and now is reunited with Maurice with the Panthers, with the Hurricanes waiting for them in a matchup to decide which club will represent the East in the Stanley Cup Final.Ĭan Maurice be a yeller and screamer? Oh, absolutely.Ĭan he also be a comedian? Oh, absolutely. Maurice was his first coach - ironically, with Carolina in 2003. If any player can speak with authority on the trajectory of Maurice’s career, or his effectiveness, it’s Staal. And we want to continue to just keep building this thing as the playoffs can move on.” For sure, he has a great pulse on what we have. He’s our leader and we’re really happy to play for him and play for each other. “I wouldn’t be the first guy to say I think he’s a phenomenal coach. “I think he’s got a phenomenal feel for what we have in our locker room and what he needs to do to push our buttons to make us play at our best,” Panthers forward Eric Staal said. Business & Finance Click to expand menu.
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