Paul Maurice and his Panthers just keep skating through storms like it’s a sunny stroll through the park. Tuesday night’s opener? Oh, they didn’t just show up; they owned the ice. From Carter Verhaeghe’s early rocket to Aaron Ekblad’s smooth strike, Florida dropped two first-period gems before Carolina even found their footing. And let’s talk about Bob. Sergei Bobrovsky stood tall in the crease like a calm stormbreaker, turning away 31 shots and shaking off a stretch where the Panthers went full ghost mode without a shot on net for over 15 minutes. No biggie. Just playoff stuff.

Add in a flashy 2-on-1 finish from A.J. Greer and Sam Bennett’s dagger in the third, and oh, Eetu Luostarinen had to sneak in one more just for fun, and boom, Florida walks off with a loud 5-2 dub. Carolina’s penalty kill had been the postseason’s golden wall until Florida cracked it twice with ease. And now, Paul Maurice is still cool as ever while that lingering 2024 Cup Final issue hangs around like it never left.

Paul Maurice didn’t sugarcoat a thing in that Panthers video and just laid it out with full coach-candor. “This is true of Carolina and us. We probably both value puck pressure as much as anything else,” he said, making it clear that neither team’s backing off that high-octane hustle anytime soon. And yeah, the forecheck? It’s not chaos. “We’re not reckless with our forecheck. It’s fairly defined.” But when the Hurricanes start slipping behind the line or cooking up odd-man rushes, that’s when the little cracks start to show. “There’s a detail. You’re missing some sort of change of sides detail.”

Maurice didn’t dodge the flaws either. “We had guys pulling off when they shouldn’t, guys going forward when they shouldn’t.” But the key thing he dropped: “But this isn’t anything new for us.” This is the Panthers’ vibe. They live in that high-risk, high-reward zone. He even brought up last year’s Stanley Cup Final and said, “I’m not sure we ever had that thing sorted out.” Still, they made it work. Why? Because they own that wild style. “We at least understand our vulnerability in the way we play. And we won’t sacrifice that aggressiveness to cover off.” That’s the Panthers’ DNA.

June 2024 was everything for Paul Maurice’s Florida. The Panthers finally broke through, and they did it in front of a hyped-up, 19,000-strong crowd at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise. Game 7? A total nerve-shredder. The Panthers and Oilers went punch for punch all night, but Florida had the final say. Sam Reinhart and Carter Verhaeghe found the back of the net, and Sergei Bobrovsky? Absolute wall. Locked down 23 saves like a man on a mission. It wasn’t just a win; it was a massive exhale after flirting with disaster. They’d gone up 3-0 in the series, then watched it all unravel game by game… until they stopped the freefall just in time.

One more loss and they’d have joined the ‘42 Red Wings in the worst kind of history books. But nope, they flipped the script. And let’s be real, Panthers fans earned this. It took 30 years, 457 players, and 18 different coaches, and somewhere in there? A whole lot of heartbreak. They sat through rumors about the team packing up or getting shut down entirely. But they stuck around. So when that final horn blew and that cup was theirs, it was more than just a win. And this year? Looks a bit similar!

Paul Maurice’s Panthers make a comeback to advance to the ECF!

Just a few nights back, the Florida Panthers came out swinging and didn’t look back. Game 7 against the Leafs? Total mayhem. Sergei Bobrovsky slammed the door with 19 stops, and Florida exploded in the second period like they had rocket fuel in their skates. In a wild 6:24 stretch, Seth Jones got the party started, Anton Lundell crashed in a rebound, and Jonah Gadjovich kept the heat going. And by the time the third rolled in? Eetu Luostarinen, Sam Reinhart, and Brad Marchand (yep, even scored on an empty net) made it rain. 

Now fast forward to Carolina; the Panthers just cooked up another statement win, 5-2 over the Hurricanes. You’d think that kind of performance would have Coach Paul Maurice on cloud nine, but nope. The man’s dialed in with a different kind of lens. “I didn’t love our game tonight,” he admitted after the dust settled in Raleigh. Even though the scoreboard leaned heavily in Florida’s favor, Maurice wasn’t sipping the victory champagne just yet. Jameson Olive, the team’s digital guy, even posted how Maurice wasn’t feeling too hot about his squad’s overall game vibe, especially with big names like Tkachuk not quite lighting it up.

And that’s just it. Maurice keeps it real, always. “Game 1 is that first look at what your game looks like against a completely different opponent,” he said, keeping expectations grounded. “We will have to continue to build that game and get better.” Sure, the boys have now won five of their last six, and yeah, that Game 7 meltdown over the Leafs was legendary. But even with Carter Verhaeghe, Ekblad, Greer, Bennett, and Luostarinen all cashing in goals, Coach knows this train’s got to stay on the tracks if they want to punch their ticket to the big dance.