Paul Maurice Takes a Dig at Toronto Maple Leafs After Florida Panthers Loss

In the crucible of the Stanley Cup playoffs, forcing a Game 7 is sacred territory—few teams ever find that razor’s edge. As defending 2024 champions, the Panthers finished the regular season with 98 points (47–31–4, third in the Atlantic) and saw their second-round series knotted at 3–3 after a 2–0 Game 6 loss in Sunrise. For a club hunting back-to-back titles for the first time since Tampa Bay’s 2019–20 and 2020–21 repeats, that defeat cut deeper than any puck in the net.

Hockey’s finest margins often come down to inches. In Game 6, Florida unleashed 53 shot attempts—22 on goal (all saved by Joseph Woll) and 31 blocked by Toronto skaters—while Toronto managed just 15 SOG against Sergei Bobrovsky. Yet two clean finishes decided the contest: Auston Matthews received a pass from Mitch Marner at the left circle and buried a wrist shot five-hole to open the scoring, and Max Pacioretty got the beautiful feed from Bobby McMann and flipped it in from out in front of the net to extend the lead. Tonight, relentless pressure yielded shots, not goals.

Inside the Panthers’ dressing room, captain Aleksander Barkov distilled the mood with a simple mantra: “Just win or learn,” he said in his postgame availability. Veteran forward Matthew Tkachuk then leaned into the stakes: “It’s an opportunity to make a name for ourselves again.” Their blend of calm resolve and fierce anticipation underscored that Florida’s identity remains intact—no matter what the scoreboard shows. And as the teams brace for a winner‑take‑all finale, the narrative pivots on one man’s perspective.

Paul Maurice wasted no words when asked whether Toronto’s performance in Game 6 represented a seismic shift. “Not nearly as much as everybody in this room is going to write,” he said, leaning into the notion of narrative overreaction. “They played hard tonight. But I thought that the last game… they got killed for that last game. They didn’t deserve to, in my opinion… It was a pretty tight game. Didn’t feel like that on the scoreboard.” But the numbers tell a different story.

Behind Maurice’s measured critique lies a deeper strategic chess match: Florida’s penalty kill—ranked third league-wide at 89.5%—has repeatedly bent but not broken, while Toronto’s power play, clicking at 21.6%, has struck at critical moments. Special teams performance may yet be the fulcrum on which Game 7 turns.

Paul Maurice shared that they did try to seize opportunities on the ice, but things didn’t quite go as planned for Florida. He also compared the two games, saying, “But when you watch the game and you look at the analytics, that game, the 6-1 game, was the second-tightest game of the series. So this one will look a lot like that. There’s not as much offense. We had two pretty good offensive teams. There really isn’t a whole lot to be had out there. So they played hard. We played hard. It was tight. We had probably four go in last game. I’m not sure you’re counting on that happening on a regular basis or even every 10 or 20 games. We had a couple going off sticks. So when you get into a 0-0 game, it’s going to be tight.”

The coach’s take was a gentle nudge that even with the story hinting at a stronger, more resilient Maple Leafs team—maybe due to some outside pressure or changes within—their approach in Toronto didn’t seem all that different to him. Maurice gave a nod to both teams for really going at it, but he also mentioned how sometimes it just comes down to puck luck, those quirky bounces, and how the game can hinge on the smallest details instead of big, sweeping changes in strategy.

He described the Maple Leafs’ Game 6 win not as a complete overhaul, but more like a strategic playoff chess match—where occasionally, the puck just happens to bounce your way. So, how confident are the Maple Leafs feeling following this win?

This level of confidence might cause trouble for Paul Maurice’s team in the future

This 2-0 win at Florida’s home rink was definitely a statement. Toronto might be getting back on track. It looks like one of the most historic teams in the NHL might have what it takes to push for a decisive Game 7 against the Panthers. The opening goal of Game 6 really made a statement. So, we’re talking about both Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner. They’re both standout players for the Maple Leafs, but this season, their playoff performance has led to some criticism. In Game 6, both of them really stepped up to get that puck in the net, giving Toronto a nice late-game edge over Florida.

This really helped Marner’s confidence, and he didn’t hold back on the critics after the game, saying, “I mean, like we’ve talked about all year, we don’t care. We just go out there and we want to do our thing. That’s, you know, what you love about this team is there’s a lot of trust in that locking with one another. You know, it was a great morning skate, like I spoke about and, you know, we carried on to the game and we knew it wasn’t gonna be easy. We knew we weren’t gonna get many looks. The thing we just loved about it was staying patient with our game. A couple big kills to start off too and, you know, just stuck with it and got the result.”

Marner’s comments are stirring up some chatter about whether his time in Toronto might be wrapping up soon. With his contract set to expire at the end of the year and no extension on the table just yet, people are starting to really question whether the Maple Leafs can hold on to one of their star players.

However, winning Game 6 and making it to Game 7 really allowed Marner to showcase the team’s unity in the NHL, despite all the uncertainty about his future looming over him. It’s tough to tell if he was dodging the contract discussion or if he genuinely appreciated the moment, but his words clearly indicate that he still cares a lot about his teammates, regardless of what lies ahead.