Paul Maurice, the coach of the Florida Panthers, has experienced quite several highs and lows throughout his career. Right now, the Panthers are trailing 2-0 in the Round 2 series of the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs, and they really need to figure out how to bounce back against the Toronto Maple Leafs. Maurice has also had someone who mentored him. Yeah, I’m referring to Jimmy Rutherford. They have a strong professional bond that has really shaped his coaching journey. Their relationship started in the early 1990s in the OHL, and there are plenty of pieces of advice that Maurice still uses today.

“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. You’re stubborn and you’re young and you’re going to do it. 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. Why would I do that?” He remembered one piece of advice during his chat with Dallas Stars head coach Pete DeBoer.

“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. And I’m thinking, if I had listened to that man, what Jimmy was great at is even if he was going to give you a shot, if he had, and sometimes it was serious, you would walk away from the meeting feeling good about yourself.” Maurice shares that back in the day, he was pretty stubborn and didn’t always take advice easily, even if it was coming from someone as wise and experienced as Rutherford.

Rutherford shared a really interesting tip: as a coach, you don’t have to wait for a loss to take a goalie out or give them a break—you can actually do it after a win too. Back then, Maurice just couldn’t wrap his head around why a coach would sit a goalie who had just won the game. To him, it seemed like you should keep that momentum going, not throw a wrench in it.

Now, after all these years, Maurice really gets what Rutherford was saying. He brings up a real-world example: after Sergei Bobrovsky hit his 400th career win—the quickest goalie in NHL history to hit that milestone—Maurice decided to sit him for the next game. Rather than just going with Bobrovsky’s momentum, Maurice focused on the bigger picture: keeping an eye on 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.

When exactly in his career did the Panthers’ goaltender do this? 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.

Pretty amazing, right? And after that, during their game against the New York Islanders, Maurice gave Bobrovsky the required break and let Spencer Knight take his place. So, putting everything else aside, did you know that the Panthers have a bigger issue on their hands?

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. So, if you’re looking for a recent example, let’s talk about their Round 1 series against the Ottawa Senators. What’s the story? The first two matches at Scotiabank Arena ended with Toronto coming out on top!

In a similar fashion, the Maple Leafs snagged a win at Canadian Tire Centre in Game 3. But things took a turn in the series when the Senators made a push to come back by winning Game 4 and Game 5. So, in Game 6, Toronto pulled off the win, wrapping up the series 4-2 and moving on to the next round. For the Panthers, there’s a big challenge coming up if they really want to defend their Stanley Cup.