Dave Hyde: Paul Maurice shows Panthers how to handle Game 1 loss — ‘Everybody can breathe’
LAS VEGAS — How did they take that dismal third period?
How do you think they took it?
“On the gradation of tough, root canal to eating oatmeal, it was closer to a root canal,’’ Florida Panthers coach Paul Maurice said.
He followed that good line with a purposefully deadpan stare, his flat, facial features saying it was OK for you to smile, even beckoning you to do so, even if his comic delivery demanded no reaction himself.
Less than an hour after the Panthers played their biggest and sloppiest period of the playoffs to turn a tie game into a 5-2 loss to Vegas, there was Maurice explaining what it all meant. And, more importantly, how his team should digest it heading into Monday’s Game 2.
“Everybody can breathe,’’ Maurice said in a crowded press room asking what went wrong in this Stanley Cup Final opener. “I feel like you people, you’re tight.”
That deadpan stare again. His exercise at humor is, in an entertaining way, also an exhibition of clenched strength. His mind is no doubt breaking down tactical issues even as his voice is dripping with some necessary perspective.
“The losing team talks of too many of something and the winning team talks about the fabulousness of all the other things and it’s 2-2 until that puck’s turned over,’’ he said.
It was actually 2-2 until Zach Whitecloud put the kind of distant shot that’s not eluded Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky these playoffs, then 3-2 until Matthew Tkachuk turned over the puck for a point-blank goal, then 4-2 until an empty-net score sent Vegas happy into the night.
Here’s the larger point: Maurice understands there will be strategic refinements to make, starting with a power play that’s fueled many good nights these playoffs but was 0 for 3 in Game 1.
“I’ve got faith in my group that we’ll learn,’’ he said.
The other side, the mental ability to manage a tough series, is equally as important. That demands the coach understand what moves his team, to tap into the team’s emotional taproot.
This brand of humor and perspective wouldn’t work for the Miami Heat, a defiant team playing on the edge of angry. Coach Erik Spoelstra talked after that crushing Game 6 against Boston with a raw and real voice about how they’d be ready for Game 7. That was their way.
The Panthers are a different animal. They’re a team with constantly evolving player nicknames. They award an actual T-bone to the player with the most “dog” in him in a particular game (meaning a winning game). The player has to then gnaw on it before everyone.
This is armor the Panthers use to help this run. They’re laughing as they line up outside the locker room to take the ice, though what they’re often laughing at is known only to them.
“I don’t understand half of what they’re saying,’’ Maurice said.
Maurice has been a NHL head coach since 28, and one manner he’s improved besides the tactical ideas of hockey is in loosening up his personality. He’s talked of the importance of letting others see he’s having fun. To laugh, when a human touch is needed.
Sometimes a good coach pretends it’s all fun, too, if it serves the larger purpose of keeping his team relaxed. That’s the idea after an odd opener. Both teams played physical, but neither team looked singularly sharp. Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said they didn’t play their best game. Nor did the Panthers.
“We didn’t score on our best chances, they didn’t score on their best chances,’’ Maurice said. “A couple (Vegas) point shots snuck there way through. We sneak one through. The best chances teams had the goalies made gave saves on.”
The Panthers power play has to have impact. So does Tkachuk, who didn’t influence the game much beyond a few scrums, the final of which got him and Sam Bennett kicked out of the game after it had been decided.
“Eh, so, they got the first one,’’ veteran Eric Staal said.
“This is going to be fun,’’ Carter Verhaeghe said of the physical style this night took. “That’s how you want it.”
One game, they were saying. One missed chance. The Panthers haven’t missed many chances in winning 11 of their previous 12 playoff games. They also haven’t started a series with a loss since the first round against Boston.
“We lost the first game against Boston and got a little better,’’ Maurice said. “We lost two more and then got a little better.”
The idea is to get a little better in Game 2. At least the tact the coach will push. And this team will accept. All the while, telling themselves: Breathe.