Wiebe's World: The Panthers have restored Maurice's love of hockey

Paul Maurice is back in his happy place, dropping sound bites at the podium and dropping F-bombs behind the bench that immediately transform into GIFs on the internet.

It’s the place he’s most comfortable, though he needed to step away from the game entirely in December of 2021 to get back here.

The sport he’s loved as long as he can remember essentially sapped him of his joy level.

That’s why the hockey lifer handed in his resignation to the Winnipeg Jets, the team he’d been guiding for eight years.

Maurice was there for the 2.0 version of the Jets' first foray into the Stanley Cup playoffs in 2015 against the Anaheim Ducks and he was there for best regular season in franchise history in 2017-18, the one that translated into a berth into the Western Conference final.

That run included the first nine Stanley Cup playoff victories in franchise history that dated back to the Atlanta Thrashers.

He was also there for the unexpected sweep of the Edmonton Oilers in 2021, which is the last time the Jets won a series.

On the flip side, Maurice was behind the Jets’ bench for some of the biggest disappointments, from early exits to the St. Louis Blues in 2019 and the Calgary Flames in 2020, to the unexpected sweep at the hands of the Montreal Canadiens in 2021.

Then came 2021-22, when the Jets entered the season with high expectations, got off to an excellent start and then fell off the cliff.

Maurice wasn’t there when the Jets' stumbles continued and the team missed the playoffs, he was on a personal journey, working to put burnout into the rearview mirror.

For a guy who entered the NHL as an assistant coach with the Hartford Whalers and quickly got a promotion during the 1995-96 season at the age of 28, there haven’t been many breaks in the action.

Coaching is his craft and he’s always poured his heart into it.

When you’re as passionate about the sport as Maurice is, it was difficult for many in the outside world to figure out how he could just decide to walk away from an organization he had invested so much time and sweat equity into?

With the benefit of hindsight, that answer is easy to see.

Coaching hockey wasn’t giving Maurice the same level of juice — especially during the pandemic when crowds were either limited or non-existent.

Maurice was big on the “every day in the NHL is a good day” mantra and he carefully used the phrase countless times during his time in Winnipeg.

Ultimately, his job started feeling like a job and he reached the point where he felt he had no other choice but to move on.

This wasn’t a guy pulling the pin and bailing out and figuring a better job would be just around the corner.

Maurice needed to get away from the sport he loved to realize how much he was going to miss it and that’s why he was ready to resume his coaching career after that fateful call from Panthers GM Bill Zito.

This wasn’t an easy season for the Panthers and they nearly missed out on the Stanley Cup playoffs, but they didn’t.

They found a way to slip in as the final wild card in the Eastern Conference, just like they found a way to eliminate the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Boston Bruins in the opening round and the Toronto Maple Leafs in the second round.

The Panthers are getting great performances throughout the lineup, led by the inspired play from Matthew Tkachuk and the outstanding goaltending from Sergei Bobrovsky (who leads all goalies with 10.4 goals saved above expected in 10 games during these playoffs), but Maurice also deserves his due here.

He’s got the Panthers playing a fast-paced, tenacious, committed style of hockey that has translated well in the postseason.

He’s also earned a date in the Eastern Conference final against a Carolina Hurricanes franchise he knows so well that they’ve hired — and fired — him twice.

Maurice is back in the conference final for the fourth time in his career and he knows how hard the first eight wins have been to accumulate. And he’s also been around long enough to know the next eight are even tougher.

KRAKEN STAY ALIVE

At least one series in the second round is going the distance and it’s the one featuring the Dallas Stars and Seattle Kraken.

Colleague Iain MacIntyre has been covering the series and he’s got you covered with the Game 6 storylines.

You can’t help but applaud the way the Kraken play the game and that they’ve been able to generate this much offence without Andre Burakovsky (and with Jared McCann limited to three games this series as he worked his way back from a concussion) has been impressive.

Two of the biggest surprises in this series surround two of the Stars most impactful players: goalie Jake Oettinger and forward Jason Robertson.

Coming off the first 100-point campaign of his career, Robertson has managed to operate at a point-per-game pace during these playoffs (12 points in 12 games) but he’s been limited to just two goals — and he’s gone seven games since finding the back of the net.

Sure, there have been some good looks created but Robertson hasn’t been as dangerous as usual, though it should be noted he’s generated 36 shots on goal, including 14 in this series.

Robertson’s 5.8 shooting percentage in the 12 playoff games this spring is well below his career regular-season average of 15.8, which could mean he’s due to bust out offensively in Game 7.

The good news for Robertson is that he produced three assists in his last game on home ice and that Game 7 will be played at American Airlines Center.

Oettinger was supposed to be the surest bet of the goalies who moved on to Round 2, but he’s been hot and cold in this series.

According to stats posted by the NHL Network, Oettinger has been steady in his three wins in this series (2.33 GAA, .909 save percentage) but the numbers aren’t pretty in the three losses (6.15 GAA, .823 save percentage) and he’s been pulled in two of them.

The body of work for Oettinger in the playoffs hasn’t been overwhelming either (2.89 GAA, .900 save percentage, minus-4.6 goals saved above expected, according to Money Puck), especially when you consider the high level he played at all season — and how remarkable he was last spring as the eighth-seeded Stars pushed the Calgary Flames to seven games in the opening round.

Remember, this is still a relatively small sample size and the numbers can be skewed both ways, but what can’t be argued is that Oettinger is going to have to be in the vicinity of his usual form in order for the Stars to advance to the Western Conference final.

THE SUSPENSION

Vegas Golden Knights defenceman Alex Pietrangelo will be back in the lineup on Sunday night for Game 6 against the Edmonton Oilers and you can be sure there are plenty of people who feel the punishment did not fit the crime.

Pietrangelo has clearly been targeted by the Oilers in what has been an incredibly physical and entertaining series.

He’s been on the receiving end of late and sometimes questionable hits to go along with the stick work, which includes a cross check from Evander Kane that caught him up high and could have been a lot more damaging had it not caught his shoulder pad on the way up.

When he spoke to reporters on Saturday, Pietrangelo was defiant, bringing many of those infractions against him to light and calling them “premeditated.”

He’s right, but Pietrangelo is still incredibly lucky his baseball-swing chop on the arm of Leon Draisaitl resulted in a one-game suspension.

Had Draisaitl broken his arm or wrist on the play, the punishment likely reaches a minimum of four games and could have eclipsed five.

This is clearly an example where it would have been easy to identify intent, as the puck was already gone for several beats before Pietrangelo wound up and delivered the vicious slash.

Not having a history with the Department of Player Safety and being known as an honest player clearly helped Pietrangelo’s defence, but he won’t get that same benefit of the doubt next time.

Emotions get high during the Stanley Cup playoffs.

There’s a lot on the line and even someone as composed as Pietrangelo — a captain on a Stanley Cup winner — had a momentary lapse in judgement at a critical juncture of the series.

Fortunately for Pietrangelo, the Golden Knights rallied around him and won Game 5 without him, giving the organization an opportunity to advance to the Western Conference final with one more victory.

Part of the reason they were able to do so was the continued inspired play of centre Jack Eichel, who had a goal and two assists in Friday’s 4-3 victory.

In his first taste of the NHL playoffs, Eichel is up to six goals and 13 points in 10 games and he’s playing an inspired two-way game under Golden Knights head coach Bruce Cassidy.

It’s also important to point out goalie Adin Hill has done a fantastic job stepping in for Laurent Brossoit, who suffered a lower-body injury in Game 2.

Hill has turned aside 89 of the 96 shots he’s faced, posting a 2.25 goals-against average and .927 save percentage in four appearances (three starts).

The goaltending carousel has been a storyline for the Golden Knights all season, but the acquisition of Hill from the San Jose Sharks for a fourth-round pick in 2024 in late August has proven to be another shrewd move by general manager Kelly McCrimmon.

Both Hill and Brossoit are pending unrestricted free agents and they’ve done a nice job of solidifying their value over the course of the season at a time when plenty of teams will be looking for goaltending options.

As for Oilers D-man Darnell Nurse, it’s OK to come down from the blue line to engage in the fight with Golden Knights blue-liner Nic Hague but he’s got to know the rules in that situation and given what’s at stake, taking a number — or finding him sooner in the game — would have been the more prudent play.

Having said that, given the number of times an instigator penalty is not called in a game over the course of the season, rescinding the automatic one-game suspension would have been fine with me.

Nurse clearly started the fight, but it’s not like he jumped Hague or landed the first five punches in the scrap.

No harm, no foul.

THESE DEVILS HAVE A CAUSE

The Devils are one of the teams that was ousted earlier than they had hoped, but are an easy candidate for the unofficial future is bright award.

Of course, there’s no actual award handed out but every year there is a team that bursts onto the playoff scene and showcases plenty of promise, leaving the pundits to pontificate that while their team wasn’t now, it should be soon.

Not all of those predictions end up coming to fruition, but the point is that the Devils appear to just be getting started after taking a remarkable step forward, one that included knocking out the rival New York Rangers in seven games in the opening round.

There is almost always a level of suffering endured and lessons learned by these up-and-coming teams and you don’t have to look far to recall the heartache the Colorado Avalanche suffered before getting to the top of the mountain last June.

So what is on the horizon for Devils GM Tom Fitzgerald?

Well, he’s got to figure out if he’s going to be able to extend one or both of Jesper Bratt and Timo Meier, both of whom will be looking for big tickets on long-term deals.

Bratt is the homegrown talent, while Meier was brought in to try and help add a power forward element that isn’t exactly plentiful.

As for the pending unrestricted free agents, those include forwards Erik Haula, Tomas Tatar, Miles Wood, defencemen Damon Severson and Ryan Graves.

The Devils could be incorporating blue-liner Simon Nemec, the second overall pick in the 2022 NHL Draft next season, along with having Luke Hughes full-time, so the defence corps still figures to continue to be a strength.

Some upgrades up front figure to be on the horizon, depending on what shakes down with Bratt and Meier — who finally broke out of his goal-scoring slump late in Round 2.

The biggest question the Devils are going to face will be with what to do in goal?

Do they continue to ride with some combination of Akira Schmid, Vitek Vanacek or Mackenzie Blackwood or will the Devils look to add a more experienced or higher profile goalie in either trade or free agency?

THE LOTTERY RESULTS

In this space last week, we took a look at Connor Bedard preparing to find out where he’s going to begin his NHL career and now we have the answer.

Bedard is going to be chosen first overall by the Chicago Blackhawks and he’s already given the organization a big boost at the box office before he’s even played his first NHL game.

He’s going to help revitalize a franchise that was in serious need of a makeover both on and off the ice and it will be an interesting summer ahead for GM Kyle Davidson as he begins the process of building around the next franchise player.

Colleague Jeff Marek brought up Ryan O’Reilly as a guy who would be a perfect example setter as Bedard begins his journey.

I can’t disagree that it would be a great move by the Blackhawks to have O’Reilly around to learn from, given his love for the game and leadership ability.

But given how things ended for O’Reilly with the Buffalo Sabres, it feels more likely he will spend the next couple of seasons chasing another ring with a contender.

By the time the Blackhawks could be closing back in on contention in two or three years, maybe O’Reilly is ready to move into more of a mentorship role when Bedard is moving into his early 20s.

That could also depend on what the offers are like this summer and to Marek’s point, Davidson should be making an offer to O’Reilly that at least forces him to consider the assignment.

That the ping pong balls landed on the Blackhawks instead of the Anaheim Ducks or Columbus Blue Jackets or another team generated plenty of emotions over the course of the past week and that’s understandable, especially when you consider the aftermath of what happened to Kyle Beach.

For those saying the punishment should have been stiffer or the Blackhawks shouldn’t have even had the right to be in this lottery, you can understand why people feel that way and those feelings shouldn’t be dismissed easily either.