By Sean Fitz-Gerald (The Athletic)
In May 2002, when Paul Maurice was 35 years old, he was the NHL’s youngest head coach, with three young children at home. Roy MacGregor, the celebrated Canadian columnist, described Maurice at the time as “scholarly in his glasses and often looking as if he has been up all night studying.”
Maurice was coaching the Hurricanes in a third-round playoff series with the Maple Leafs. He laughed and said the bags under his eyes were not from hockey: “Usually in the morning I feel sorry for myself, and then drink enough coffee that I get back in the fight.”
Now 56, he is no longer younger than the veterans on his roster. He left the fight when he stepped down as head coach of the Jets two years ago — believing he was finished with the profession — only to find his way back into the middle of it all, guiding the Florida Panthers into an unexpected second-round series with the Maple Leafs this week in Toronto.
He could have retired; he could have spent his Tuesday morning as a proud father of adult children and a happy fisherman floating on the lake. Maurice was instead on a familiar dais deep in the basement of Scotiabank Arena, unspooling old stories for reporters and reflecting on being back in the fight.
Over more than a century, only five coaches have won more regular-season NHL games than Maurice (817), who got his start in Hartford before the relocation to Carolina. Scotty Bowman (1,244), Joel Quenneville (969), Barry Trotz (914), Ken Hitchcock (849) and Lindy Ruff (834) are the only names above his on the all-time list.
Maurice stunned observers when he resigned as coach of the Jets heading into the holiday season two years ago. He told reporters he felt he had lost some of the passion required to lead a team, and that the Winnipeg players needed to hear “a new voice” behind the bench.
On Tuesday, in front of a different crowd of reporters, Maurice said he was “100 percent” certain that his departure from Winnipeg would have marked the end of his coaching career. Six months after that announcement, he was on the water chasing a different prize.
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