Paul Maurice Found Peace Through the Stanley Cup

FORT LAUDERDALE — In the moments following the Florida Panthers winning the Stanley Cup, Paul Maurice says he missed all the good stuff.

Blame it on the media.

It was sheer madness on the ice following Florida’s 2-1 win over the Edmonton Oilers in Game 7, and all of the different NHL reporters wanted a moment of Maurice’s time to get a glimpse into what this hockey lifer was feeling after such a momentous victory.

Hours later, once he retreated to his office for a moment, a television was tuned to a loop of the postgame celebration.

There was captain Sasha Barkov lifting the Stanley Cup high in the air, skating around the Sunrise ice. Then he handed it to Sergei Bobrovsky, who gave it to Kyle Okposo.

On and on and went.

So, Maurice decided to sit and watch it for the first time.

Meanwhile, a party continued to rage in the Florida locker room underneath the arena.

Maurice just wanted to soak in what had just transpired. There would be plenty of time to party.

No one got shorted on that front.

“What I spent the most time doing that night was not drinking champagne, it was watching people,” Maurice told Florida Hockey Now last week. “Just watching it all. I lost a block of time there because of all the media requirements.

“When I got back into the room after being out on the ice for a while, the television loop was playing all the guys skating around the ice with the Stanley Cup. And I had not seen any of it. I just sat in the coaches room for an hour watching that.

“And it was fantastic.”