Can they do it? Can the Florida Panthers complete the cup double? The team certainly looks well poised to do it. They have a handful of regular-season games remaining, and the atmosphere in the camp is charged with anticipation as they aim to duplicate the success they achieved last season. Though they have already punched their ticket to the Stanley Cup playoffs, the Panthers had a different milestone to celebrate following their latest victory.

On April 10, 2025, Panthers head coach Paul Maurice, who boasts a prolific 27-year coaching career, reached a notable milestone, claiming his 915th career victory and surpassing Barry Trotz to become the third-winningest coach in NHL history. The Panthers rolled to a 4-1 victory against the Detroit Red Wings, where interestingly, Brad Marchand scored his first goal for his new team.

At the post-game conference, Maurice expressed his genuine reflections on reaching this milestone with the Panthers, saying, “Not really, and that’s more my appreciation for things is the whole group here, how much I enjoy sitting in the coach’s office with Bill as well, the equipment guys, the medical guys, and the players for sure. This has been a wholly and completely unexpected level of joy that I find in my job because of the men that are around here. Yeah, maybe at the end, but if I was asked today at the memory, it’s this group. It’s the fun that we’ve had. They work hard. I’m not pulling teeth here to get these guys to play hard work. That makes life really easy.”

The fun has evidently translated to on-ice dominance too, as the Florida Panthers stand at 46 wins, 29 losses, and 4 overtime losses after 79 games, totaling 96 points in the standings. Maurice’s team is excelling on the ice, and his coaching philosophy has clearly taken root in the team. Moreover, the coach is relishing his time with the franchise, highlighting the strong relationships he has built with other team members, particularly GM Bill Zito.

The coach has consistently maintained a positive outlook with this team; do you remember the enthusiasm he displayed when one Brad Marchand was preparing to hit the ice?

Paul Maurice on Brad Marchand’s debut with the Florida Panthers

Brad Marchand may have entered the Florida camp nursing an injury and unable to play, but that didn’t temper Paul Maurice’s enthusiasm for his new acquisition. He expressed a deep appreciation for the kind of player he was and praised his endurance even at 36.

Maurice said, “Yeah, well, I think in order for Brad to have the career that he’s had, point production, so over a thousand penalty minutes, he has had to push himself to be in very maximize conditioning, so now he’s at a point in his career—he’s 36, but he’s probably got as big a tank as you can possibly have.”

“Like those, you know, some of the best kind of endurance athletes don’t round into till their mid-30s, so he’s really fit, dude, um, and the hands and the experience don’t go away, so I think he can be a player for a while,” Paul Maurice stated in a post-game interview.

Having a player like Marchand on the roster is a huge advantage. He’s a menace on the ice, but off of it, he’s the ultimate hype man and mood maker, with leadership skills to boot. Moreover, the Panthers coach expressed admiration for Marchand’s game management, even at the age of 36. This is a coach who seems well attuned to his players and skilled at getting the best out of them. After all, it’s not easy to become the third-winningest coach in NHL history.