Paul Maurice Rejects the “Stanley Cup Hangover” Notion for the Panthers

Ft. Lauderdale, FL – Paul Maurice knows the loss is coming. You know the loss. The one where the Panthers lose in November to a Western Conference team that didn’t make the playoffs last year, and probably won’t make it this year. The one that doesn’t make sense, should’ve never happened, and makes people ask aloud if the Panthers have a Stanley Cup hangover. 

The 26-year head coach doesn’t believe in the “hangover concept,” though.

“We will be assigned – it’ll be a hangover loss, but it won’t be true, because we lost the exact same game the last two years,” Maurice said at media day Wednesday. “It’ll just be a perspective of the ‘why’? Because the standard that, in some ways, this team gets held to is its last game. You win the Stanley Cup, then you should win every game. That’s just not real.”

The Shortest Offseason Ever

Last June, less than three months ago, the Panthers defeated the Edmonton Oilers to win their first Stanley Cup in franchise history. The Oilers were still able to kick and claw their way to a Game Seven, which also meant this summer was the shortest in Panthers franchise history.

The year prior, the Panthers lost to the Las Vegas Golden Knights in the Stanley Cup Final in five games. Including training camp, Florida has played about 18 months of hockey and had six months of a “break” in the last two years.

Nevertheless, Maurice isn’t concerned. In fact, he told the media that the team looks ahead of schedule from where they were at the opening of camp last year.

“It’s certainly not a physical issue with us,” Maurice said. “We are stronger than we were last year at this time with our returning players. That’s a credit to them, because they couldn’t have made improvements without spending the time to do it.”

Healthy Offseason

Part of that is because of the health the Panthers maintained through last year’s playoff run. While the 2022-23 run was plagued with injuries to Brandon Montour, Aaron Ekblad, Eetu Luostarinen, and Matthew Tkachuk that bled into the offseason and regular season, the Panthers entered this past offseason in good health. 

“Well, this summer, I was able to train, not rehab,” Tkachuk said. “So that was a big bonus for myself. I’m used to (the short Offseason) after last year. It was shorter than last year by a week or two, so maybe it was a little bit different. But I want to get used to these offseasons, that’s for sure.”

Living in the Present

For Tkachuk, the switch from last year to this year flipped around July 18, when he had his day with the Cup in St. Louis. 

“I’ve had enough time now where it’s been enough rest, it’s been enough time off, as much as I need to get myself mentally ready and physically ready … I feel good, ’Im ready to go,” Tkachuk said.

The Panthers will try to become the third team in the 21st century to win two consecutive Stanley Cups, with the Tampa Bay Lightning doing so in 2020 and 2021, and the Pittsburgh Penguins doing it in 2016 and 2017. Should they make the finals again, they’d be the second team to accomplish the feat this century along with the aforementioned Lightning.

Led by Maurice, who’s notorious for having especially challenging camps, the Panthers begin training on Thursday and open their preseason schedule with a split-squad doubleheader against the Nashville Predators at 2 pm and 6 pm Sunday at Amerant Bank Arena.