It was raining goals during Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals between the Florida Panthers and the Carolina Hurricanes. A 5-0 dominant performance, and the Panthers did deserve some fireworks, but it looks like they did it the other way. “They’re shooting them as hard as they can. They’re not flipping them. It’s funny as hell,” the Panthers head coach, Paul Maurice, said after the players launched plastic rats full-speed at Brad Marchand. Well, let’s call it a hilarious twist on the team’s long-standing tradition that now became even better with their newest “rat” at the center of it all, right? Honestly, the Panthers did have a cool celebration on ice that night. But the twist? It all happened away from the home crowd.
While the Lenovo Center did witness the finest shots and goals scored by Sam Bennett, Matthew Tkachuk, and the captain—Aleksander Barkov—it all unfolded in front of a crowd that wasn’t exactly rooting for them. Talk about the energy, and hey, it was a little flat. And the emotions? Missed, precisely. Because it was that kind of a night that should’ve had Panthers fans going wild, but instead, the celebrations felt muted. And no wonder the head coach had to point it all out while highlighting the emotional gap of playing on the road.
In the post-match interview, the Panthers’ head coach revealed something deeper. “There’s a huge advantage to the home team on the emotional. I don’t think that the road team participates in that. Like, if it’s quiet, like, we don’t know — right? The music’s still really loud and there’s cheering, so we don’t pick up on that,” Maurice said in a candid post-game reflection where he peeled back the layers of playoff hockey and exposed what might be Florida’s biggest complaint!
Credits: Instagram / @flapanthers
Is it the emotional unevenness of playing on the road? Maybe he meant that playing away from home doesn’t give them the same emotional fuel that home crowds provide. And he deliberates on the example of how the Dallas Stars scored early in their latest match against the Edmonton Oilers and quickly got fueled up to perform better, thereby making a 6-3 win! “I don’t think that you necessarily gain anything on the road — you just don’t lose anything. So, um, the other team scores, you’re on the road, the building gets amped up. Dallas last night—a 3-1 game—they scored that thing early, and that building lit up, and now they’re skating twice as fast as they did for the first two periods,” Maurice said, emphasizing exactly how the crowd feeding off the play and the players feeding off the crowd is something visiting teams just don’t get.
Despite missing the home ice advantage, we know that the Panthers have roared louder on the enemy ice, right? Hence, Paul Maurice didn’t just complain over this fact but also made his feelings clear about the squad that performed exceptionally well in their recent games.
Paul Maurice further reveals the interesting thing about not playing amidst home crowd
But here’s an interesting fact that Maurice couldn’t deny as well. After the Panthers became the first team to defeat the Hurricanes at home in the postseason this year, he said, “We don’t necessarily feel any different at home than we do on the road. Because they like each other, they stick together on the bench. That’s a big part of playing on the road.” Maurice was more impressed with how his squad handled the pressure, and he made sure to capture the spirit while speaking in the post-match interview after clinching their 5-2 win over the Canes.
Was it the camaraderie and unwavering team bond that the coach pointed out as a matter of success? After all, no matter where they played or how they showed up for each other, the Panthers did what they had to do. And then the second one? It wasn’t just another notch on the belt but a statement. They dropped another five goals at the Lenovo Centre, and hey, this time, Carolina wasn’t even able to shoot the puck inside the goalbox even once! Hence, to say, despite the so-called “home ice disadvantage,” the Panthers played like they owned the rink, silencing the Carolina crowd and lighting up the scoreboard.
While Maurice indeed hinted the only missing piece in their current form may be, the Panthers have turned that into motivation, and the celebrations are going crazy even on enemy ice! Because the underlying emotion was even more powerful, that made it clear that no matter the venue, this team plays with heart, swagger, and the hunger of champions. What do you think?
The post Paul Maurice Addresses Florida’s Biggest Complaint During Playoffs appeared first on EssentiallySports.
