Florida coach Paul Maurice keeps the day-to-day routine simple. Show up for work early and have copious amounts of coffee. Trust assistant coaches to do their jobs. Sit in on meetings when needed. Hammer home a consistent message with players. Swear a little bit sometimes, swear profusely at other times.
Hey, it works.
In the Stanley Cup Final for a third consecutive season with the Panthers, Maurice's style - laugh-out-loud funny at times, incredibly smart and serious at others - continues to deliver results for Florida. He was 41-51 in his playoff career before coming to Florida he's 41-21 in his playoff career with Florida. A coaching lifer, he already was well-respected within the game before the Panthers brought him aboard, but he never had anything close to a run like this until now.
"I'm not being disrespectful to the other teams I've coached," Maurice said. "The team here, this is the best team I've ever coached. It's not really that close."
Winners of the Stanley Cup last season, the Panthers will try for back-to-back titles starting Wednesday night when they visit Edmonton for Game 1 of a rematch. Florida beat the Oilers last year in seven games for Maurice's first Cup in a 30-year career.