‘EVERY DEFENSEMAN WHO COMES IN HERE GETS BETTER’ FOR PANTHERS
EDMONTON — Nate Schmidt saw how some NHL defensemen were finding their game again with the Florida Panthers and coach Paul Maurice. Since signing a one-year contract with them on July 3, the 33-year-old defenseman has experienced that firsthand.
“The best way I can describe it is he frees you up to play the style of game you were meant to play,” said Schmidt, who also played for Maurice with the Winnipeg Jets in 2021-22. “He doesn’t ask anyone to skate end to end, he doesn’t ask anyone to do anything more than what they can or should be doing. That just takes a lot of pressure off guys, and he understands that this is the way you want to look.”
Centuries ago, Juan Ponce de Leon supposedly searched for the Fountain of Youth in modern-day Florida. For Schmidt and other defensemen, including Gustav Forsling, 28, and Dmitry Kulikov, 34, South Florida has definitely been the place to revitalize their games. Before Schmidt’s arrival, Forsling and Kulikov proved to be big keys for the Panthers when they won the first Stanley Cup in their history last year.
They’re trying to do it again this year, once again facing the Edmonton Oilers in the Stanley Cup Final. Following a 5-4 double-overtime win in Game 2 on Friday, the best-of-7 series is tied 1-1 with Game 3 at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, Florida, on Monday (8 p.m. ET; MAX, truTV, TNT, SN, TVAS, CBC).
Forsling was claimed off waivers from the Carolina Hurricanes on Jan. 9, 2021. He signed an eight-year contract with the Panthers on March 7, 2024, and plays on the top defense pair with Aaron Ekblad. Schmidt signed with Florida two days after Winnipeg bought out the final season of a six-year, $35.7 million contract ($5.95 million average annual value) he signed with the Vegas Golden Knights on Oct. 25, 2018. He’s on the third pair with Kulikov, the No. 14 pick by the Panthers in the 2009 NHL Draft who played for seven different NHL teams before returning to Florida in 2023-24.
Forsling had 31 points (11 goals, 20 assists) in 80 games during the regular season, second among Florida defensemen behind Ekblad (33 points; three goals, 30 assists in 56 games) and four points (one goal, three assists) in 18 playoff games. Schmidt had 19 points (five goals, 14 assists) in 80 regular-season games and has nine points (three goals, six assists) in 18 playoff games.
Kulikov had 13 points (four goals, nine assists) in 70 regular-season games and has four points (one goal, three assists) in 18 playoff games. His clear of the puck near goalie Sergei Bobrovsky led to forward Sam Reinhart’s series- and Cup-clinching goal with 4:49 to play in the Panthers’ 2-1 win in Game 7 against the Oilers last year.
Maurice gets some credit for helping defensemen find their game again, but so does the cohesiveness of Florida’s locker room, and so does Sylvain Lefebvre, Maurice’s assistant in Florida since 2022. General manager Bill Zito said Lefebvre is “a wonderful teacher, a wonderful person who’s extracted the most out of everyone.
“I don’t know, every defenseman who comes in here gets better,” Zito said. “They improve. Even the veterans improve. Looking back at (former Panthers defenseman Radko) Gudas, who was an older player. He improved. ‘Sly’’s expertise, his professionalism, who he is as a person goes in tandem with that (locker) room: It’s so special that they just pull the good qualities out of you. There’s no better way for me to try and explain it than that.”
Because Maurice never played in the NHL, he wanted coaches around him who had. Lefebvre had 184 points (30 goals, 154 assists) in 945 career games with the Montreal Canadiens, Toronto Maple Leafs, Quebec Nordiques, Colorado Avalanche and New York Rangers from 1989-2003, and won the Stanley Cup with the Avalanche in 1996.
“The main structure is the easy part, where your stick goes, when to press but with all the small things, experience matters, and he has that and he’s spent time coaching,” Maurice said of Lefebvre, who was an assistant coach with Colorado from 2009-12 before he was a coach and assistant with various American Hockey League teams from 2012-21.
Maurice said Lefebvre’s personality also puts defensemen at ease.
“He’s very detailed, very patient, a great teacher and he has an easy personality about him,” Maurice said. “Doesn’t mean he’s soft, he just has an easy connection. He can talk to them like a colleague, and they respect that.
“We have some now-veteran players on the blue line that don’t need a lot of motivation. They’re very self-driven, so it’s not on the coach to get them to work harder. They just have a mutual respect. He won a Cup as a player and he understands what it’s like to play for two months into a playoff grind for a defenseman, what’s reasonable, what’s not. I don’t really spend much time thinking about that end of the bench. He’s got it figured out. That for me is the tell. I just leave him. Just don’t mess anything up.”
Seth Jones, acquired by the Panthers in a trade with the Chicago Blackhawks on March 1, said Lefebvre conducts video sessions with the defensemen “pretty much every day.”
“He’s brought back just the little details that I think over the past three years have just somehow gotten lost in the past situation, just little things such as boxing out in the D-zone, being aggressive at the blue line, stick position, stick on puck,” he said. “He’s a great teacher of the game. I’m very thankful to have had him now for the past two months.”
Florida’s defense isn’t full of home-grown players outside of Ekblad, who they selected with the No. 1 pick in the 2014 NHL Draft and has been with them ever since. They’ve found their defensive pieces elsewhere, and they’ve all fit in well.
“For sure, our system is very aggressive,” Forsling said. “You need to be able to skate and I think all those guys can skate really well. I think everyone’s on the same page and it’s very easy to jump into our team and our lineup.”
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PANTHERS-OILERS STANLEY CUP FINAL IS AS TIGHT AS CAN BE. GAME 3 COULD TILT THE SERIES
SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — After going the distance in the Stanley Cup Final last year with the Florida Panthers beating the Edmonton Oilers by a goal in Game 7 and being one win apart during the regular season, not much is separating these two NHL powerhouses so far in their championship series rematch.
This final is just about as close as can be through two games, with each team winning once in overtime and knowing full well one puck off the post or into the net could have dramatically changed the situation. That remains the case going into Game 3 on Monday night at Florida, with the very real chance that a couple of bounces and small adjustments could tilt the series one way or the other.
“It’s just the back-and-forth punches of a heavyweight tilt,” veteran Oilers forward Adam Henrique said after practice Sunday. “Every shift matters so much because it might be a 1-0 game and a 2-1 game, and those mistakes that could either cost you or pay dividends for you and keeping that pressure high — that can be the difference.”
This has been a different final than many in the recent past, in part because there’s no underdog in it who no one expected to get this far, the opponents know each other well and the teams are nearly at full strength. That has made for some quality hockey where the goals have piled up and yet the defense and goaltending have at the same time been stellar.
“Everything is contested all over the ice, so you’re having more events and it’s more intense, but what a wonderful thing to be able to say that in the final,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said after his team’s optional skate in Fort Lauderdale. “Both teams are competing defensively. They’re blocking shots, they’re battling, they’re backchecking and it’s still a high-event game. That’s some high-end skill.”
That high-end skill has been on display. Three-time league and reigning playoff MVP Connor McDavid fittingly leads all scorers with five points, and longtime Edmonton running mate Leon Draisaitl has matched Florida’s Sam Bennett and Brad Marchand at three goals apiece.
Game 1 finished 4-3 in overtime and Game 2 was 5-4 in double OT. The Oilers have more shots, 92 to 74, while the Panthers have led for over 67 minutes compared to trailing for nearly 28 minutes.
It has been tied for large swaths of regulation, and for all the offense, players acknowledge there has not been a whole lot of ice with which to operate.
“It’s very tight,” said Marchand, who scored the Game 2 winner 8:04 into the second overtime. “You can’t make any mistakes. Just every time you do, they seem to get something off of it. And we’re obviously balanced throughout the lineup, so it’s very tight out there. The games speak for themselves. It’s been a battle. Very intense and a lot of fun to be a part of.”
Like Maurice did after his team lost the opener, Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch is making some changes going on the road where he does not control the matchups. He jumbled his defense pairs, putting Evan Bouchard with Darnell Nurse, Mattias Ekholm with John Klingberg, and Brett Kulak with Jake Walman.
“We’re always making adjustments to counter whatever teams are doing, who’s playing well,” Knoblauch said. “Fortunately, our players are comfortable with any changes that we do make just because of how much we’ve fluctuated our pairs and lines throughout the season. In Games 1 and 2 we had some changes, and games throughout the rest of the series there’ll be some more.”
The push and pull has been quite something to behold. Tune in to just one period or a handful of shifts and it’s easy to get the idea that one team or the other is dominating, and then not long after it alternates.
“Both teams will have times where they look like they’ve got possession of the game, but it’s just not going to last. It doesn’t last,” Maurice said. “This is so close out there, so you can take a look at that video and I can find you 15 goals for the Edmonton Oilers that just didn’t go in, and I can find you the exact same for the Florida Panthers.”
The emotional ebbs and flows, Maurice insists, are also not as big of swings as it looks from the outside. He didn’t feel as devastated after the Game 1 defeat or as euphoric after the Game 2 triumph as it may have appeared.
His players are accustomed to these waves from losing in the final to Vegas in 2023 and winning in seven games a year ago after surrendering a 3-0 series lead.
“It’s all about staying in the moment,” Panthers winger Sam Reinhart said. “You can’t think too far ahead, and you can’t think too far in the past.”
Draisaitl, who scored the Game 1 OT goal, acknowledged the what-ifs creep into players’ heads in the immediate aftermath of a difficult result. But he and his teammates and their counterparts on the other side understand they can’t dwell too much given the razor thin margin of error.
“Two really good teams going at it,” Draisaitl said. “You have to stay detailed and know that all those little bounces matter.”
