Why Panthers coach Paul Maurice skipped the handshake line with the Carolina Hurricanes

Article content

Florida Panthers Coach Paul Maurice and Carolina Hurricanes Coach Rod Brind’Amour appeared to have words with each other after the Panthers ended the Hurricanes’ season with a 5-3 victory in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals, and neither coaching staff took part in the handshake line that traditionally caps the final game of a Stanley Cup playoff series.

But after the game, Maurice said there wasn’t any ill-will after a typically hard-hitting playoff series.

Instead, he seems to be on a crusade to get coaches out of the centre-ice handshake line that has been a staple of the NHL postseason for decades.

That’s what his conversation with Brind’Amour was about, he said.

“I don’t believe that the coaches should shake players’ hands at the end,” Maurice said. “There’s this long list of people in suits and track suits. We had like 400 people on the ice. They’re all really important to our group. But not one of them was in the game.”

“There’s something for me visually, with the camera on just the men who played, blocked shots, fought for each other, it’s end of one’s season, it’s excitement for the other,” Maurice said. “The last thing that a player on the Carolina Hurricanes deserves is 50 more guys in suits, they have no idea who they are and that’s not a negative. There’s something really kind of beautiful about just the camera on those men who played shaking hands. And we should respect that.”

This isn’t anything new from Maurice, who also did not participate in the postgame center-ice handshake line after the Panthers’ second-round win over the Toronto Maple Leafs.

“We talked to (Maple Leafs coach) Craig Berube on the ice in Toronto, and figured if I can sell it in Toronto,” Maurice said. “And he understood it, because he’s played, and (Brind’Amour’s) played, so they both kind of get it.”

Coaches’ participation in the postgame handshake line seems to have been on Maurice’s mind for a while now.

“I don’t know where it changed. When I first got in the league, you would never go shake the players’ hand. Some coach wanted to get on camera, is the only thing I can figure out. Maybe he wanted to shake Wayne Gretzky’s hand or something. I don’t know when it changed, but I don’t think it’s right,” he said. “I think there’s a really nice, kind of beautiful part of our game when just the players shake hands at the end. … When you think of all the great competitions on the ice … and yet they shake hands like that, that’s special. … I appreciate the risk that [Brind’Amour] took because he’s concerned that somebody here [in the postgame news conference] is going to be upset that he didn’t shake our players’ hands. I asked him not to, and he understood. So that’s what happened.”