Florida Panthers Paul Maurice gets refreshingly honest about what his players need right now
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Jonathan Ouimet
Feb 1, 2026 (11:18)
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Photo credit: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images
Paul Maurice watched the Florida Panthers drop another tight one in the standings, and his postgame message sounded like a team fighting for its season.
Saturday’s 2-1 loss to the Winnipeg Jets was Florida’s third straight defeat, and all three were one-goal games.
That’s the part that stings, because the process is not a disaster. The results keep landing on the wrong side of the knife.
Florida led 1-0, then Winnipeg scored twice in the third period to flip it late.
Mark Scheifele buried the winner with 4:14 left, the kind of goal that turns a decent night into another zero.
Maurice kept coming back to how thin the margin is in games like this.
“It’s going to be one shot,” he said.
The Panthers are now 28-23-3, and the standings math is getting less forgiving by the day.
Paul Maurice feels the Florida Panthers pressure rising
Maurice said his group played hard, and he did not sound like a coach questioning effort. He sounded like a coach begging his team to keep belief.
“We're not rubbing backs right now,” Maurice said.
“I’ve got to get these guys some rest, somehow. They’ve got to get away from me. We came out hard, we played hard (Saturday).
I’ve said it enough nights, we played our asses off. It's tight right now with some of our challenges, and we just got to keep the faith.
And maybe that's the test of where we're at, and that's the thing to win this year, is that you keep your belief, and you keep your fight, even when it's going against you.”
He said, before circling back to faith and fight as the season leans on them.
I’ve said it enough nights, we played our asses off. It's tight right now with some of our challenges, and we just got to keep the faith.
And maybe that's the test of where we're at, and that's the thing to win this year, is that you keep your belief, and you keep your fight, even when it's going against you.”
He said, before circling back to faith and fight as the season leans on them.
Panthers fans can feel the frustration building, because the losses are close enough to replay in your head all night.
Maurice even put one key moment on himself, pointing to a flat-footed line change that opened the door for the second goal.
Maurice said the second goal came down to a small detail turning into a big mistake.
“We just got caught flatfooted on a line change that is as much my fault as anybody else's,” he explained, owning the moment as a staff issue as much as a player one.
In a tight game where one sequence swings the night, that kind of honesty matters, because it tells you the Panthers aren’t pointing fingers, they’re trying to clean up the margins together.
“We gave up five shots and I don’t expect Sergei to have that second one,” he said.
The injury list mattered here too. Florida played without Brad Marchand and Anton Lundell, and you could feel the missing detail in a one-goal game.
This is the dangerous zone of an NHL season, where “pretty good” is not enough and the standings only reward points.
Monday against the Buffalo Sabres has to look like urgency, because tight games are great, until they keep ending the same way.
Paul Maurice, Panthers Postgame: Florida Loses Third Straight, This One to Winnipeg Jets
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