Panthers coach Paul Maurice’s hilarious explanation for lighting up team during Game 5 loss to Bruins

After three straight victories to take a commanding 3-1 series lead, the Florida Panthers failed to close out the Boston Bruins at home yesterday. The 2-1 defeat means Paul Maurice and the Panthers will have to travel back to Boston on Friday in hopes of closing the series out or risk a Game 7.

Maurice tried his best to avoid a Game 6 in Boston, as evident by a second-period outburst. During a TV timeout about six minutes into the second period, Maurice took a moment to lay into his team, which trailed 1-0, on the bench. Amidst his yelling, Maurice’s head turned bright red. But it worked.

Moments after the Panthers returned to the ice, Sam Reinhart scored a game-tying goal, which earned a fist pump from Maurice on the bench.

After the game, Maurice explained why he lit up his players like he did.

“I don’t know the exact words of the message,” Maurice said. “I felt that — eh, I wasn’t mad at ’em, I understood what they were going through. I just thought they needed some profanity in their life, and I brought some. I don’t excel at a lot of things in my life, but f–k me, am I good at that? You see how I did that?

“We were grinding gears a little bit. Because I think we have a handful of things that we’re really, really good at. We come to the rink, and that’s all we spend our time talking or doing. … I thought we got it out of first gear. It’s not like we’re down 3-0 and we kind of make it 3-2 but you run out of real estate. It’s 1-0 after the first. That’s pretty good for us, I think. Just couldn’t get ‘er going.”