Widow looking for answers after Quebec man dies in Texas Ironman competition
The widow of a Quebec man who died competing in an Ironman competition is looking for answers.
The joy Paul Maurice felt on the morning of the start of the Stanley Cup Final was also tinged with sadness. The veteran coach knew there were only at most seven more games left to play.
He had developed a greater appreciation for this moment with the Florida Panthers, 21 removed from his first trip to the final. Bruce Cassidy felt the same way being back as coach of the Vegas Golden Knights three years after falling one win short with Boston.
One of them will hoist the Cup for the first time, and their presence in the final is evidence of why NHL teams looking to win put a priority on experienced coaches. Often derided as "recycled" or "retreads," coaches like Maurice and Cassidy provide tangible value navigating crucial situations.
"Depending on where your team's at likely dictates to some extent the decisions that you're going to make with respect to that position," said Vegas general manager Kelly McCrimmon, who fired Peter DeBoer after his team missed the playoffs last year and turned to Cassidy, who was fresh off being dismissed by the Bruins. "We felt for our organization, a successful, experienced coach was the right coach for our team."
So did the Panthers, who last season won the Presidents' Trophy as the best team in the regular season and lost in the second round of the playoffs under interim coach Andrew Brunette -- in a head job for the first time. Maurice in December 2021 stepped away from his third NHL job and 24th season with Winnipeg and offered the kind of steady hand GM Bill Zito was looking for to take Florida to the next level of contending for a championship.
"You have the experience, it's invaluable," Zito said. "Maybe you're a little more savvy. And a collective experience that breeds wisdom has significant value."
Florida Panthers head coach Paul Maurice speaks with members of the media during a media day ahead of the Stanley Cup hockey finals Friday, June 2, 2023, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher)
Maurice, whose team lost Game 1 on Saturday and will look to even the series Monday, sees the value in being able to take in this experience more than in previous decades. His calm demeanour helped the Panthers go from down 3-1 in the first round to Boston to winning that series and two more to reach this point.
"I think the biggest part of experience is maybe you have a little bit of understanding of the pressures of both rooms," Maurice said. "Over time, when you go in and play a team like Boston, what their room's dealing with, what your room's dealing with, what's that room like at 3-1, what's your room like at 1-3, so that helps."
It helps to have the right match between players and a coach. Veteran forward Eric Staal has believed for some time, "This group needed Paul, and Paul needed this group."
Staal would know. Maurice was his first coach in the pros back with Carolina in 2003-04. Maurice was fired after the Hurricanes won just eight of their first 30 games, and replacement Peter Laviolette coached them to the Stanley Cup in 2006.
Maurice is a different coach now. He reflected Sunday on how when he broke into the NHL in the mid-1990s, all coaches did was growl at players, whereas now it's about connecting with them and knowing what buttons to push.
"He understands not only the game but players and people and how to articulate what he's trying to (say)," Staal said. "He's got a tremendous skill in that."
Vegas Golden Knights head coach Bruce Cassidy listens during a news conference ahead of the NHL Stanley Cup hockey final Friday, June 2, 2023, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher)
Cassidy possesses a similar skill, which has evolved since a failed stint in Washington as a young, green coach in 2002-04 and helped the Bruins make the playoffs six years in a row, reaching the final in 2019.They still fired him after a first-round exit last year.
He was out of a job for a week.
McCrimmon saw a coach, who like Tampa Bay's two-time Stanley Cup champion Jon Cooper, had strong depth of knowledge from spending a long period in one organization. And is good at this coaching thing.
"We're in the winning business," McCrimmon said. "He'd done lots of that, so that's why we brought him in. And I think that he's met our expectations and more along the way."
Cassidy compared this stop -- getting to know a lot of new people and making a big life adjustment -- more to Washington than Boston. But he's 58 now and 20 years better than he was with the Capitals.
"Now I have a resume," Cassidy said, "so it's a little easier to walk into a room and sort of command the group."
Command is exactly what he did last round when the Golden Knights, up 3-0 in their series against Dallas, lost two in a row to send the series to a Game 6. Centre Chandler Stephenson said Cassidy held a meeting before that game to deliver the message, "let's close this out," and Vegas played arguably its best game of the season, let alone the series.
Stephenson compared that to his last trip to the final, with the Capitals in 2018 when they had similarly seasoned coach Barry Trotz and beat Vegas for the Cup. The looseness Trotz displayed and the importance of it Stephenson now sees in Cassidy.
"I think just knowing what to expect, knowing what it's like and to react and not really overreact is a big thing," Stephenson said. "He's been through it. He knows."
The widow of a Quebec man who died competing in an Ironman competition is looking for answers.
Facing pushback from physicians and businesspeople over the coming increase to the capital gains inclusion rate, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his deputy Chrystia Freeland are standing by their plan to target Canada's highest earners.
Former NDP leader Tom Mulcair says that what's happening now in a trash-littered federal park in Quebec is a perfect metaphor for how the Trudeau government runs things.
People living near a wildfire burning about 15 kilometres southwest of Peace River are being told to evacuate their homes.
The world is seeing a near breakdown of international law amid flagrant rule-breaking in Gaza and Ukraine, multiplying armed conflicts, the rise of authoritarianism and huge rights violations in Sudan, Ethiopia and Myanmar, Amnesty International warned Wednesday as it published its annual report.
Police are investigating after a transport truck collided with a train in Sarnia.
As some family doctors are retiring and others are moving away from family medicine, there are fewer medical students to take their place.
Individuals being barred from entering Ontario’s legislature while wearing a keffiyeh say the garment is part of their cultural identity— and the only ones making it political are the politicians banning it.
United States authorities who have been searching for a pair of missing kayakers from British Columbia since the weekend have recovered two bodies in the nearby San Juan Islands of Washington state.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.
A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.
The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”
At 6'8" and 350 pounds, there is nothing typical about UBC offensive lineman Giovanni Manu, who was born in Tonga and went to high school in Pitt Meadows.
Kevin the cat has been reunited with his family after enduring a harrowing three-day ordeal while lost at Toronto Pearson International Airport earlier this week.
Molly Knight, a Grade 4 student in Nova Scotia, noticed her school library did not have many books on female athletes, so she started her own book drive in hopes of changing that.
Almost 7,000 bars of pure gold were stolen from Pearson International Airport exactly one year ago during an elaborate heist, but so far only a tiny fraction of that stolen loot has been found.