FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The battle of Florida is fierce and often nasty, but it’s not without some humorous moments.
Paul Maurice is playing along and appears to be enjoying himself.
Following Florida’s Game 2 victory, Maurice voiced displeasure at Brandon Hagel’s blindside hit that knocked Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov out of the game. Hagel was later suspended one game for the hit.
Brandon Hagel has been suspended 1 games for interference on Aleksander Barkov pic.twitter.com/AvC0bdlT83
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) April 26, 2025
“The only players we hit are the ones that have pucks,” Maurice said following the game.
Fast-forward 48 hours, and the tables turned in more ways than one.
Tampa Bay, desperate for a win in Game 3 after dropping the first two games of the series on home ice, earned a 5-1 victory on Florida ice, as road teams remained undefeated in the series. When Jake Guentzel was busy setting up Anthony Cirelli’s empty-net goal that iced the victory, he was annihilated by a very late Matthew Tkachuk hit.
Matthew Tkachuk has been given a 5-minute major for this hit on Jake Guentzel before Tampa’s ENG pic.twitter.com/gDHny5h8z2
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) April 26, 2025
Tkachuk is not expected to be disciplined by the NHL. This didn’t stop Jon Cooper from voicing his displeasure.
And he very much did so at Maurice’s expense.
“The only players we hit are the ones with the pucks,” Cooper responded in a very clear, if not humorous, reference to what he perceived to be some hypocrisy on the part of the Panthers.
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Maurice was asked on Sunday afternoon if he was aware of Cooper’s comment. True to form, he was. And he seemed to enjoy it.
“I know,” Maurice said. “He chirped me.”
The Florida and Tampa Bay respective head coaches very clearly possess considerable respect for one another, despite the mild war of words.
Maurice isn’t above finding humor in the matter.
“I’m at home watching the Senators (against the Maple Leafs) game,” Maurice said. “He chirped me. Which I appreciate. He used my own words on me, too. I’m not sure it’s applicable to the events on the ice, but it was still good.”
The NHL agrees that Cooper’s words weren’t entirely applicable.
Tkachuk received a five-minute penalty for the late hit on Guentzel. However, the league has deemed that suspending Tkachuk isn’t appropriate because Guentzel did have the puck at some point before being hit and because there was no head contact on the play.
Jon Cooper pulled the reversal on Paul Maurice’s quote when asked about the Tkachuk hit 😂
Playoffs are in WWE mode 🍿
pic.twitter.com/i8sPExtPDC— Spittin’ Chiclets (@spittinchiclets) April 26, 2025
Guentzel made it clear that he believed the NHL should offer some discipline in Tkachuk’s direction.
“I’m sure the league is going to do their job,” Guentzel said after Game 2. “Personally, I thought it was late.”
There’s no questioning that it was a late hit. Not late enough, however, for the league to move forward with a suspension to Tkachuk, a player known for occasionally going over the edge physically.
The series has been plenty intense already, and Maurice doesn’t think his banter with Cooper adds to the ferociousness of this battle.
“Oh my God,” he said. “I hope not.”
But make no mistake, Maurice is having a good time with Cooper.
“And I think the coaches probably all have to take over the chirps at some point,” Maurice said. “It’s kind of a lost art on the bench. It’s all good.”
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Cooper, later on Sunday, seemed somewhat at peace with the league’s decision to not discipline Tkachuk.
“George Parros and company at the Department of Player Safety, I don’t know if there’s a harder job in sports than what they have,” Cooper said. “It’s a no-win situation for them because one fan base is going to be upset about one decision, and the other fan base is going to be upset because the decision wasn’t strong enough. So it’s kind of like being a referee. If you asked me right now what our forecheck is, I can tell you. If you asked me right now to go and determine what goes on in one of these hits and how it should be judged, I can’t. I don’t see them enough. These guys are schooled on it.”
Cooper added: “The department knows exactly what they’re doing. And so for me to sit here and to judge them, I can’t judge them. They know what they’re doing. I don’t in that regard. And so you accept their decision and move on and trust that the right one is being made because they’re not cheering for anybody. They’re cheering for the game to be played properly and how they see fit is probably what should have happened, regardless of what everybody feels about it.”
Game 4 is scheduled for Monday night at 7 p.m. in Sunrise. The series returns to Tampa for Game 5 on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.
Tkachuk and Hagel, who very famously fought at puck drop when the United States and Canada played at the 4 Nations Face-off in February in Montreal, will both be available.
“The players play the game to win, and there’s a physical aspect to it,” Cooper said. “And do I think in the 1,000-plus regular-season games and 100 playoff games, whatever goes on, is there predatory hits? Maybe. These players want to win. Do they go out of their way to hurt somebody? I don’t think so. Do I think either of those plays or other plays, were guys going out to physically take somebody out of the game? I don’t think so.”
(Photo: John E. Sokolowski / Imagn Images)
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