Florida Panthers Head Coach Paul Maurice entered some hallowed ground on Saturday night.
His Panthers picked up an impressive 4-0 win over the Colorado Avalanche at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, but the victory carried some additional meaning for the veteran bench boss.
Florida’s win was the 850th of Maurice’s extensive NHL head coaching career, moving him past Ken Hitchcock for the fifth-most victories in league history.
It was just the latest milestone that Maurice has reached since joining the Panthers.
Earlier this season, Maurice became the third person to ever coach 1,800 games in the NHL, and then a couple weeks later he passed Barry Trotz for the second-most games coached in league history.
While he still got a ways to go before catching Scotty Bowman for most games coached or most wins –Maurice is 323 games and 394 wins behind Bowman as of Sunday – Florida’s veteran head coach understands that he’s entering very rare air.
“I think I probably took stock of moving into second because Mr. Bowman is first,” Maurice said. “But we need to win a Stanley Cup to truly enjoy it, so the rest of them I don’t spend much time thinking about.”
After passing Hitchcock, Maurice is now just nine victories behind New Jersey Devils Head Coach Lindy Ruff for fourth place on the wins list.
Catching Ruff will be more challenging than simply winning another 10 games because unlike the other legendary coaches at the top of these impressive lists, Ruff is still active.
As it stands, Trotz has the third-most wins with 914, currently 64 more than Maurice and 55 more than Ruff.
For the full list of the all-time coaching records, click here.
Maurice and the Panthers will be back in action on Wednesday night in Pittsburgh when they begin a tough stretch of three games in four nights, all on the road.
It will be a solid test for Florida, which has been one of the better teams in the NHL when playing away from home this season.
Entering play on Sunday, the Panthers lead the league with 17 road wins.
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