Carolina Hurricanes to face Panthers, familiar faces, in Eastern Conference final

Paul Maurice is coming back to Raleigh, and he’s bringing Eric Staal with him.

The Florida Panthers, coached by Maurice, took care of their playoff business Friday, beating the Toronto Maple Leafs 3-2 in overtime to clinch that second-round Stanley Cup series and move into the Eastern Conference finals.

Nick Cousins’ OT goal gave the Panthers a 4-1 win in the series. In what many would have considered an improbable matchup when the playoffs began a month ago, the Carolina Hurricanes and Panthers will decide which team plays for the Cup in the 2023 Stanley Cup Final.

Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour won the 2006 Cup with the Canes as a player and now is contending for another in his fifth year as head coach. The Canes hold the home-ice advantage over the Panthers and will host the first two games of the best-of-seven series.

The Canes won two of three games against the Panthers in the regular season, including a 6-4 road win on April 13 that had the two teams score eight goals in the third period. That victory, in the final game of the regular season. clinched the Metropolitan Division for the Canes while the Panthers took the second wild-card berth in the East.

As the Hurricanes celebrate their 25th anniversary season in North Carolina, it might be fitting the Panthers be a part of it — albeit in an adversarial way — in the Eastern final.

Maurice was behind the bench when the Hartford Whalers moved from Connecticut in 1997 and were renamed the Hurricanes. He guided the Canes to their first Stanley Cup Final in 2002, only to be denied by a Detroit Red Wings team packed with future Hockey Hall of Famers.

In a coaching career that has been Billy Martin-esque, Maurice was fired by the Canes in 2003, rehired by the Canes in 2008 and then fired again in 2011.

Staal, the Canes’ first-round draft pick in 2003, was a 100-point center in the 2005-2006 season when Carolina made its run to the Stanley Cup. Brind’Amour was the captain of the Cup winner, later to be succeeded by Staal.

Jordan Staal now wears the “C” as the Canes captain and defenseman Marc Staal joins Eric, the oldest of the Staal brothers, with the Panthers. For the next few games, whether four or as many as seven, theirs will be a love/hate relationship of sorts on the ice.

And the Panthers have other Canes connections. Forward Zac Dalpe played 41 games in three seasons for Carolina a decade ago, and forward Eetu Luostarinen and defenseman Gustav Forsling were in the Canes system before being traded to Florida in the 2020 deal that brought center Vincent Trocheck to Carolina. Panthers goalie Alex Lyon also was with the Canes.

Maurice, now 56, endured the two long years in Greensboro until the new arena was opened in Raleigh, helped ease the move into “ACC country,” and helped educate fans about a sport that many called “ice hockey.”

Maurice always liked to joke about overhearing some fans sitting behind the Canes bench at the Greensboro Coliseum saying, “This coach doesn’t know what he’s doing. He starts five guys and a minute into the game he’s already pulled ‘em out.”

Maurice took the Canes to the playoffs in 1999 and 2001, and was behind the bench when the Canes played their first Stanley Cup Final game in Raleigh in 2002 -- “The Longest Game.”

Game 3 of the series went to triple overtime before the Red Wings won 3-2 on an Igor Larionov goal with 5:13 left in the third OT. The Wings, beaten in overtime in Game 1 in Detroit, would go on to win the Cup in five games.

The Canes, under Brind’Amour, reached the Eastern final in 2019 before being beaten by the Boston Bruins. They’re back again this year, facing a Panthers team that vanquished the top-seeded Bruins in the first round.

“You’re excited but you know the work’s not done, obviously,” Canes defenseman Jaccob Slavin said Thursday after the Canes topped the New Jersey Devils to clinch their second-round series.