Brunette, who guided Panthers through turmoil as interim, is a coach of the year finalist

Andrew Brunette took over a loaded roster and team with Stanley Cup aspirations, and kept the Florida Panthers on their title-contending course. It’s part of why the interim coach was named a finalist for the Jack Adams Award on Thursday, but only half of the story.

In the first month of the season, Brunette abruptly rose into the interim job after Joel Quenneville resigned in scandal. At the time, the Panthers were undefeated and off to the best start in franchise history, and Quenneville — a three-time Cup champion with the Chicago Blackhawks — was raking in plaudits for the turnaround he was helping to lead in South Florida.

The situation could have derailed the Panthers’ season. Instead, Brunette kept Florida on track, and the Panthers won the Presidents’ Trophy for the first time and won their first postseason series since 1996. It’s why he’s one of three finalists for the Jack Adams, along with Calgary Flames coach Darryl Sutter and New York Rangers coach Gerard Gallant — all three of whom have their teams in the second round of the 2022 Stanley Cup playoffs.

“As corny as it sounds, I’ve been in this job since mid-October and it’s been a day-to-day thing,” Brunette said. “I’m just trying to win a hockey game today.”

The winner of the league’s coach-of-the-year award will be announced next month. Brunette hopes Florida will still be playing then, but first the Panthers will need to bounce back from their 4-1, Game 1 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning.

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Florida’s ability to handle adversity has defined the season. Brunette called the circumstances of his ascension, “awful,” both because of the situation leading to Quenneville’s resignation and his relationship with the former coach. Quenneville was one of many mentors to Brunette and he gave the coach another chance on the bench back in 2019 after Brunette was fired from his job in the Minnesota Wild’s front office.

Quenneville, however, resigned just seven games into his third season with the Panthers after an investigation from law firm Jenner & Block revealed the legendary coach was aware of a 2010 sexual-assault allegation against one of his Chicago Blackhawks assistant coaches and didn’t do anything about it.

A few weeks after he was made aware of the allegation, Quenneville won the first of three Stanley Cups with the Blackhawks.

Chicago fired Quenneville for performance reasons in 2019 and Florida hired him to try to end its long drought of postseason success. Last year, Quenneville guided the Panthers to the best regular season in franchise history, in terms of points percentage, and he had Florida unbeaten in the first month of the season before he resigned this year.

Brunette coached the final 75 games of the regular season and guided Florida to a 51-18-6 record. The Panthers set new team records for points percentage, points, wins, home wins, road wins, goals and shots per game, and put together the longest winning streak in franchise history in the final month of the season — 13 in a row — to help Florida finish with the best record in the NHL.

“He’s grabbed the bull by the horns and never looked back,” defenseman Radko Gudas said.

He is, however, still just the interim with no guarantee he’ll get the full time job next year.

It doesn’t bother Brunette, though.

“We’re all interim, in coaching and in life,” Brunette said. “Whatever happens, happens.”

Carter Verhaeghe: ‘game-time decision’

Carter Verhaeghe left the Panthers’ morning skate early Thursday and is a “game-time decision” for Game 2 of their second-round series against the Lightning, Brunette said.

The forward leads Florida with seven goals and seven assists in the 2022 Stanley Cup playoffs, and scored game-winning goals -- including two in overtime -- in the final three games of the Panthers’ first-round series against the Washington Capitals, second Florida into Round 2 for the first time since the 1996 Stanley Cup playoffs.

The Panthers fell right into the Lightning’s trap in Game 1 of their second-round rematch

Verhaeghe was also a game-time decision for Game 6 against the Capitals, skipping the morning skate in Washington before suiting up for the deciding game. Brunette did not say whether the injuries are related.

“It’s just the bumps and bruises of a playoff series,” Brunette said.

Winger Mason Marchment also did not participate in the morning skate at FLA Live Arena in Sunrise, indicating he will miss his third straight game with a lower-body injury. Tampa Bay will be without star forward Brayden Point, who will miss his second straight game with a lower-body injury.