Cote: ‘Live it. Enjoy it!’ Florida Panthers win in Boston yet again, reach NHL East finals | Opinion

The Florida Panthers’ Paul Maurice is as thoughtful and introspective and therefore as interesting a head coach as South Florida has had in its long sports history. There is a wry smile, a quirkiness to him. He has a touchy-feely, live-in-the-moment vibe. At times he sounds like your Dad, or a favorite uncle ... especially when he is talking about his love for this time of year -- playoff hockey.

“I say enjoy it, but you lose a game and you’re absolutely distraught. Worst feeling in the world!” he said before Friday night’s Game 6 in Boston. “You win a game it’s more of a peaceful feeling. But you also know that’s gonna disappear, too. I enjoy the whole spectrum of emotion that the playoffs bring. Could you live 12 months like this.? No. You’d fry.”

He tells his players before games like this one: “We can’t be holding our breath out there, men. We gotta live it. Enjoy it!”

What does he mean?

His players aiming to win a first Stanley Cup in this franchise’s 30-year history were 5-year-olds wobbling on skates when they set out on this unpredictable journey. Who’d have believed they’d all be here, this close to the peak of ice mountain? Maurice reminds his guys -- even in the midst of the maelstrom -- to stop for a second, and remember, and savor.

“This is what it’s all about. The whole thing. The ups, the downs, the juice,” he says. “This is the special time in hockey.”

Maurice has coached long enough, since the mid-1990s, to be among the NHL’s all-time leaders in most wins ... and losses. He has reached the Stanley Cup Final twice in 26 seasons, in 2002 and last season with Florida. He has yet to lift the silver chalice. He has more NHL wins than any coach, ever, who has not.

He is halfway there after Friday night.

The Panthers’ second round series-clinching 2-1 Game 6 victory in Boston got him and his team there -- Florida’s sixth straight postseason victory in Boston dating to last season.

A fire alarm at the Cats’ Boston hotel suspiciously went off Friday afternoon, just as Maurice was settling in for his pregame nap. Following the game, the Bruins set their team alarm for next season.

“In my career,” said Maurice, “if something gets messed up at the team hotel, it’s a guaranteed win.”

Maurice had said earlier this month, “All you hope is to get to a Game 7.”

Well, sometimes you hope it more than other times.

Maurice and his Panthers did not hope it this time with a (seemingly commanding) 3-1 series lead.

But they avoided that Friday to win the prize: A date with the New York Rangers in the Eastern Conference finals, in Game 1 Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden.

Old-school NHL fans might have preferred a Bruins-Rangers, “Original Six” conference finals.

Tough luck, traditionalists. The Sunshine State is here.

(It’s brutally hot right now down here, by the way. The ice is melting in our margaritas! But apparently we can play a little hockey...)

Just a minute ago the Boston Celtics eliminated the Miami Heat from the NBA playoffs. Kismet? Do Heat fans owe the Panthers a gift basket?

The winning goal was Gustav Forsling’s with just 1:33 left in regulation Friday, inside the near post to finish a play that Matthew Tkachuk started but that came to Forsling as a deflection off an Anton Lundell shot.

“I just got the rebound and I honestly was just trying to get it to the net,” said Forsling. “I really didn’t see it go in. I just saw [my teammates] react so it was amazing. I’m not used to being the guy who scores the game-winning goal. I’ll stick to defense.”

Said the Bruins’ Jakob DeBrusk: ”It sucks. As soon as they scored that one, there was time left but it was a dagger. You see the [other] guys celebrating and that sucks. There’s no easy way to take that.”

Florida had tied it 1-1 just past midway of the second period when Lundell deposited a loose puck past goalie Jeremy Swayman to mute the home crowd.. They called it unassisted, though Carter Verhaeghe’s charge led to it. Lundell is 22, one of the Cats’ rising babies.

“You cannot tell a young player what the playoffs are like,” Maurice said. “The value of our run last year was good for somebody like Lundell maybe more than anyone else. He’s on fire. Playing a different kind of game than I’ve ever seen.”

The Bruins had led 1-0 in the last minute of the first period on Pavel Zacha’s first career playoff goal in his 26th postseason game. A broken play found him with the puck 1-on-1 with goaltender Sergei Bobrovksy. With patience Zacha juked, made his adversary make the first move, and lifted the puck over Bob’s left shoulder.

But Bobrovsky stopped 22 of 23 Bruins shots, many in the desperate late minutes, in another big, playoffs-shaping night. You know how something “Brobdingnagian” means gigantic? I have submitted a bill to Congress to have the word changed to ”Bobdingnagian.”

Although Bob had help. With four minutes left Aleksander Barkov blocked a dead-on shot when the goalie had been drawn off the net.

”That was a big block,” said Bobrovsky. “He saved the goal, saved the game and gave us a chance to win.”

A loss Friday would have meant the Bruins had a chance to do to Florida what the Panthers did to Boston last postseason: Rally from 3-1 down to win a series in Game 7.

Those are rare treats, Game 7s.

There have only been three in the Panthers’ 30 seasons, and one at home. The others were in expansion-era 1996 (a conference finals loss at Pittsburgh), in 2012 first-round home loss to New Jersey, and last season (a first-round win at Boston).

Instead the Panthers get ready for the Eastern finals vs. NYR -- remarkably only the second time ever the teams will have met in the postseason. The first was in the first round in 1997. Tkachuk was not yet born. Barkov was 1 1/2.

Florida was 2-0-1 vs. the Rangers this season. But despite NYR winning the Presidents Trophy with the best regular season record, the Panthers were a slight ECF betting favorite per Draft Kings as of Friday.

“This is what it’s all about. The whole thing. The ups, the downs, the juice. This is the special time in hockey,” Maurice had said.

It has only just begun.

“Next it’s playoff hockey in New York. It’s a dream,” said Tkachuk. “The history, the city. Conference finals at MSG -- it’s just so cool.”