Carolina Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said he was surprised when Florida Panthers coach Paul Maurice asked him not to participate in their series-ending handshake line last week and said he disagreed that it should just be for the players.
Maurice has attempted to start a new tradition in the NHL in which coaches and staff don’t participate in the handshake line, a decades-old ritual held at center ice after teams are eliminated from the Stanley Cup playoffs.
He asked Toronto Maple Leafs coach Craig Berube to stand down in the second round, and Berube obliged. He asked Brind’Amour to do the same after the Panthers eliminated the Hurricanes in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals in Raleigh. Maurice said he appreciated Brind’Amour agreeing to it.
“There’s this long list of people in suits and track suits. We had, like, 400 people on the ice. They’re all really important to our group, but not one of them was in the game. There’s something for me visually with the camera on just the men who played — who blocked shots and who fought for each other,” Maurice said.
At the Hurricanes’ postseason media availability Tuesday, Brind’Amour said he understood Maurice’s point of view. But he said that participating in the handshake is about “gracious losing” and that he won’t continue Maurice’s tradition next season.
“Sitting back on it and reflecting, I’ve had some pretty impactful memories and moments in that line as a coach going through it,” he said.
Brind’Amour noted that the tradition gives him a chance to have a moment with players he used to coach, such as when he shook the hands of former Hurricanes players who are now on the New Jersey Devils during Carolina’s first-round win.
“Moving forward, I think I’ll probably go back to it just because it’s a sign of respect. That’s the way I look at it. We’re not out there on the ice battling, but we’re right in there with these guys,” Brind’Amour said. “He won, so I kind of went, ‘OK, I’m going to follow your lead in that.’ But I do think it’s important, to me anyway, to show respect to the players.”
Maurice, whose first head coaching job was with the Hartford Whalers in 1995, said that staff didn’t always take part in the handshake line and that he was trying to reorient the spotlight on the players.
“When I first got in the league, we would never go shake the players. Some coach wanted to get on camera; it was the only thing I can figure out,” Maurice said.
“I think there’s a really nice, kind of beautiful part of our game, just the players shaking hands at the end. When you think of all the great competitions on the ice, they’re not sending Christmas cards to each other. This was nasty out there. And yet they shake hands like that. That’s special,” he said.
Maurice’s reigning-champion Panthers are facing the Edmonton Oilers in the Stanley Cup Final for the second straight season. Game 1 is Wednesday night.
