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NHL fans online had a good laugh at Florida Panthers coach Paul Maurice's reaction to the Edmonton Oilers crowd booing him during Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final at Rogers Place on Thursday.
Ahead of the puck drop, the crowd welcomed Maurice with boos when his name was announced. The Panthers coach graciously acknowledged the welcome with a simple "thank you."
Fans found Paul Maurice's reaction amusing and they quickly jumped on X/Twitter to share their thoughts, with one describing it as:
"Savage."
Another fan opined that Maurice deserves a Stanley Cup:
"This man deserves a Stanley Cup."
"Bouta drop 7 goals on them and make it a 3-0 series," an X user said.
Here are some of the other top reactions on X:
"Shoutout ninja turtles," one fan humorously posted.
"Good lord--is that the same obnoxious shirtless kid from Florida behind the bench? At least he's wearing a jersey this time," another wondered.
"He’s all class. A shame Toronto and those losers in Winnipeg ran him out of town," one X user tweeted.
The Panthers took a 1-0 lead through Sam Reinhart with less than two minutes remaining in the first period. Warren Foegele tied it for the Oilers at 1:49 of the second.
Paul Maurice speaks about Aleksander Barkov's offensive role
Aleksander Barkov returned to the lineup for the Panthers in Game 3 following an injury caused by an elbow to the jaw by Leon Draisaitl in the third period of Game 2.
Ahead of Game 3, Paul Maurice said he is comfortable using Barkov in a more offensive role. Maurice acknowledged playing with a different strategy at home when facing top players like Connor McDavid. However, when playing on the road, he suggested capitalizing on Barkov's offensive capabilities (via NHL.com):
"At home, a lot of nights he is going to play against the McDavids of the world, or other great players because there aren't any other McDavids in the world," Maurice said. "Then you get on the road, maybe you look at [Barkov] a little differently. You look at the offensive side of his game.
"Yes, there is the give and take. We would lose the Selke-ness against possibly the other teams but we are getting a guy that is a point-per-game-plus guy and a guy that has scored 57 [goals]. There's the give and take for both teams," he added.
The Panthers are up 2-0 in the Stanley Cup Final.
