Florida Panthers expected to see $88.5m player leave again on loan with deal…

Paul Maurice made the short trip from his home to the Florida Panthers’ practice facility on Monday morning in a pretty good mood and rightly so. The sunshine was bright, the temperature was warm and his team was one win away from claiming the Stanley Cup.

That’s the glass-half-full outlook. The glass-half-empty perspective would be how his Panthers were coming off a seven-goal loss – tying the second-worst defeat by any team in a playoff game since 2001 and tying the second-worst loss in a Cup final game ever.

As such, when asked if he was comfortable with a 3-1 series lead over the Edmonton Oilers in this title series, Maurice quickly explained that that simply doesn’t exist at this time of year.

“Oh, no, there´s no comfort in the playoffs,” the Panthers coach said. “You´re never in a comfortable position in the playoffs. You´ve earned your wins. You´ve earned your losses. It´s the same feeling. Every playoff loss feels the same. Maybe other people get comfortable. I haven´t had that for 30 years. You´re never comfortable. Which is good, right? Just got to harness it.”

The Panthers will seek to do just that on Tuesday night when, for the first time in their history, they will take to home ice one win from the Cup. Game 5 of the title series is in Sunrise, where the Oilers try to extend their season again and Florida tries to close out the series, the season and a 30-year quest for the franchise’s first championship.

Edmonton won Game 4 on Saturday night 8-1, the seventh time ever that a Cup final game was decided by seven or more goals. The record for differential was Pittsburgh’s 8-0 win over Minnesota in 1991.