The most obvious bond between the Rangers and Panthers may be the bond between two men who, as Paul Maurice acknowledges, aren’t all that close.
However, when Maurice was fired as the Hurricanes’ head coach in 2004, he left a note on the board for his successor, Peter Laviolette.
And he returned the favor when Laviolette was fired after the 2006 Stanley Cup win with Carolina and Maurice replaced him in 2009.
“We had a good group of players,” Morris said Monday ahead of the first playoff matchup between the two teams since the second round in 2018, when his Jets defeated Laviolette’s Predators. “Someone took a photo and exposed it.”
It’s normal for paired teams to have some connection because that’s how it works when everyone operates in the same world.
But the two teams that begin the Eastern Conference Finals on Wednesday at Madison Square Garden have more than they can count.
The Jets team Morris coached had Blake Wheeler as the captain and Jacob Trouba as one of the top defensemen. Jack Roslovic was also included as a young player.
“I think he’s a pretty good communicator. I know where I stand with him at all times,” Trouba said of Maurice on Monday. “His coaching method is very simple. If you do it right, he’s pretty straightforward about it. I think he understands what’s going on and sometimes he has a certain way of getting around it. Sometimes he gives him a pat on the back, sometimes he gives him a lift. He knows what the players need at certain times. I read it a lot.”
“I hope he plays,” Morris said of Wheeler, who is working his way back from a serious right foot injury suffered in February. “He’s a hard-working guy and he would have done everything he could to get back in good shape to come back from that injury.”
After losing his job in Carolina, Laviolette’s next job was in Philadelphia.
The goalkeeper who took over in 2010 happened to be the young Sergei Bobrovsky.
When Bobrovsky decided to make Columbus the next base of his career, he would later befriend Artemi Panarin. The two became close friends, even partying on a boat on the Italian island of Capri when they signed with their current team in July 2019.
“He was a great goaltender and was always working on his game,” Laviolette said of Bobrovsky. “Works tirelessly and is a really good guy. I’ve watched him since he was a young player in Philadelphia and watched him grow over the years in Columbus and Florida and be one of the top goalies in the league. I’ve seen it proven.”
Two players the Rangers added at last season’s trade deadline, Vladimir Tarasenko and Nikko Mikkola, are currently playing for the Panthers.
Vincent Trocheck, who has 14 points in 10 playoff games this postseason, played the first seven seasons of his career in Sunrise, Florida.
Follow The Post’s coverage of the Rangers in the NHL playoffs
The web of connections between these teams stretches out like a city map.
Michael Peca, whose presence as an assistant coach with the Rangers brought about big changes in the faceoff world?
“I took him to Toronto,” Maurice said. He certainly coached Peca when he played for the Maple Leafs in 2006-2007.
When the game begins, everything looks the same and hostility flares up even among friends. Maurice, verbose even under the playoff lights, put everything into proper context.
“I don’t think it affects me one bit,” the Panthers coach said. “You don’t think about it. The puck dropping is the furthest thing from being conceivable. You’re not throwing hits at guys. Get off the ice as hard as you can, as fast as you can. .
“I think we’ll have a great story on the way in. I think it’ll be a good handshake line. But I don’t think it will affect the series at all.”
