The Coaches Today

from Luke Fox of Sportsnet, The affable hockey lifer will either become the longest-serving coach in pro sports to win his first championship, or he will oversee the greatest title collapse of any living pro coach. Couple that with Maurice's dubious all-time NHL coaching record for most losses (736), and it's a hell of an investment into 60 minutes (or more) when the guy's feet won't even touch the ice until it's time to shake hands and swell up with grief or joy. Pick one. "Every coach is different," Maurice said, on the day before his Cats began their leap to a 3-0 lead and two weeks before they'd let it settle at 3-3. "And it seems to me, as you age, you get a different perspective on life and what’s important and valuable. "I need to win one. "Now, it’s not going to change the section of my life that’s not related to hockey at all. That’s the truth. That’s how I feel. I’m 30 years into this thing. Wouldn’t mind winning one." Maurice will tell you he believed his career was over and title-less when he and the Winnipeg Jets severed ties. He was fishing a bunch, sure. Enjoyed that. Yet he never reached "peaceful" in his failure to retire. "But I understand what it feels like — to feel like it’s over and didn’t win. Didn’t win. I know coaches that feel the opposite," he says. "I carry the losses. But that goes back to starting very, very young. So, I’m going to know when this thing’s all over either how good I got or how good I was. And I won’t need somebody else to tell me that or to value my career." He pauses, thinks, and repeats his truth: "Yeah, I’d like to really win one, man." continued from Mark Spector of Sportsnet,