Winnipeg Coach Paul Maurice Talks Vancouver Canucks

The Vancouver Canucks host the Winnipeg Jets Friday night in an attempt to snap the BC boys’ five-game losing streak. The always delightful Paul Maurice, head coach of the Jets, took some time out midday Friday to talk to his entertaining radio play-by-play man Paul Edmonds and I poached part of the sound. It’s what we do here at VHN for the benefit of our readers/listeners, selecting the answers most relevant to you.

It’s insightful and it’s concise. By the way, they include a topic; size, toughness, and fighting, that will seem foreign to the Vancouver Canucks crowd, at least from what I’ve seen and heard this season. Fascinating, simple take.

The Jets lost last night in an entertaining game in Edmonton 2-1 in a shoot-out to the Oilers. It’s the third game in four nights for Winnipeg, having beaten the Oilers 5-2 as part of a home-and-home on Tuesday night.

We’ll continue to try and provide you the visiting team’s head coach or GM each and every game day. We’ve talked to all of them thus far. In this case, thank you to both Pauls.

By the way, in the Covid season, the Winnipeg Jets and the Vancouver Canucks competed against one another in the Northern Division or the ‘All-Canada’ division. Kind of cool, but with things back to ‘normal’, the two teams will see each other less often once again with the Canucks in the Pacific and the Jets in the Central Division respectively.

Maurice has coached the Carolina Hurricanes, the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Hurricanes again, and then the Winnipeg Jets in his NHL bench boss career. He also spent a year in Russia between National Hockey League gigs. He never played pro hockey, turning to coaching after a four-year career as a defenceman with Windsor in the Ontario Hockey League back in the 1980’s.