How the Florida Panthers Overcame Painful Defeat

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His team had lost three straight games and was on the verge of making the wrong kind of history.

But after the Florida Panthers lost Game 6 of the Stanley Cup to the Edmonton Oilers last Friday, Coach Paul Maurice delivered a critical message.  

“Right now, if you walked into the room, there won’t be a lot of happy people,” Maurice told reporters after the game. 

“I’m not worried about (the players’ mental state) tonight. It doesn’t have to be right tonight. You’ve suffered a defeat, you feel it, it hurts. You lick your wounds, and we start building that back tomorrow.”

The Panthers came back to win Game 7 on Monday — clinching the first Stanley Cup title in the franchise’s history — but it was Maurice’s words days prior that may be the most relevant to anyone going through difficult times.

Following the defeat, Maurice didn’t dismiss the hardship outright, nor did he allow his players to sulk for too long.

Instead, he allowed them to feel disappointment for an evening, then re-focused the group on the larger objective the next day. 

The steadiness, composure and humility he conveyed right after the painful loss likely contributed, at least in part, to the Game 7 win.  

As coaches and leaders, we may want to consider his message when our own teams suffer a key disappointment — and follow these steps:

1. Acknowledge the emotions
2. Don’t try to fix the issue in mere seconds
3. Pinpoint what specifically needs to be corrected
4. Come back re-focused and re-committed to the goal

The point is that dismissing the harsh reality of our situation isn’t an actual solution to our problems.

By the same measure, becoming paralyzed by worry and allowing negative emotions to linger can have its own fatal consequences.

When we face trying times and self-doubt starts creeping in, pause, confront the brutal facts and come back with some actionable strategies to move forward.

Our responses to hardship can be the difference between tomorrow’s thrilling wins or its excruciating defeats.

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