FORT Lauderdale, Fla. (AP) - Florida coach Paul Maurice keeps his day-to-day routine. Show up early to work and drink plenty of coffee. Trust the assistant coach to do the job. Sit in a meeting when needed. Hammer player consistent message. Sometimes they swear, sometimes they swear.

Hey, it works.

In the Stanley Cup final for the third consecutive season, Morris' style—sometimes the laughter is funny, clever and serious about others—continues to bring results to Florida. Before coming to Florida, he was 41-51 years old in his playoff career. He scored 41-21 in his playoff career at Florida. He is a coaching student who has received great respect in the game before the Panthers took him on, but until now he has never run like this.

"I don't respect other teams I coached," Morris said. "The team here, this is the best team I have ever coached. It's not that close."

Last season's Stanley Cup winner, the Panthers will try to win back-to-back titles as they begin their first rematch visit to Edmonton on Wednesday night. Last year, Florida beat the Oilers in his first Cup game for Maurice in Maurice’s 30-year career.

"Oh, I'll never get tired of hearing this," Morris said.

This is a lively tug-of-war game, with Morris and the Panthers players participating in these days. The player doesn't want to be praised for winning the third straight Cup final. The coach insisted that it was all about them, and he just pressed a few buttons here and there.

The truth is, there is enough credibility to solve.

“He keeps the light, but he hopes we can do our best and be ready and – I know I’ve said it before – he can get you into Tuesday night’s game against Columbus or mid-year, which feels like a playoff game,” forward Matthew Tkachuk said. “His speech and the ability to make us run in every game are a big gift.”

But speeches are not flibusters. Maurice believes it is crucial to be able to enter the locker room and say exactly what needs to be said without saying more or anything else. He is not afraid to tell his players that they are not performing well. He wasn't afraid to tell his players that he loved them either.

He wasn't afraid to make himself a joke either. Florida was 122 points, and Morris arrived before the season, the president won the team. The Panthers scored 92 points in the first year of his time.

"Coach," he quipped. The 30-point drop was largely a tweak made by a change in style that brought them to the Cup final, but Maurice never missed the opportunity to tease him how he turned the 122-point club into a 92-point club overnight.

Panthers guard Seth Jones is coming to Florida this season before the trade deadline. He has a lot of learning - new systems, new expectations, new teammates. He also had to learn how to do different coaching and he quickly realized that it wasn't a bad thing.

"It's different from what I have," Jones said of Morris' style. "I think he knows how to really take over the temperature of the group and the situation of the group. He can have a meeting, he's very intense, calling on men or bringing the team out. But he's also very good at making jokes there, throwing a funny clip when we do videos. He's smart when we do videos. I don't think he needs anything at any given time. I rarely have a very few things.

It is crucial that Black Panther has learned this.

Consider last season's championship series. The Panthers won the first three games and were on the verge of the cup. Then they lost Game 4. Game 5. and Game 6. The edge of the cup becomes a collapsed edge, very quickly.

Maurice began talking to his players about freedom and playing with the feeling. Game 7 is flawless. The Panthers won, and about a week later, Maurice was soaked in the rain, profane remarks ended in the air and shouted "Freedom! on the top of his team's lungs.

"He got the buy from the players, he was the same for all of us, and I think it's really important as a coach, not to treat different people," Tekachuk said. "He expects all of us to work hard, respect each other and everything, but he treats all of us exactly the same. He's a great coach and we're lucky to have brought him here."