The Florida Panthers advanced to the Stanley Cup Final for the third straight year on Wednesday night. Florida defeated the Carolina Hurricanes by the score of 5-3 to punch their ticket. Head coach Paul Maurice will see his team attempt to win its second straight Cup and the second in franchise history. However, it does not appear as if everyone was in the mood to congratulate him.

The Panthers and Hurricanes lined up at center ice for the traditional handshake line. This is a tradition dating back to before the NHL began as a league. Absent from this line was Maurice, who approached the Hurricanes' coaching staff separately from the players. The exchange between Florida's bench boss and Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour appeared to be rather intense, as seen in a video shared by Sportsnet.

Panthers' Paul Maurice abstains from handshake line

Florida Panthers head coach Paul Maurice during the third period against the Toronto Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Arena.
© John E. Sokolowski-Imagn Images
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This exchange between Maurice and Brind'Amour is rather interesting given recent comments. Maurice spoke about his thoughts on the handshake line earlier this postseason. He believes this tradition is meant to be for the players. And he would prefer coaches show their respects separately.

“When this whole thing started, and I don’t know when it changed, probably in the past 10 years, but the coaches would come off the bench, shake hands, and then they would leave,” Maurice said back in early May, via NHL.com's George Richards. “Somewhere, some coach wanted to get on camera, got down there, and got in the line. Now, if you don’t, you get roasted for it, being disrespectful. So, you’ve got to go and shake a bunch of sweaty dudes’ hands.

“But you wear a suit to the game; for those guys, the battle is real. The intensity is real, the meanness. You have two guys crossing paths who had been trying to do harm to each other for somewhere between four and seven games. That handshake is legitimate, and it’s real. And that’s a part of the great story of our game that they can do that.”

Maurice did abstain from the handshake line when the Panthers eliminated the Toronto Maple Leafs. He also did not partake in the line when they beat the Hurricanes on Wednesday. No matter how one feels about Maurice's perspective, the Panthers coach has stayed true to his word during this playoff run.