Maurice has refused to fall into the same trap

After the lockout, Maurice moved on to the Toronto organization as coach of the Marlies, the team's AHL affiliate, before taking over as coach of the Maple Leafs for two seasons.

When he was fired by the Maple Leafs, he went back to school, watched his children play hockey, and waited for his next opportunity. It came last December when Rutherford contacted Maurice, telling him he was going to make a change and that Peter Laviolette - who coached the Hurricanes to the Stanley Cup in 2006 - was being let go after the team missed the playoffs in 2007 and '08, and was faltering again at the start of this season.

The Hurricanes won 33 of their final 57 regular-season games and knocked off New Jersey in the first round of the playoffs.

Maurice is a different coach now. He's not 28 anymore, as he was when he was promoted to the head job by the then-Hartford Whalers in 1995. He's 42 and a little more mellow, a little more seasoned, but his sense of humor remains intact. Maurice said there are few similarities from his first incarnation - when he took the Hurricanes to the Cup finals in 2002 - and now.

"The game is completely different than the last time I was here," said Maurice. "We were a clutch-and-grab, trap-and-grind-it hockey team. That was the rules and it was based on the lack of a [salary] cap and [when] we went into Detroit that year, the starting six guys on the ice got paid more than our entire hockey team. It was David and Goliath and you had to clutch and grab and hold and not take any chances against that kind of situation.

"Now, we have players who can push our team, players who can drive offense, we're completely different and absolutely I view the game completely differently in part because of the changes in the style of game, but I'm quite a bit older than I was, unfortunately, the first time through. I enjoy all parts of the game far more than I did early on."

If New York and Boston are the hardest cities on their baseball managers, Toronto and Montreal can chew up and spit out hockey coaches, but Maurice said he wouldn't take back the struggles he endured.

"The Toronto experience was fantastic for me in terms of, probably, resilience," he said. "Coming to the rink every day, we had some tough days there from about September on and not just for me, for the team as well. Our first year, I thought we did an outstanding job based on our injury situation. I really felt we were on to something. But that next year was a challenge in resilience every day and we went through a lot of very strange things happening to our team early on."

Rutherford said Maurice has rarely received the credit he deserves.

"He had to deal with the move from Hartford, we had the couple of years in Greensboro where we didn't really have home games, and a lot of different things," said Rutherford. "He coached one year, we won the Prince of Wales Trophy and we went to the finals with a team that probably wasn't as strong as the majority of the teams that go to the finals. We made that change and then Paul went to Toronto where I felt, from a distance, he did a good job. He was kind of underappreciated there with what he [had] to work with."

When Rutherford brought back Maurice, he said other teams had adjusted to the system Laviolette had implemented, and the Hurricanes hadn't made adjustments. Although bringing a new coach in midway through the season can backfire, Rutherford said Maurice's familiarity made it less risky. Add to that the fact there was no financial gamble and it seemed a no-brainer.

"He was really working for nothing because we didn't pay him more than what Toronto was paying him," said Rutherford. "You have to give a guy a lot of credit when he makes a decision like that. The rest of it, the results you're seeing."

To his players who were here then and now, they don't see much of a change in Maurice, but the team is more talented.

"Back then, we were a real hard-trapping team and we fed off of our other teams' turnovers and played real tough team defense in front of our goalie," said forward Erik Cole. "Now, it's a little different. We're not just a hard-trapping team anymore. We've got a bit more skill up front, and on the back end they can move the puck and jump more into the play. It makes for an exciting brand of hockey."

Veteran forward Rod Brind'- Amour thinks his coach is a little more serene.

"From what I've heard, [after] being up in Toronto it makes you a little more relaxed," he said. "The last time around, we were a much more defensive team. We didn't have as much talent and we had to kind of make do. I think this time around, although he's definitely about defense, we're always talking about how to create more offense and that's probably a little change from before."

Coincidentally, when the team was making its playoff run in 2002, Maurice was at the end of his contract.

"We said we'd sit down at the end of the year and evaluate what direction to go in," Rutherford said. "That's where it sits now."

Nancy Marrapese-Burrell can be reached at marrapese@globe.com.