TAMPA, Fla. — Pat Maroon was just doing his job.
In Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final, the Tampa Bay Lightning winger passed the puck to teammate Nikita Kucherov. His job was to go straight to the Colorado Avalanche net and get behind their defense. Once he did, he shouted “yeah, yeah!” to Kucherov, who hit him with a pass that Maroon roofed for the Lightning’s fifth goal of their 6-2 rout.
After Maroon’s wide-grin celebration, the 34-year-old tapped gloves with the 26-year-old Kucherov and said, “Good play … kid.”
A few days earlier, Maroon had a different job. It wasn’t lighting up the scoreboard. It was lightening the mood.
It was the day before Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final. The Lightning were stretching on the ice in Denver, down 1-0 in their series against the Avalanche. It was Kucherov’s birthday, and Maroon, the team’s bruising but jocular veteran winger, attempted to get a chorus of “Happy Birthday To You” going for his star teammate.
The song fizzled, so Maroon moved to his next tension breaker: Playfully slashing teammates during their morning skate.
“Obviously coming off the loss, it’s important to turn the page. I think that’s what made us successful in the past is to put stuff behind us,” defenseman Victor Hedman said. “Pat is very good in these situations. He has been throughout the season and all the years he’s been here.”
It’s Maroon’s third season in Tampa. He won the Stanley Cup in each of his first two. The Lightning are seeking a three-peat, but Maroon has already achieved that feat, having won the Stanley Cup with the 2019 St. Louis Blues, too.
“I’m very lucky and very fortunate to be a part of this. I take this game very seriously,” Maroon, 34, said. “It never gets old for me. You love the sacrifice. You love the happiness in the room after a big win.”
If there’s happiness in the room, Maroon is frequently the source for it.
“He brings a lot of personality,” coach Jon Cooper said. “He’s in a room where there’s not very much noise, he’s creating an atmosphere in that room. Which was much needed in our group. We’ve got a lot of character in our room, but not a ton of characters. And he’s a character.”
From his attention-grabbing gameday suits to his wickedly funny on-ice insults — he once mocked Josh Anderson of the Montreal Canadiens for having the same number of points as Maroon, “which is embarrassing” — Maroon is “one of a kind,” according to defenseman Ryan McDonagh.
“He’s quite the unique individual,” McDonagh said. “We had…
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