Chris Johnston: Coach Paul Maurice makes a graceful exit in Winnipeg, for the Jets and himself

There Paul Maurice stood, teaching, even after reaching the end.

A man who made coaching his life’s work was completely and totally at peace Friday after resigning from the Winnipeg Jets, effective immediately.

While Maurice positioned his decision as being what was best for the team to reach the next level, he didn’t hide from the fact it was also what he needed for himself.

He never recovered his same zest for the job in the post-pandemic NHL. Initially, and understandably, he chalked up a challenging bubble experience to what was happening in the wider world. Then last season he looked around with no fans in the buildings and thought, “What’s the point?”

The usual level of excitement for trips to the rink didn’t return this fall even with something closer to normal conditions to play under.

That and a team responding less and less to the buttons he pushed told him it was time to go. Jets owner Mark Chipman and general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff didn’t stand in his way.

“If you lose some of that passion for the game, the love of the game, you can still be good but you can’t be as good as you should be or you could be,” Maurice told reporters in Winnipeg. “And that’s how I feel I am.”

This was as graceful an exit as you’ll find in what is by nature a disorderly profession.

Maurice ruminated on the decision for months, if not longer, and had extensive discussions with Chipman and Cheveldayoff about his future over the summer. The team performed beneath its ceiling at 13-10-5 through the first stretch of schedule, but there was nothing screaming for this change days before the Christmas break beyond Maurice’s feeling that a new voice was needed.

He pushed, and pushed, and pushed over eight years where the Jets went from a mediocre team to one that reached the Western Conference final. He found himself in a spot where he had to expend a tremendous amount of energy just to get a small response from a group so familiar with his message.

And so he took the unusual step of walking away.

“This is a long build. I felt I had done well and done my best,” said Maurice. “And I truly do love these guys, and I’m looking at ’em like one of your kids going, ‘You need to fix something here and it’s me.’

“I’m not embarrassed by it. I’m tremendously proud of the work that we’ve done here and I get to stay that way.”

The Jets will be coached by Dave Lowry on an interim basis for the remainder of the season. They also welcomed back assistant Jamie Kompon on Friday from a prolonged absence due to his wife Tina’s cancer battle.

They have the talent to be in the thick of the Central Division playoff battle down the stretch, but nothing is assured.

The same goes for Maurice’s future.

He is still only 54 — about 12 years younger than Bruce Boudreau, hired to coach the Vancouver Canucks earlier this month — but he’s travelled a lot of hard miles. He’s spent more than a quarter century behind the benches since becoming the Hartford Whalers’ head coach before his 30th birthday.

That’s a lot of flights and film sessions and pre-scouts and hours spent taking questions from reporters. He’s coached 1,684 NHL regular-season games, sixth all-time.

And so while Maurice made no commitments about what his future might look like, it was hard not to listen to how he framed Friday’s decision and hear it as a goodbye. His message came from a position of gratitude, and emphasized that it was actually a positive day rather than a sad one.

He may simply no longer have enough to give.

“You’re a performer just like the player and you have to be at your best,” said Maurice. “I’m a pretty honest critic of my performance. I am. Maybe sometimes a little too critical with it, but I’m honest about it with myself and the only way I would step back again is if I felt I could be even better than I was before.

“And that’s not today.”

All he could say for today was that he was happy not to have a game to coach or a job to search for.

During this challenging time in history where so many people are examining and reprioritizing their lives, Maurice’s decision took on more meaning. You need real courage to walk away from something that you love.

He did it on his terms.

“I know that it’s time and that’s a good thing for the Jets. It’s also a really, really good thing for me,” said Maurice. “I think I pushed that rock pretty far up that mountain, and I’m really comfortable in where I hand it off.”

Chris Johnston is a Toronto-based journalist with a new gaming company. His work will be seen on the website and app for the new gaming company, and also in the Toronto Star. Follow him on Twitter: @reporterchris