Schmidt's personality, playmaking benefitting Panthers during Stanley Cup Final

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Nate Schmidt is up the ice, the puck on his stick, initiating, creating and generating offense. He's smiling, laughing, chirping and cracking jokes. In general, he's just bringing a lot of energy and making a lot of noise in the Stanley Cup Final.

The Florida Panthers are the beneficiaries.

"I'm so happy for him, especially because I go back to the conversations we had this summer of what he was looking for from a tour with the Florida Panthers," coach Paul Maurice said. "I mean, he's not 23 anymore and he wanted to get his game back. That was the whole point. He felt he was a better player than he was playing and he took full responsibility for that. There was no blame to anybody else. He just thought he had more to give. It took him probably three or four months to get used to the way that we play, and since that time he's been incredibly effective."

Schmidt has had an obvious impact in the first two games against the Edmonton Oilers, and really throughout Florida's run in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

He has four points already against Edmonton, all on assists, two in each game, setting up Brad Marchand's power-play goal and Sam Bennett's goal off a 2-on-1 in Game 1, and Bennett's power-play goal and Seth Jones' tic-tac-toe goal in Game 2.

Schmidt has found space and jumped into the offense at the right time without sacrificing on the defensive end in this best-of-7 series that is tied 1-1 going into Game 3 at Amerant Bank Arena on Monday (8 p.m. ET; TNT, truTV, MAX, CBC, SN, TVAS).

"We want our 'D' to be aggressive and this series I feel there was a little kick in the diesel engine for the legs to get moving a little more," Schmidt said. "There are opportunities if you're right with it, if you're smart with your reads and when the pucks are in a good position for you to go. You have to put that added pressure on them. I think a lot of it is experience of knowing but also feeling like you've got young legs. I do. I really do."

The 33-year-old was seven years younger the last time he was in the Stanley Cup Final with the Vegas Golden Knights in 2018. Schmidt said that five-game series (won by the Washington Capitals) felt like a blur, that it blew past him without taking time to enjoy it.

Schmidt is trying not to let the same thing happen twice. It might be a reason for his strong play so far against the Oilers.

"I find that the first time I went through it, it just happened so fast," Schmidt said. "The games came fast and you didn't have a time to just sit and relax, just take a deep breath in the series. You get yourself so ingrained in that's the only thing that's going on. But I think this time you look at a little bit more of a macro view of it. You get to see that it's two great hockey games (so far). Both teams played well. Just trying to enjoy where we are. When you're at that stage of your career, you're thinking, 'Oh, our team's good, we're (going to be) back here all the time.' But the reality is that it's hard. It's incredibly hard to get back to this stage and this time, like I said, I'm just trying to slow it down and enjoy it."

He's doing that by being himself.

Schmidt is loud and he doesn't hide it. He oozes personality. It seems like he's always smiling.

"It's something we knew right from training camp, right when he came in," Panthers forward Sam Reinhart said. "You need those personalities in the room. Especially this time of year, when games get tighter, nothing changes about him."

Maurice said the importance of Schmidt being Schmidt was a topic of conversation he had with the defenseman last summer when Florida signed him to a one-year contract.

"He's a big-smile guy, lots of chatter, and we need that," Maurice said. "We lost a few of those guys. We still talk about some of the players that played here in the last two years that aren't here anymore because they were really, really important. Nick Cousins is a chirper, never stopped talking. (Josh) Mahura, (Brandon) Montour, those guys never shut up, which was great for us. Nate does that."

Said Dmitry Kulikov "Sometimes you're a little bit tired in the morning and you come into the locker room and all you need to do is just hear this guy's voice and sometimes it just brings a smile on your face. Sometimes."

Kulikov laughed as he said "sometimes" for the second time because, well, yeah, sometimes you don't want all the noise and chatter and energy early in the morning.

But there's Schmidt anyway, smiling, happy, always ready to attack the day.

"He's just a lot of fun, he is," said former NHL coach Rick Bowness, who had Schmidt the past two seasons when he was with the Winnipeg Jets. "He's a really good teammate and he's just one of those fun guys to be around. He knows when to get serious and play the game, but he also knows it's a game and he has a lot of fun playing, as he should."

It matters even more to the Panthers when that big personality is matched by big playmaking.

Bowness, watching the Cup Final from home, said he can tell Schmidt is comfortable and confident by how he's getting up the ice and moving the puck from the left side. Kulikov is his defense partner playing on the right side.

"When we had him (in Winnipeg) we played him in the right side the whole time because the left side was obviously 'Mo' (Josh Morrissey) and we had Brenden Dillon at the time and (Dylan) Samberg," Bowness said. "What I see him doing now is he's making some great seam passes from that left side. He's really seeing the ice. The game is not fast in his mind right now. He's seeing those seams when they open up."

This is how Schmidt also played for the Capitals when he first got to the NHL 11 years ago but more specifically for his three seasons in Vegas from 2017-20. His ability to attack the game, to see the seams and react quickly, slowly tailed off over the past few seasons.

"Part of it is reminding yourself that you have that game in you and you're just unlocking it," Schmidt said.

He's doing that through confidence, chemistry and trust from Maurice and assistant Sylvain Lefebvre, who runs Florida's defense group. They gave Schmidt his role, told him the expectations, and have since let him play and be himself within those parameters.

"What they talk about is where you are in our system, how you fit, what your role is, and knowing that it's OK just to do that and we don't ask you to do more," Schmidt said. "So that's one of the biggest things that I felt once I learned that and understood that that's good enough. And then you don't have to try and be like, 'Oh, I need to be playing more, I didn't do this. I didn't do that.' No, it's like you're right where we need you to be."

Schmidt, though, has delivered above and beyond expectations through two games in the Stanley Cup Final.

"He looks like he did when he was a kid," Maurice said. "When he first came into the League in Washington, he was dynamic with the way he'd get up the ice. Then coaches beat that out of you and take that the fun out of the game for you. But he looks like he's found his fun again."