How Paul Mara Has Helped Boston Pride Be Successful Last Three Seasons

Paul Mara has accomplished quite a bit since taking over as head coach of the Boston Pride in March 2018.

Mara, a former NHL defenseman, owns the most wins as a head coach in NWHL history with 37 in the regular season, and is just one of two coaches to win at least 30 games.

He also has helped lead the Pride to the 2020 Isobel Cup final, which unfortunately was canceled due to COVID-19.

And now Mara has a chance, once again, to watch his team compete for the Isobel Cup when Boston takes on the Toronto Six on Friday in the Isobel Cup semifinals, which will air on NBC and take place at Warrior Ice Arena.

The Pride won the Cup in their inaugural season, but have not done so since. So it’s easy to understand just why they are so hungry to bring it back to Boston.

For Jillian Dempsey, who’s been in the NWHL since its debut in 2015, she’s antsy to get her hands back on the Isobel Cup. And she knows her coach has been a huge reason as to why Boston has been so successful the last three seasons.

“Having Paul for three seasons now, he has goals for this team, he’s very clear about his expectations for us,” Dempsey said Tuesday. “And he keeps adding more tools to our team in terms of the rookies that we bring in each season, sometimes new players — somebody with trades. First season (under Mara), win the Cup. Second season it was the Cinderella story for the opponent. Normally I love an underdog story, but that was the exact opposite of how we wanted that championship to go. Then Year 3 was probably the most losses I’ve had in any of my hockey career.

“So when Paul came aboard in Year 4 it was excellent because we were able to get going right off the bat, build a strong foundation for what we want this program to be and continue to add on to it and get the right kind of character players, the right kind of style, and just go from there. Paul really gives us the freedom to go out there and play our own game, and use our creativity. … Everybody fits into the system and buys into their role. We wanna play fast and we wanna play hard. And that’s a big staple to our teams’ game and organization. Paul is obviously the leader of that in building us and getting us better year after year. And (general manager Karilyn Pilch), too.”

Both Mara and Pilch have said how they take pride in building their team off of character, and it’s clear they’ve done just that with their veteran players and newcomers — both rookies and free-agent signings.

The Pride take on the Six on Friday at 5 p.m. ET with the winner moving on to the Isobel Cup Final.