Paul Maurice calls out Brad Marchand and throws Bill Zito under the bus.

Over the weekend it seemed as though we had learned the secret to how veteran National Hockey League forward Brad Marchand stays fueled up between periods in the Stanley Cup playoffs, but now his head coach is casting some doubt on his story.

For those of you who don't know, Marchand was caught eating during the second intermission of Game 3 on Friday night and, when he was asked about what it was that he had been eating, Marchand revealed that it had been a treat from Dairy Queen that he was enjoying during one of the biggest games of the season.

On Sunday, Paul Maurice was asked about the comments from one of his top forwards and the Panthers head coach gave a surprising response. Maurice attempted to shut down the story entirely, casting a great deal of doubt on what Marchand had told reporters the night before.

"Is that a fact?" asked Maurice. "Oh no I know he said it, I'm just not sure that makes it a fact."

Maurice's comments elicited a big laugh from the reporters in attendance but he continued to be pressed on the issue and called the whole thing a conspiracy theory.

"You have video evidence.... this is a conspiracy theory," said Maurice with a smile.

Once it was revealed to Maurice that the incident had been caught on video, he quickly pivoted and attempted to place the blame for the whole situation on Panthers general manager Bill Zito.

"I know that our general manager is a little bit of an ice cream aficionado so maybe that came from him, maybe he greenlighted it," said Maurice.

Once he realized that the specific item in question was a Dairy Queen Blizzard however, Maurice pivoted again, revealing that Bill Zito is too much of an ice cream snob to be involved in this conspiracy.

"Oh really? Oh that takes Bill out," said Maurice. "He's more of a niche ice cream dude."

Maurice was then asked if he intended to provide Dairy Queen Blizzard's to his entire team given that Marchand scored a goal in the period that followed his intermission snack, and Maurice conceded that he may very well have to do just that.

"Probably," admitted Maurice, "Yeah we'll run with that. There's cameras everywhere man we can't get away with anything anymore, but that would be a good story. I have no problem with it, so long as it doesn't get on the sweater."