Category: Florida Panthers

SUNRISE — In 1996, the Panthers introduced South Florida to the “rat trick” during their first Stanley Cup Final run. In 2023, Florida showed off a new generation of stars like Aleksander Barkov, Matthew Tkachuk and Carter Verhaeghe before losing to Vegas in the Final. But 2024 is when the Panthers reached the summit of the hockey world, lifting the Stanley Cup for the first time in franchise history. They needed to get past rival Tampa Bay, which held its three Stanley Cup titles over their little brothers’ heads for years. They needed to beat Boston and New York, whose fans frequently filled...

It keeps building. Everything around this game that wasn’t supposed to happen. The fun, the stakes, the interest, the nervousness — certainly the nervousness, locally, as the Florida Panthers play Edmonton in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final on Monday night in Sunrise. Hockey hasn’t had a championship night like this in South Florida, not ever, not in a market that gave away tickets for years and began play just three decades ago under the localized marketing campaign, “Good hockey, great air conditioning.” It wasn’t supposed to have this night, either, after the Panthers won the first three...

The Panthers are on the verge of making history, but it is not the kind of historic accomplishment they were hoping to achieve. After taking a 3-0 series lead in the Stanley Cup Final, Florida has lost three straight games, setting up a decisive Game 7 in Sunrise after it lost 5-1 to Edmonton at Rogers Place on Friday. The Panthers are now at risk of becoming only the second team to lose the Stanley Cup Final after taking a 3-0 lead in the series. The 1942 Detroit Red Wings are the only NHL team to lose a Final after taking a 3-0 lead. The Toronto Maple Leafs, who won that series, are one of...

SUNRISE — So, yes, in case you wondered, that’s Connor McDavid. That’s the King of the North. That’s the oil to the Edmonton Oilers’ engine. That’s the player who was everything the Florida Panthers feared coming into the Stanley Cup Final for the second consecutive game on Tuesday night. And so for the second game in a row the Stanley Cup trophy came to the arena looking to go home with the Panthers and instead left on the shuttle between South Florida and Edmonton. It’s back to Edmonton for Game 6 on Friday night with the Panthers’ 5-3 loss, back to the Great Beyond and back to a series the...

SUNRISE —The Edmonton Oilers started scoring in the third period of Game 3 and have not stopped since. Edmonton has scored 15 goals to the Florida Panthers‘ four since that stretch in Game 3, and they continued their hot streak in Sunrise on Tuesday night, beating Florida 5-3 in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final. The Panthers launched a comeback attempt, cutting the deficit down to one in the third period, but they could not even the game. “I’m not feeling deflated,” Florida coach Paul Maurice said. “Neither is the hockey team. They’re not feeling deflated.” Like in Game 4, the Oilers took an...

The quest for the Florida Panthers’ first Stanley Cup title will have to wait at least another few days. The Edmonton rush was too much for goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky to handle in Game 4, and the Panthers unraveled for their most goals allowed all season in their first opportunity to seal the Stanley Cup Final, with a 8-1 loss to the Oilers at Rogers Place on Saturday. With Florida still leading the series, 3-1, action shifts more than 2,5000 miles from the northern reaches of Alberta, Canada back to Sunrise for Game 5 Tuesday night at Amerant Bank Arena for another potential championship clincher...

Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov returned to the ice after suffering an injury that kept him out of the end of Game 2, but he got his revenge in Game 3 and helped put his team one win away from lifting its first Stanley Cup. The Florida captain scored the game-winning goal as the Panthers beat the Oilers 4-3 at Rogers Place in Edmonton on Thursday night. With the win, Florida took a 3-0 lead in the Stanley Cup Final. The Panthers can clinch the franchise’s first title on Saturday night in Edmonton. Some bad blood from the Barkov hit and injury may have lingered into Game 3, as the Oilers and...

SUNRISE — Evan Rodrigues never played in a Stanley Cup Final before Saturday night. On Monday, he had a game that will live on in Florida Panthers lore. The second-line winger, who also scored a goal in Game 1, scored the game-winning goal and an insurance goal as the Panthers rolled to a 4-1 win over the Oilers at Amerant Bank Arena, taking a 2-0 lead in the Stanley Cup Final as the series moves to Edmonton for Games 3 and 4. The Panthers’ defense was stingy throughout the night, allowing 19 shots on goal from the Oilers’ high-powered offense. Sam Bennett went to the penalty box in the first...

SUNRISE — The Florida Panthers offered plenty of good reason to believe this year’s Stanley Cup Final won’t go like last. Behind goals from Carter Verhaeghe and Evan Rodrigues and with goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky stopping everything that came his way, the Panthers won Game 1 over the Edmonton Oilers, 3-0, Saturday night at Amerant Bank Arena. In their return to the Stanley Cup Final, it’s a sharp contrast from the 5-2 loss suffered in Las Vegas to start the 2023 installment, leading the Panthers’ to their demise in five games. Instead, it was a celebratory atmosphere from the moment Miami Dolphins...