SUNRISE, Fla. — The Florida Panthers needed to win the Stanley Cup, after which they needed to win one other one, as a result of it is the final word approach to infuriate everybody who is not the Florida Panthers.
They’re probably the most antagonistic trash-talking bullies within the Nationwide Hockey League. Opponents decry their actions and followers of different groups outright detest them. It took 29 years, however the franchise made well-known for having rats thrown on the ice additionally now has probably the most well-known rat on the ice in winger Brad Marchand — a label he has accepted. Being the final group standing is not only a tribute to their elite preparation, execution and expertise. It is delivering on the promise of their limitless taunting.
“It is the bad-boy mentality. They embody it. They hit you after which they stand over you and let you know how a lot better they’re than you. After which they let you know that you’ll be crushed, by any means obligatory,” one present NHL participant instructed ESPN. “They are going to do the whole lot they’ll to embarrass you, not solely bodily however on the scoreboard.”
It is the provocation from gamers comparable to Marchand and Matthew Tkachuk. It is their potential to dish it out and gleefully take it, comparable to when big-bearded Jonah Gadjovich caught out his tongue on the Edmonton Oilers after having been bloodied in a combat with Darnell Nurse.
It is the opposing goalies with whom heart Sam Bennett has collided with a believable deniability of guilt. It is their potential to attract penalties however not take them. “They appear to get away with it greater than we do. It is robust to seek out the road,” Oilers winger Evander Kane lamented through the Stanley Cup Last.
Marchand responded to Kane: “Generally we get away with issues. You may’t name the whole lot on a regular basis.”
The extra nefarious elements of the Panthers’ recreation are a function, not a bug. Their antagonism and swagger are the sweeteners for top-of-the-line recipes for achievement the league has seen cooked up: Offensive domination, defensive suffocation and a couple of dozen gamers that all the time appear to rise to the event.
Florida has superior to a few Stanley Cup Finals below head coach Paul Maurice. They’re the primary group to take action in three straight full NHL seasons because the Edmonton Oilers from 1983-85. (The Tampa Bay Lightning gained two Cups and misplaced of their third journey to the Last through the season-altering COVID-19 pandemic.)
Just like the 80s period Oilers, the Panthers misplaced of their first journey, getting eradicated in 5 video games towards the Vegas Golden Knights, after which gained back-to-back Stanley Cups. The Panthers are the seventh group previously 40 seasons to win consecutive Cups.
Nobody else within the NHL can match their depth. Aleksander Barkov and Sam Reinhart, each finalists for the Selke Trophy as finest defensive forwards within the NHL, on their high line, deployed with frequency towards Oilers star Connor McDavid. Bennett, main all playoff scorers in objectives, and celebrity winger/agent of chaos Tkachuk on the second line. Marchand, saving one of the best playoff sequence of his life for the Stanley Cup Last, cementing an unmatchable third line with criminally underrated forwards Eetu Luostarinen and Anton Lundell.
Two defensive pairings — Aaron Ekblad and Gustav Forsling, in addition to Seth Jones and Niko Mikkola — that have been sensible within the postseason. When all else failed, Sergei Bobrovsky was the perfect final line of protection in aim.
The Panthers have been one of the best street group in NHL playoff historical past, tying the report for wins (10) and obliterating the report for objectives scored away from house: 61, or 12 greater than Wayne Gretzky’s Los Angeles Kings scored in 1993 (49).
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Sam Reinhart nets 4 objectives in Sport 6
Sam Reinhart scores 4 for the Panthers in Sport 6 towards the Oilers.
“Anyone that is aware of hockey is in awe of what they have been capable of accomplish,” stated Hockey Corridor of Famer Mark Messier, a member of two separate back-to-back Cup winners in Edmonton, who’s now an analyst for ESPN.
Messier does not see the Panthers as a group outlined by their villainy.
“They will play any fashion that you really want. They’ve such underrated expertise at many positions,” he stated. “You do not get the appropriate gamers on the proper phases of their careers on a regular basis. It is a very refined, gifted, pushed group.”
Another person that does not need the Florida Panthers outlined solely as agitating bullies?
The Florida Panthers themselves.
“I simply do not see the place we’re these massive bodily sons of b—-es,” common supervisor Invoice Zito stated.
The Panthers argue that the on-ice antics others have used to outline them in these two Stanley Cup championship runs aren’t indicative of who these gamers are off the ice. That perceptions of their villainy should not overshadow the chemistry, tradition and camaraderie which might be the precise foundations for these championships.
“We do not discuss it. That is not our fashion. That is not what we discuss earlier than video games,” Tkachuk stated. “We need to play quick and bodily. We need to stick up for one another when it is there.”
Are the Florida Panthers really the friendliest “rats” to ever to win the Stanley Cup twice?
“On the finish of the day, you are prepared to do issues on the ice that are not typical of you as an individual off the ice,” Marchand stated.
THERE’S PROBABLY NO GREATER indication that the Panthers frustrate opponents than the eagerness with which opponents swear that the Panthers don’t, actually, frustrate them.
“[Agitation] is a part of their DNA. It is what they do,” Oilers heart Leon Draisaitl stated through the Stanley Cup Last. “I am not going loopy. I do not assume anyone’s going loopy. It is an emotional time. They’re good at what they do. However nobody’s going loopy right here.”
Kane stated the Panthers’ fame for agitation is a bit overstated.
“You already know what? I feel they get a bit an excessive amount of credit score for a way loopy they drive groups. I do not assume it is Florida driving us loopy in any respect. We have executed a terrific job of not letting them get in our heads,” stated Kane, who had extra penalty minutes within the first 5 video games of the Stanley Cup Last (20) than he had in his earlier 15 playoff video games mixed (12).
Taking part in the Panthers could be exasperating. Not solely within the issues they do, however in how they get away with the issues they do. Similar to when Bennett retains colliding with opposing goaltenders.
It occurred at the very least 4 occasions on this playoff run, most infamously when Bennett concussed former teammate Anthony Stolarz of the Toronto Maple Leafs in Sport 1 of the second spherical. Stolarz would not return to the playoffs. Bennett wasn’t penalized, and there have been no repercussions with the NHL Division of Participant Security. However Toronto followers and media have been outraged, including this Bennett incident to an inventory of others in his profession — together with when he concussed Leafs ahead Matthew Knies by throwing him to the ice in Might 2023.
“I’ve seen each hit that Sam Bennett’s thrown since he was 12 years previous on TV this morning,” Maurice stated the day after the Stolarz incident. “There was a success 2½ years in the past that [the media has] proven 4,000 occasions. There was a parking ticket seven years in the past that I feel made the video.”
Within the 2025 playoffs, Bennett would additionally collide with Carolina’s Frederik Andersen, and had two cases through which he toppled into Stuart Skinner’s crease towards the Oilers.
“Clearly, you do not like when guys are purposely falling into your goaltender,” Kane stated.
For a lot of opponents, the Panthers are Staff “They Simply Cannot Preserve Getting Away With It” within the NHL.
“It is annoyingly irritating,” one present NHL participant stated. “Whenever you play them, you are like, ‘They figured it out.’ They’re being good, in citation marks, in terms of that type of stuff. However it’s all throughout the guidelines.”
Defenseman Nate Schmidt hated dealing with the Panthers earlier than signing with them final offseason. “I’ve obtained to let you know that enjoying towards them is not any enjoyable,” he stated. “I do take pleasure in enjoying with them versus being on the opposite aspect of issues.”
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Combat breaks out between Panthers, Oilers
A giant brawl erupts as tensions boil over between the Panthers and the Oilers in Sport 3 of the Stanley Cup Last.
The Panthers weren’t all the time as provocative as they’re now. Again in 2022, Florida gained the Presidents’ Trophy with the league’s finest report (122 factors) and its finest offense (4.11 objectives per recreation) below interim coach Andrew Brunette, who took over after head coach Joel Quenneville’s resignation. Their main scorer was winger Jonathan Huberdeau, who had 115 factors in 80 video games, tied for second general within the NHL.
However after the Panthers have been swept within the second spherical by the rival Tampa Bay Lightning, it was apparent that their regular-season success did not translate to the postseason after “an in-depth examination of all points of our group,” as Zito termed it on the time. On June 22, it was introduced that Brunette was executed and that Paul Maurice can be the brand new head coach.
That hiring wasn’t universally praised — Maurice had been behind NHL benches because the mid-Nineteen Nineties with the Hartford Whalers, with just one journey to the Stanley Cup Last in 2002 to his credit score. However Zito stated the Panthers’ change in perspective “begins with Paul.”
The Panthers had 842 penalty minutes of their Presidents’ Trophy season. They elevated to 998 in Maurice’s first season, after which 1,116 in his second season, when Florida gained the Stanley Cup.
One month after Maurice’s hiring got here one other landmark second, and an much more surprising one: Huberdeau and defenseman MacKenzie Weegar have been traded to the Calgary Flames for Tkachuk.
The Panthers had now entered their Swagger Period.
“I hate Edmonton, however I hate Tampa extra now,” was the declarative assertion from Tkachuk at his introductory information convention. The Lightning had eradicated the Panthers in consecutive postseasons. It’s maybe no coincidence that Florida is 2-0 towards Tampa Bay and Edmonton because the Tkachuk commerce.
“I deliver a sure swagger that may actually assist this group,” Tkachuk stated on the time. “I’ve a superb confidence. It is not a cockiness. I feel a few of these groups on this convention which have had success have that. I’ve to assist with that.”
A giant a part of that swagger comes from Tkachuk’s willingness to say something or do something to win, as anybody who watched the primary USA vs. Canada recreation within the 4 Nations Face-Off little doubt recollects. However Zito stated that Tkachuk is the personification of why the Panthers are misunderstood because the NHL’s present reigning bullies — their agitation merely comes from how troublesome it’s to play towards him.
“He has a nuanced recreation that mixes elite fingers and hockey sense with a stage of compete. Whenever you look throughout the league on the gamers who’ve that, just about to a person, they’re agitating,” Zito stated.
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Matthew Tkachuk fired up after padding Panthers’ lead
Matthew Tkachuk lights the lamp to pad the Panthers’ lead within the first interval.
That is the place the Panthers reject the premise that they are the king rats of the NHL.
“I feel our fame is simply guys that play onerous. We do not like giving area on the ice, and that results in numerous confrontation and numerous collisions and stuff like that,” defenseman Aaron Ekblad stated. “And it isn’t essentially that we’re being bullies, we’re simply attempting to play as onerous as we presumably can.”
Zito agreed.
“Bodychecking is a part of the sport of hockey. Whenever you play the sport the appropriate means and take note of all the small print, checking goes to be a part of it. It is to not intimidate. It is to not injure. It is actually so to’t get into the play if I stumble upon you,” Zito stated. “It is simply chess, besides with time and area. So it is efficient.”
Marchand has now been part of two of probably the most troublesome groups within the NHL to play towards: The Boston Bruins, with whom he gained the Stanley Cup in 2011, and the Panthers, with whom he lifted one on Tuesday.
Each groups have been referred to as “bullies” — it is onerous to neglect the picture of Marchand delivering a sequence of blows to Daniel Sedin’s head within the Stanley Cup Last towards Vancouver. However each groups, in accordance with Marchand, simply performed the best way that you must play to outlive within the postseason.
“Clearly, the high-end talent recreation and finesse, it will get you right here, however it takes a complete totally different recreation and stage to take you far,” he stated. “That is clearly what we had for a really very long time in Boston. What Florida’s executed a terrific job at is constructing a group that is robust to compete towards this time of yr. So that is the fashion of recreation that you simply need to be a part of.”
Marchand has personally skilled the villainous aspect of the Panthers. Bennett gave him a gloved punch in final yr’s playoffs that left Marchand concussed and compelled him out of their sequence.
“I did not maintain a grudge. I understand how this recreation’s performed. I performed an identical means and it is one thing that we joke about now,” stated Marchand, now Bennett’s teammate. “I have been in positions the place I’ve executed issues like that to guys that I find yourself being teammates with. Issues occur on the ice and you progress previous it.”
That is hockey, in accordance with Marchand.
“I am unable to communicate for different sports activities, however our tradition is the place you can combat a man and meet up afterwards and chuckle about the whole lot. That is simply how it’s,” he stated. “You are doing a job if you’re on the ice. That is all.”
Which is to say that off the ice, the Panthers are totally different individuals. And that chemistry is the true motive why they’ve skated the Cup for a second straight time, in accordance with them.
“They’re onerous on the ice. They’re. And most of that’s pushed by how they really feel about one another. They do not need to let the opposite man down. There is a caring about them,” Maurice stated. “These guys are totally different.”
IF MARCHAND HAS discovered something with the Florida Panthers, it is that plastic rats harm when your teammates are slap taking pictures them at you.
In one of many playoffs’ most memorable new traditions, Panthers gamers would take turns taking pictures rats, tossed on the ice by followers, at Marchand after victories.
“They see my household on the ice and wish us to be collectively,” Marchand deadpanned. “They’re simply bullying me. They’re taking pictures to harm now.”
In addition to being their most dominant scorer within the Stanley Cup Last, Marchand was additionally the fulcrum for the Panthers’ merriment after coming over from the Bruins on the commerce deadline.
“Marchy and I bounce off the partitions fairly a bit. It is good to have any individual else to try this with,” Schmidt stated. “One bouncy ball is enjoyable. Whenever you bang two of them collectively? It is a bit bit extra enjoyable. So I’ve loved his time right here.”
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Brad Marchand scores 56 seconds in to offer Panthers early lead
Brad Marchand flicks it in by means of a crowd of defenders to offer the Panthers an early lead vs. the Oilers.
The bouncing round through the pregame. The rat-shooting. The now-legendary poker video games on cross-continent flights. The group subject journeys to Dairy Queen, and the following confusion about whether or not Marchand was consuming a Blizzard between intervals of a playoff recreation.
(Spoiler: It was honey, one thing Marchand has loved since he was a toddler feeding it to his stuffed Winnie the Pooh doll. “It is what we do in Halifax. We feed teddy bears honey,” he stated.)
“There’s 1,000,000 issues that occur behind the scenes that followers do not see,” Marchand stated. “These are little issues that make it a bit bit simpler and will let you get your thoughts off a number of the stress. I feel you possibly can see after we’re collectively, we’re identical to massive children. Behind closed doorways, everybody’s all the time joking round and having enjoyable.”
There is a democratization of comedy within the Panthers’ dressing room. The gamers say nobody is spared from the punchlines, irrespective of their wage or ice time. It is the byproduct of the group’s general mindset. When Tkachuk says “no person cares who scores,” they imply it.
“It could possibly’t be overstated, the character and … I do not know if it is the appropriate phrase, however the grace of every man. When you got here into the meal room, you would not … know … who’s … who,” Zito stated, pounding his fingers on the desk for emphasis. “You did not know who scored the successful aim. You did not know who did not play. I feel that, as a lot as something, is a testomony to these guys and their character.”
Each offseason, Maurice does a “tradition survey” for his group. Final offseason, one of many gamers reported that once they walked into the Panthers’ dressing room for the primary time “it felt like I would been there for 10 years” with the group.
“That room that we now have is so welcoming. Your persona suits nearly it doesn’t matter what it’s. The extra uncommon your persona, the extra you are going to slot in our room,” Maurice stated. “So long as you do these 4 or 5 issues that you must do, everyone will get to be themselves.”
What makes that chemistry work?
“That is all Barkov, actually,” Maurice stated.
“[Barkov] is sort of a magnet. You simply end up gravitating in the direction of him,” Schmidt stated. “You see what Cap does and it simply type of trickles its means during the lineup. There’s simply no different approach to do it. It is not like he isn’t a vocally imposing particular person. It is simply, that you must do it as a result of it appears like you must do it for him.”
Zito likened Barkov to a planet with “all of the power that comes from him” as a pacesetter.
“It begins with Sasha,” the GM stated. “Paul’s talked about this. I’ve talked about it. The gamers have talked about it. The one one who does not [get] talked about it’s Sasha. How caring he’s as a human and as a teammate. He makes you need to be a greater particular person. So then it is simple to have the optimistic points of your persona come by means of. It is like he pulls it out of you.”
Barkov has discovered from his teammates, too. Marchand specifically, since he arrived on the commerce deadline.
“He is clearly very previous, however he nonetheless works onerous and needs to be higher,” stated Barkov, 29, of the 37-year-old Marchand. (See? Everybody will get clowned on.) “It is enjoyable to see, and it is contagious. You need to work as onerous as him.”
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Panthers go up 3-0 on Sam Reinhart’s 2nd aim
Sam Reinhart notches his second aim to offer the Panthers a 3-0 lead within the second interval.
Each incarnation of the Panthers throughout their three-year reign as Jap Convention champions has seen turnover on the roster. Eric and Marc Staal, in addition to Radko Gudas, have been on the 2023 group. Brandon Montour, Ryan Lomberg, Nick Cousins, Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Vladimir Tarasenko have been on the Stanley Cup winner final season. This season noticed Marchand, Schmidt, Seth Jones and A.J. Greer be part of the roster, amongst others.
“You simply strive to slot in, are available and never disturb something, not change something. Simply seamlessly attempting to mix in and add a bit little bit of your spice, I suppose you’d say,” stated Greer, who signed as a free agent.
“Coming into a gaggle who had simply gained the Stanley Cup, I used to be simply attempting to inject a bit little bit of power. They’d an extended season. Generally that may get to you mentally and bodily after all. So I are available and type of replenish that power, herald a brand new face and simply be myself, personality-wise,” he stated. “The fellows welcomed me very, very properly. These guys which might be throughout the locker room and that is an enormous motive why they gained.”
To listen to the tales of humility and familial heat from contained in the Panthers stays in stark distinction with the group that regularly emerges on the ice. They’re the epitome of “a participant you like to have in your group and hate to play towards,” a time-tested hockey cliché that Marchand used to explain Bennett not too long ago. They frustrate opponents throughout video games and push one another to play like champions behind the scenes.
“That is one thing about hockey tradition that makes it particular and distinctive,” one present NHL participant stated. “A few of the guys which might be the most important items of s— on the ice are the best individuals off the ice.”
Maurice was not too long ago requested about that dichotomy.
“I am going to ask you two questions that is perhaps private. You do not have to reply. Have you ever ever shotgunned a beer? And have you ever ever been to church?” he started.
“Now, would you shotgun a beer if you happen to’re in church? No, you would not, and that does not make you a hypocrite. There is a context in that place for all issues.”
Maurice hated dealing with Tkachuk when he was teaching in Winnipeg and Tkachuk was in Calgary. His swagger on the ice knowledgeable Maurice’s opinion about him as an individual, which was shortly dispelled when the 2 have been united in Florida.
“You meet him and you are like, ‘Oh my god, what an exquisite human being,'” Maurice stated.
Identical with Marchand. Identical with Bennett, who’s “a canine on a bone” on the ice however raises cash to assist discover adoptive properties for canines in his spare time.
The Panthers aren’t simply what they’re on the ice. They don’t seem to be simply what they’re off the ice. However the sum of these elements — the hurt and the concord — mixed to make them back-to-back Stanley Cup champions.
“They’re all actually, very nice individuals,” Maurice stated of his group. “Then the puck drops.”
