The Florida Panthers secured their status as Stanley Cup champions once again, defeating the Edmonton Oilers 5-1 in Game 6 of the finals on Tuesday night. This victory marks them as the NHL’s first team to win consecutive championships since the Lightning’s success in 2020 and 2021, and only the third team to achieve this milestone in the 21st century.
Sam Reinhart delivered an extraordinary performance by netting four goals, joining an elite group of just four players in league history to accomplish this feat in a finals game. His third goal, completing a hat trick, led to a rain of rats and hats showering down onto the ice. Matthew Tkachuk, a pivotal figure for the team, fittingly scored the decisive winning goal.
Defending the Panthers’ net, Sergei Bobrovsky had a standout evening, stopping 28 of the 29 shots aimed at him, effectively sealing the outcome of this rematch. The lone goal for the Oilers was scored by fellow Russian Vasily Podkolzin during the final moments of the game, well after the Panthers had already secured their victory.
That was followed by chants of “We want the Cup!” as time ticked off the clock. The Panthers already had it. Now they get to keep it.
Not long after the Lightning made three trips to the final in a row, Florida has done the same and now has the makings of a modern-day dynasty. The Panthers have won 11 of 12 playoff series since Matthew Tkachuk arrived by trade and Paul Maurice took over as coach in the summer of 2022.
The only time they have been on the wrong side of a handshake line was the final in Vegas in 2023, only after several key players were dealing with banged up and gutting through significant injuries.
From the core of Tkachuk, Reinhart, Aleksander Barkov and Sam Bennett on down the roster, they were much healthier this time around and were boosted by key trade deadline additions Brad Marchand and Seth Jones. Bennett led all goal-scorers this postseason with 15, and Marchand had six in the final alone.
Getting depth contributions from throughout the lineup allowed them to overpower Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and the Oilers, who struggled with Florida’s ferocious forecheck and switched goaltenders multiple times in the final. Stuart Skinner got the nod in Game 6 and was again done in by mistakes in front of him that ended with the puck in the net behind him and had his own blunder on Reinhart’s second goal.
McDavid tried to take over but was again stymied by Barkov, Jones and Bobrovsky. He finished with seven points in his second career trip to the final, again denied his first title.
Canada’s Stanley Cup drought reached 31 seasons and 32 years dating to Montreal in 1993. Teams in the U.S. Sun Belt have won it five of the past six times, four of them in Florida.
This run through Tampa Bay in five, Toronto in seven, Carolina in five and Edmonton in six showed how clinical the Panthers have become under Maurice, who has coached more NHL games than everyone except Scotty Bowman and is now a two-time champion.
So is Marchand, who last hoisted the Cup in 2011 with the Boston Bruins. The 14-year gap is the third-longest in league history, just shy of 16 for Chris Chelios from 1986 to 2002 and 15 for Mark Recchi from ’91 to ’06.
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