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Greg Wyshynski
SUNRISE, Fla. — The Florida Panthers needed to win the Stanley Cup, after which they needed to win another one, as a result of it is the last word method to infuriate everybody who is not the Florida Panthers.
They’re essentially 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 essentially the most well-known rat on the ice in winger Brad Marchand — a label he has accepted. Being the final staff 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 inform you how significantly better they’re than you. After which they inform you that you will be overwhelmed, by any means essential,” one present NHL participant advised ESPN. “They’ll do the whole lot they’ll to embarrass you, not solely bodily however on the scoreboard.”
It is the provocation from gamers corresponding to Marchand and Matthew Tkachuk. It is their capacity to dish it out and gleefully take it, corresponding 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 capacity to attract penalties however not take them. “They appear to get away with it greater than we do. It is robust to search out the road,” Oilers winger Evander Kane lamented through the Stanley Cup Ultimate.
Marchand responded to Kane: “Typically we get away with issues. You may’t name the whole lot on a regular basis.”
The extra nefarious elements of the Panthers’ sport are a characteristic, not a bug. Their antagonism and swagger are the sweeteners for among the finest recipes for fulfillment 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 beneath head coach Paul Maurice. They’re the primary staff 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 Ultimate 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 in opposition to the Vegas Golden Knights, after which gained back-to-back Stanley Cups. The Panthers are the seventh staff 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 greatest defensive forwards within the NHL, on their high line, deployed with frequency in opposition to Oilers star Connor McDavid. Bennett, main all playoff scorers in targets, and famous person winger/agent of chaos Tkachuk on the second line. Marchand, saving one of the best playoff collection of his life for the Stanley Cup Ultimate, 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 had been good within the postseason. When all else failed, Sergei Bobrovsky was the perfect final line of protection in purpose.
The Panthers had been one of the best street staff in NHL playoff historical past, tying the report for wins (10) and obliterating the report for targets scored away from residence: 61, or 12 greater than Wayne Gretzky’s Los Angeles Kings scored in 1993 (49).
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Sam Reinhart nets 4 targets in Sport 6
Sam Reinhart scores 4 for the Panthers in Sport 6 in opposition to the Oilers.
“Anyone that is aware of hockey is in awe of what they have been in a position to 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 staff outlined by their villainy.
“They will play any type that you really want. They’ve such underrated expertise at many positions,” he stated. “You aren’t getting the proper gamers on the proper phases of their careers on a regular basis. This can be a very refined, proficient, pushed staff.”
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 huge bodily sons of b—-es,” basic 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 type. 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 keen 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, in reality, frustrate them.
“[Agitation] is a part of their DNA. It is what they do,” Oilers heart Leon Draisaitl stated through the Stanley Cup Ultimate. “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’ popularity for agitation is a bit overstated.
“You understand what? I feel they get slightly 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 carried out an incredible 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 Ultimate (20) than he had in his earlier 15 playoff video games mixed (12).
Taking part in the Panthers may be exasperating. Not solely within the issues they do, however in how they get away with the issues they do. Resembling when Bennett retains colliding with opposing goaltenders.
It occurred a minimum of 4 instances 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 had 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 outdated 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 instances. 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 wherein he toppled into Stuart Skinner‘s crease in opposition to 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 Group “They Simply Cannot Maintain Getting Away With It” within the NHL.
“It is annoyingly irritating,” one present NHL participant stated. “While you play them, you are like, ‘They figured it out.’ They’re being good, in citation marks, in relation to that type of stuff. However it’s all inside the guidelines.”
Defenseman Nate Schmidt hated going through the Panthers earlier than signing with them final offseason. “I’ve acquired to inform you that taking part in in opposition to them isn’t any enjoyable,” he stated. “I do get pleasure from taking part in with them versus being on the opposite facet of issues.”
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Battle breaks out between Panthers, Oilers
An enormous brawl erupts as tensions boil over between the Panthers and the Oilers in Sport 3 of the Stanley Cup Ultimate.
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 greatest report (122 factors) and its greatest offense (4.11 targets per sport) beneath 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 total within the NHL.
However after the Panthers had 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 staff,” as Zito termed it on the time. On June 22, it was introduced that Brunette was carried out and that Paul Maurice would be the 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 Ultimate in 2002 to his credit score. However Zito stated the Panthers’ change in angle “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 were 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 in opposition to Tampa Bay and Edmonton because the Tkachuk commerce.
“I deliver a sure swagger that can actually assist this staff,” Tkachuk stated on the time. “I’ve an excellent confidence. It isn’t a cockiness. I feel a few of these groups on this convention which have had success have that. I’ve to assist with that.”
An enormous a part of that swagger comes from Tkachuk’s willingness to say something or do something to win, as anybody who watched the first USA vs. Canada game within the 4 Nations Face-Off little question remembers. 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 in opposition to him.
“He has a nuanced sport that mixes elite palms and hockey sense with a degree of compete. While 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 popularity is simply guys that play arduous. We do not like giving house on the ice, and that results in a whole lot of confrontation and a whole lot of collisions and stuff like that,” defenseman Aaron Ekblad stated. “And it is not essentially that we’re being bullies, we’re simply attempting to play as arduous as we presumably can.”
Zito agreed.
“Bodychecking is a part of the sport of hockey. While you play the sport the proper manner 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 house. So it is efficient.”
Marchand has now been part of two of essentially the most troublesome groups within the NHL to play in opposition to: The Boston Bruins, with whom he gained the Stanley Cup in 2011, and the Panthers, with whom he lifted one on Tuesday.
Each groups had been known as “bullies” — it is arduous to overlook the picture of Marchand delivering a series of blows to Daniel Sedin’s head within the Stanley Cup Ultimate in opposition to Vancouver. However each groups, in accordance with Marchand, simply performed the best way you could play to outlive within the postseason.
“Clearly, the high-end ability sport and finesse, it will get you right here, but it surely takes a complete completely different sport and degree to take you far,” he stated. “That is clearly what we had for a really very long time in Boston. What Florida’s carried out an incredible job at is constructing a staff that is robust to compete in opposition to this time of yr. So that is the type of sport that you just need to be a part of.”
Marchand has personally skilled the villainous facet of the Panthers. Bennett gave him a gloved punch in final yr’s playoffs that left Marchand concussed and compelled him out of their collection.
“I did not maintain a grudge. I understand how this sport’s performed. I performed the same manner 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 carried out 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 might 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 once you’re on the ice. That is all.”
Which is to say that off the ice, the Panthers are completely different individuals. And that chemistry is the true cause why they’ve skated the Cup for a second straight time, in accordance with them.
“They’re arduous 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 completely different.”
IF MARCHAND HAS realized 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 shooting 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 Ultimate, 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 someone else to do this with,” Schmidt stated. “One bouncy ball is enjoyable. While you bang two of them collectively? It is slightly 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 staff discipline journeys to Dairy Queen, and the following confusion about whether or not Marchand was consuming a Blizzard between durations of a playoff sport.
(Spoiler: It was honey, one thing Marchand has loved since he was a baby 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 one million issues that occur behind the scenes that followers do not see,” Marchand stated. “These are little issues that make it slightly bit simpler and mean you can get your thoughts off a number of the stress. I feel you possibly can see after we’re collectively, we’re similar to huge youngsters. 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 staff’s total mindset. When Tkachuk says “no one cares who scores,” they imply it.
“It could’t be overstated, the character and … I do not know if it is the proper phrase, however the grace of every man. For those who got here into the meal room, you would not … know … who’s … who,” Zito stated, pounding his palms on the desk for emphasis. “You did not know who scored the successful purpose. 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 staff. Final offseason, one of many gamers reported that once they walked into the Panthers’ dressing room for the primary time “it felt like I might been there for 10 years” with the staff.
“That room that we’ve is so welcoming. Your persona matches virtually 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 you could 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 manner all through the lineup. There’s simply no different method to do it. It isn’t like he is not a vocally imposing individual. It is simply, you could do it as a result of it seems 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 individual. So then it is easy to have the optimistic points of your persona come by means of. It is like he pulls it out of you.”
Barkov has realized from his teammates, too. Marchand specifically, since he arrived on the commerce deadline.
“He is clearly very outdated, however he nonetheless works arduous 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 arduous as him.”
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Panthers go up 3-0 on Sam Reinhart’s 2nd purpose
Sam Reinhart notches his second purpose 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, had been on the 2023 staff. Brandon Montour, Ryan Lomberg, Nick Cousins, Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Vladimir Tarasenko had 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 attempt to slot in, are available and never disturb something, not change something. Simply seamlessly attempting to mix in and add slightly little bit of your spice, I suppose you’d say,” stated Greer, who signed as a free agent.
“Coming into a bunch who had simply gained the Stanley Cup, I used to be simply attempting to inject slightly little bit of power. They’d a protracted season. Typically that may get to you mentally and bodily in fact. So I are available and type of replenish that power, herald a brand new face and simply be myself, personality-wise,” he stated. “The blokes welcomed me very, very properly. These guys which might be throughout the locker room and that is an enormous cause why they gained.”
To listen to the tales of humility and familial heat from contained in the Panthers stays in stark distinction with the staff that regularly emerges on the ice. They’re the epitome of “a participant you like to have in your staff and hate to play in opposition to,” a time-tested hockey cliché that Marchand used to explain Bennett lately. 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 lately requested about that dichotomy.
“I will 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 when you’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 going through 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 rapidly dispelled when the 2 had been united in Florida.
“You meet him and you are like, ‘Oh my god, what an exquisite human being,'” Maurice stated.
Similar with Marchand. Similar with Bennett, who’s “a canine on a bone” on the ice however raises cash to assist discover adoptive houses 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 staff. “Then the puck drops.”