NHL: Each franchise’s best team ever

NHL: Each franchise’s best team ever: 1995-96 Florida Panthers

Imagine a team willingly using rats to represent their franchise. That’s exactly what the 1995-96 Florida Panthers did, and they rode the momentum from that to the Stanley Cup Final. It was the franchise’s third season as part of the NHL. They were trying to establish a fanbase in South Florida. This was a great start.

This wasn’t exactly a star-studded roster. Scott Mellanby was the team’s leading scorer. Scott Niedermayer’s brother Rob was the second-leading scorer.

It was a very strange season. The Panthers were completely terrible down the stretch. They finished the season losing 14 of their final 23 games. The team sputtered into the playoffs, so it seemed like they were a dead team walking. Then, something clicked.

John Vanbiesbrouck played out of his mind in the playoffs. He put up a .932 save percentage in 22 games. More unlikely heroes took over in the postseason. Dave Lowry was the team’s leading scorer in the postseason with 17 points. Ray Sheppard and Stu Barnes were right behind him with 16 points. Who are these players? Most wouldn’t know without Googling them.

However, this was a true “sum of all parts” team. They were better because they were together. The run was incredibly fun, the fanbase was really into it, and the team looked like they could be a team of destiny. They ended up running into the Colorado Avalanche in the Final, and that was too big a test to pass, but this team was incredibly impressive up until that point.