The Florida Panthers have defeated the Carolina Hurricanes to go to the Stanley Cup Final for the third consecutive season. This immediately follows their Sunshine State brethren, the Tampa Bay Lightning, with three straight trips of their own to the final round of the playoffs.
This is the sixth straight Cup Final where a team from Florida will be representing the Eastern Conference. The last series to not feature a team from the state of sunshine, citrus, and Mickey Mouse was the 2019 series between the St. Louis Blues and Boston Bruins.
Have either of these recent runs of success reached “dynasty” status? Let’s start with the Lightning. Don’t forget, the Lightning also made the 2015 Stanley Cup Final, a loss to the Chicago Blackhawks. That team featured a few different pieces -- for example, Ben Bishop was in net instead of Andrei Vasilevskiy, but some of the main key components such as captain Steven Stamkos, Nikita Kucherov and coach Jon Cooper remain the same.
That gives the Lightning four Cup Final appearances in a ten-year span. The only other team with four post-lockout finals appearances is the Pittsburgh Penguins.
The Lightning will always be under criticism for the circumstances in which they won their two consecutive cups in 2020 and 2021, namely the pandemic. The first was played in a “bubble” without fans after the season had been paused for months. The second was played with limited fans for most of the season, but more importantly in a year where divisions where temporarily re-aligned out of travel necessity. The much inferior Montreal Canadiens rode some maple syrup magic to a final they had no business being in and promptly got beat in five games.
Don’t forget that 2021 finals also featured the cap gymnastics that had the team avoid Nikita Kucherov’s cap hit all season only for him to return and play in the playoffs. Opposing fans hated it, but it was allowed under NHL rules and some slack should be given to Kucherov who had to get uncharacteristically out of season surgery after the much delayed 2020 bubble cup final.
Once the league (mostly) returned to normal in terms of fans and playoff seeding, the Lightning would make the 2022 Cup Final only to lose to the Colorado Avalanche. The Avalanche should be considered their toughest opponent out of the three consecutive trips.
Two things the Panthers have working in their favor over the Lightning is that all three of their consecutive finals appearances were under normal circumstances with full houses of fans in the stands. While the Lightning had the same core of players in their aforementioned cup runs, the Panthers current runs were spearheaded with the arrival of head coach Paul Maurice and Matthew Tkachuk.
The Lightning were a team that needed to “get over the hump” of their 2019 first round upset en route to the cup. The arrival of Maurice and Tkachuk put the Panthers into maximum overdrive and they have been nearly unbeatable ever since.
Of course, the Lightning still have one more successful championship run in the three consecutive appearances than the Panthers since the current cup final is "TBD". If the Panthers win, then their cases for “dynasty” status would be virtually identical (although one Twitter user pointed out a pattern that might predict a Panthers defeat). If they once again face off against the Edmonton Oilers, it will be the second time they had the same opponent -- something the Lightning avoided.
The major advantage the Panthers have is that their streak is ongoing and a possible fourth trip to the final could happen in 2026. Two of the last “dynasties” officially recognized by the Hockey Hall of Fame were the New York Islanders and Edmonton Oilers teams of the 1980’s. The Islanders had four straight championship and five straight appearances (the fifth appearance, which was a loss, is not officially recognized as a part of the “dynasty” period by the HHOF). The Oilers had five cups but never had more than three consecutive finals appearances (1983-1985).
If the Panthers follow up with another trip to the finals next season then a serious, albeit premature, debate on their dynasty status will start.