It is over! The Florida Panthers have won the Stanley Cup for the first time in franchise history. They avoided blowing a 3-0 series lead to the Edmonton Oilers and are bringing the Cup to Florida.
Early in the game, the Panthers took a 1-0 lead thanks to a goal by Carter Verhaeghe. It was a beautiful tip of an Evan Rodrigues shot that beat Stuart Skinner.
It didn’t take long for the Edmonton Oilers to tie it up at one as Mattias Janmark scored on a breakaway. That 1-1 tie would make it to the first intermission.
In the second period, Sam Reinhart added to his amazing season by scoring a goal to put his team up 2-1. Remarkably, that would be it for the scoring and the Panthers won the Cup.
The Florida Panthers are the Stanley Cup champions for the first time
Connor McDavid and the Oilers did everything they could to bring themselves back into this series when all hope was lost. They came up just short and it will sting for a while.
The Panthers did a lot of things well over the years. From good draft picks to solid signings to big-time trades, they built a team good enough to win it all.
Connor McDavid was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy as the MVP of the playoffs. He led the entire playoffs in scoring with a monumental 42 points. It is questionable that he earned it over Sergei Bobrovsky who was brilliant but there is no doubting McDavid’s greatness.
With the way this series went, it became an instant classic that won’t soon be forgotten. The Panthers did not have the biggest blown Stanley Cup Final of all time and now they will hang a banner.
As mentioned before, they have done a lot of things right. This has been a long time coming between winning the President’s Trophy in 2021-22 and losing in the Final in 2022-23. Everybody, including all the great fans in South Florida, should be proud.