Panthers, with chance to win Stanley Cup at home, draw from last year's experience

David Furones, South Florida Sun-Sentinel on Jun 15, 2025

Published in Hockey

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EDMONTON, Alberta — The Florida Panthers have a chance, for a second consecutive season, to win the Stanley Cup in front of their home fans.

Saturday night’s 5-2 Game 5 win at the Edmonton Oilers gave the Panthers that close-out opportunity, taking a 3-2 series lead into a Game 6 Tuesday night at Amerant Bank Arena.

But the Oilers are no stranger to staving off elimination. It was just last year when Florida led the Stanley Cup Final, 3-0, with the title all but wrapped up. That series went to a Game 7.

And, yes, the Panthers won that Game 7 after three consecutive defeats for South Florida’s first hockey crown, but it never had to come to that.

This year’s Panthers, with many players champions from last season, can draw from the experience to resist letting up.

“We’re hopeful. Certainly the context changes when you get this close,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said on Sunday. “But having experienced it does help, does matter. I think we were all pretty wired after Game 3 last year and I think we can handle that a bit better right now.”

If the Panthers don’t finish off the Oilers Tuesday night in Sunrise, that’s not to say Edmonton gets an automatic edge for Game 7 just because it’s going home off a win. Florida is 10-3 on the road in the playoffs, including 2-1 in Edmonton.

“The job’s not done yet, and a lot more work to do,” said forward Sam Bennett, who has been on a tear all postseason with 15 goals, including one Saturday night at Rogers Place in Edmonton. “I think we can just learn from that experience from last year. I think we were already looking ahead before we were ready to put in the work to get the job done. We know what we have to do now.

“We’re not going to get ahead of ourselves. It’s going to be the hardest game. We know that.”

It’s clear from players’ answers after dominating the Oilers in Game 5, they know how to remain present now.

“The more times you’re in situations like this, the more comfortable you’re going to be,” said forward Sam Reinhart, who also scored a goal Saturday. “We’ve been staying in the moment very well all postseason. It’s just about handling your day. We did what we set out to do (Saturday), and now it’s about recovering and getting back at it in a couple of days.”

With 15 of 16 playoff wins down to become back-to-back champs, goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky is not thinking about the possibility of taking a lap around the ice at Amerant Bank arena with the Stanley Cup over his head.

“We don’t need to think about the Cup or anything like that,” Bobrovsky said. “We just have to regroup, reset and focus on the first period, first shift and don’t think too much ahead or behind. It’s going to be a good, tough hockey game, and we’re excited about that.”

The core of this Panthers roster finished the job last year, and then there’s Brad Marchand, the 37-year-old midseason acquisition who also has that championship DNA, winning it all as a youngster with the 2011 Boston Bruins.

Scoring twice Saturday, Marchand became the first player since 1988 with six goals in a Cup Final. Pair it with Bennett’s five, the two have 11 of Florida’s 23 goals in the series. If it’s not one of them, it could be regular season’s leading goal scorer Reinhart, Aleksander Barkov, Matthew Tkachuk, Carter Verhaeghe, Anton Lundell or any one of a number of capable forwards.

On the other side, Bobrovsky and the defensemen kept the Oilers at bay, but star center Connor McDavid finally scored his first goal of the Final on Saturday. Crowding the speedster and limiting his opportunities will be a key to not let him get going before series’ end.