Florida Panthers fans are certainly going to remember June 24th, 2024. Florida defeated the Edmonton Oilers in Game 7 of the 2024 Stanley Cup Final. For the first time in their history, the Panthers are Stanley Cup champions. They previously went to the Final in 1996 and 2023 in losing efforts.
Florida received strong performances from Aleksander Barkov and Sergei Bobrovsky throughout the series. Bobrovsky shut out the Oilers in Game 1 while holding them to one goal in Game 2. Barkov, meanwhile, scored two goals and five points in the seven games needed to claim the Stanley Cup.
The Panthers lost Game 4 of the series in Edmonton by a score of 8-1. Florida stumbled again in Game 5, falling in front of their home fans by a score of 5-3. Improbably, the Panthers also lost to the Oilers in Game 6. But they found their stride in the winner-take-all Game 7, and now they can celebrate as champions of the NHL.
Panthers' road to Stanley Cup
The Panthers wanted to avenge their loss to the Vegas Golden Knights last summer. And they got off on the right foot in 2024. Florida met up with their intrastate rival Tampa Bay Lightning in round one. They raced out to a 3-0 series lead over the Lightning before Tampa took Game 4. It didn't matter, though, as Florida defeated the Lightning in five games.
In the second round, the Panthers met up with the Boston Bruins. The Bruins faced Florida in round one of last year's Stanley Cup Playoffs. That series helped spark Florida's run to the 2023 Stanley Cup Final. Boston won Game 1 of their 2024 matchup in emphatic fashion. However, they didn't put up much of a fight after that. Florida won the next three games before taking the series in six games.
The Eastern Conference Finals saw Florida pitted against the New York Rangers. New York won the Presidents Trophy after finishing atop the NHL record-wise in the regular season. The Rangers took a 2-1 series lead over the Panthers, putting Florida two losses from elimination. But the Panthers won the next three games to advance to the Stanley Cup Final.
A crushing loss finally avenged
The Panthers were in this same position one year ago. Of course, the circumstances were different. Florida entered the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs as the second wild card team. They were not expected to make much noise in the first round. Let alone defeat the Boston Bruins and advance.
But the Panthers did just that. They defeated the Bruins — who had won 65 games during the regular season — in seven games. Florida went on to defeat the Toronto Maple Leafs in five games before sweeping the Carolina Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference Finals. In the Stanley Cup Final, they met the Vegas Golden Knights.
Vegas had an incredible playoff run last season. And in the Final, they outplayed the Panthers by a mile. Florida did take a game of the series, but Game 5 ended 9-3 in favor of the Golden Knights. Vegas won their first Stanley Cup in front of their home fans in one of the most dominating showings in Final history.
Florida is the 27th team to win the Cup, and the 22nd currently active team to win it all. It certainly was an entertaining season of hockey, but the summer has officially arrived. Now, our attention turns to the 2024 NHL Draft later this month and NHL Free Agency on July 1. Let's see what the 2024 offseason has in store for the NHL and the new Stanley Cup champions.
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