[UPDATE: Florida won the Stanley Cup Final with 2-1 victory over Edmonton in Game 7 Monday night, after the Oilers had come back from a three games to none deficit to tie the series. This story was originally published June 18.]
The Florida Panthers took it on the chin Saturday night at Edmonton playing their worst game of the playoffs, an 8-1 loss to the Oilers, in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final.
Be that as it may, they still have three chances to win their first Cup in the 30-year history of the franchise, beginning Tuesday night with Game 5 at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, Fla. Florida teams have represented the Eastern Conference in the last five Cup Finals, with Tampa Bay winning in 2021 and 2022. The Panthers lost in five games last year to the Vegas Golden Knights.
Coach Paul Maurice told NHL.com the Panthers would like to “feel that we’re a part of building something with deep enough roots that we would be considered a model franchise. And these runs are critical for that.”
The Panthers this season under owner Vincent Viola are getting the bang for their buck. They are one of the NHL’s highest paid teams. With a payroll for salary cap purposes of $87.4 million, they are one of six teams, including the Oilers, who are above the $83.5 million cap.
That figure slides back this offseason as Florida has $68 million committed, giving it about $20 million of space under the $88 million cap for the 2024-25 season.
The Panthers’ top paid players this season were forwards Aleksander Barkov with a cash value of $12 million and Matthew Tkachuk with a cash value of $11.25 million. The 36-year-old goalie Sergei Bobrovsky, who was chased out of net in Saturday night’s loss, makes $10 million.
In comparison, the Oilers have a payroll for cap purposes of $84.9 million. Their top paid player, Connor McDavid, has a cash value contract of $11 million. He scored his first goal of the Final on Saturday night, in addition to handing out three assists. He leads the playoffs with 38 points and six goals.
“It doesn’t matter if you scored eight or if you scored one, it’s just one win,” McDavid said about the Game 4 offensive explosion. “And we’ve got to go to Florida and do a job, and drag them back to Alberta.”
The Oilers have won five Stanley Cups, but none since 1990, when they won with a star-studded cast that included hockey greats Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier. The Panthers have made the Final twice, being swept by the Colorado Avalanche in 1996 and that loss last year to the Golden Knights.
Their tawdry history dates back to the old Miami Arena in downtown Miami, located in a rundown neighborhood far different than the suburban location of their current arena.
The tradition of throwing toy rats on the ice after a goal began in that old pink palace, which was abandoned by the Panthers in 1999.
As legend has it, then captain Scott Mellanby snared an actual rat with his hockey stick as it scampered across the floor in the club’s locker room at the old facility. That night—Oct. 8, 1995—Mellanby scored two goals in a 4-3 home opening victory over the Calgary Flames, leading goalie John Vanbiesbrouck to quip afterward that Mellanby had scored a “rat trick.”
“I had no idea that night it would turn into what it turned into,” Mellanby recalled.
Fans began pelting the ice with rubber and plastic rats following Panthers goals after that as the team made its run to the Final.
The tradition continues, with toy rats thrown on the ice after victories.
“One of the members of our flight crew had earrings with rats on them the other day,” Maurice said. “It has permeated what we do here. Cats and rats, right? I think it’s awesome.”
Fans love it and come out to games in droves. The Panthers are playing at 102.1% of the 19,250 capacity during the playoffs and 96.8% of capacity during the regular season. In comparison and back in Miami, the Marlins are averaging a next-to-Major League Baseball-worst of 12,665 for home games in 37,000-seat LoanDepot Park.
On the ice, Florida has played a tight defensive game, which until Saturday night, had choked off the offense of the opposition’s top players. In the first three games of the current series, Edmonton’s best five offensive players did not score a goal. Consequently, the Oilers had only scored four goals, losing all three contests.
In the Eastern Conference Final, the New York Rangers had a 2-1 advantage in the series, but scored five goals in the last three games to lose all three. Their top players were not a presence.
Bobrovsky has a playoff-leading 15 wins and, if the Panthers are victorious, has to be the favorite to win the Conn Smythe Trophy as MVP of the postseason.
But there’s still at least one hockey game left to be played.
“At the end of the day, we’re up 3-1, we’re going back home,” Tkachuk said. “I thought that in the first two games we did a lot of good things and that continued into Game 3. It’s a new day. We’ll come back [Tuesday] with a chance to win Game 5 at home.”
Win or lose, for Viola it’s been worth the investment.
