Dave Hyde: Next! Resilient Panthers advance to third straight Stanley Cup Final.

Dave Hyde, South Florida Sun Sentinel on May 29, 2025

Published in Hockey

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

RALEIGH, N.C. — They came slowly, even quietly, off the bench late Wednesday night, easing toward goalie Sergei Bobrovsky with quick nods and half-smiles that spoke of their good night’s work.

But there were no hugs, no shouts, certainly no celebratory sticks thrown in the air like back when they started all this winning two springs ago. So, their good night’s work might have been a February or March game and not one that means they’ll be playing in the deepest parts of another hockey June.

“A step,” Bobrovsky said of the clinching 5-3 win in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference final. “But only a step. There’s a bigger step waiting.”

The Stanley Cup Final starts next week, it starts on the road for the Florida Panthers and it looks like it will be a repeat affair with the Edmonton Oilers when it does start. But the details of who and when shouldn’t matter just yet for a Panthers team that’s on such a special run that they aren’t celebrating anything but a championship.

“We’re excited where we are, but that’s where it stops,” forward Brad Marchand said.

They closed this series on the road, just as they have all three this season. Tampa Bay. Toronto. Now Carolina. Playing in the other arena doesn’t bother them. Maybe it even energizes a team with so many Panthers happy to be the villain.

Still, Wednesday came down to the best Panther of them all making the biggest play. Carolina tied it 3-3 midway through the third period, bringing the Lenovo Center crowd back into the game.

“We weren’t fazed,” Marchand said.

Aleksander Barkov took the puck in tight quarters along the boards behind the Carolina net. Barkov lost one Carolina defender, juked another and found Carter Verhaeghe alone at the other side of the net to roof a sharp-angle goal.

Afterward, at his locker, Barkov said he hadn’t seen the replay when …

“It was sick, Barky!” teammate Evan Rodrigues said a few lockers down.

The locker room was otherwise quiet in a way that ignored the night’s accomplishment. Players rode stationary bikes in a room down the hall. Others stretched or lifted weights. There was nothing that spoke of them being the fourth NHL team since 1980 to go to three straight finals.

“We knew going into the year what the goal was,” said Rodrigues, who had a goal Wednesday. “So, it’s an accomplishment winning the Eastern Conference but there are four more (wins) to go. That’s more the mentality of every guy in this room.”

They’re 8-3 on the road this postseason. They’re 28-11 over the past three playoffs.

So, yeah, they’ll start the Stanley Cup Final on the road. Does it matter?

What matters is they keep showing they’ll beat you however a night needs to be played. Skate up and down the ice like Tampa Bay and Toronto did at times? They’ll do that. Play in the muck like Carolina liked? That’s their game, too.

And if you want to get nasty as every playoff team does at some point, the Panthers are more than comfortable going down into the gutter. They’ll play there, if you want. Just this series, Marchand, Matthew Tkachuk and Sam Bennett picked fights with Carolina players who stepped over the line.

Dominant? Well, four games to one says enough.

But what the Panthers were most of all was unbreakable. Carolina tried. Sebastian Aho’s goals gave it a 2-0 lead after the first period. But Tkachuk, Rodrigues and Anton Lundell scored on three consecutive Panthers shots in the second period to change the game.

So, now they have a bit of time off. They’re beat up some. They got Sam Reinhart, Niko Mikkola and A.J. Greer back for this game, but Eetu Luostarinen and Greer left with injuries.

Edmonton, if it is Edmonton in the final, is up 3-1 against Dallas. One more win and the final starts in rural Alberta next week again. It would mean brutally long trips again. It would mean the Panthers run through a familiar foes all the way — Tampa Bay, Toronto, Carolina and now Edmonton all over again.

The Miami Dolphins made three consecutive Super Bowls from 1971-1973, winning the latter two. The Miami Heat made four NBA Finals in a row from 2010 to 2014, winning the middle two.

So, the Panthers are on one of the special runs in South Florida history, making this third consecutive Stanley Cup Final. What’s coming next will help say how special.