Florida Panthers, Stanley Cup Final and NHL
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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Florida coach Paul Maurice keeps the day-to-day routine simple. Show up for work early and have copious amounts of coffee. Trust assistant coaches to do their jobs. Sit in on meetings when needed. Hammer home a consistent message with players. Swear a little bit sometimes, swear profusely at other times. Hey, it works.
Just less than a year later, those two teams are back in the Stanley Cup Final, a rematch between the champion Panthers and the runner-up Oilers that kicks off with Game 1 at Rogers Place in Edmonton on Wednesday (8 p.m. ET; CBC, TVAS, SN, TNT, truTV, MAX).
Bruins legend Brad Marchand has been key to the Panthers' Stanley Cup Final run in 2025. How did the ex-captain end up here?
Instead of following his NBA playing dad, Seth Jones chose another path and 12 seasons into an NHL career he is in position to win a Stanley Cup.
The Florida Panthers don't play hockey every day. It only seems like that's the case. When the Panthers take the ice for Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final in Edmonton on Wednesday night, it will be the team's 309th game over the past three seasons and one that ties the NHL record for most games in a three-year span.
The Panthers are headed to the Stanley Cup Final, but veteran forward Brad Marchand isn't nervous ahead of the Oilers matchup.
SportsLine's hockey model simulated Carolina vs. Florida in the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs Eastern Conference Finals on Monday 10,000 times
At the end of the regular season, exactly one staffer at The Athletic still picked Edmonton to win it all. And one staffer picked Florida. That’s it. We should have known better. The Oilers and Panthers did. The fact is, to a great team, home ice is nice. But it’s not a must.
“The definition of a playoff player,” as Panthers winger Matthew Tkachuk, who was also Bennett’s teammate in Calgary, put it.
The Panthers are -126 favorites (wager $126 to win $100) on the money line in the latest SportsLine consensus odds, with the Hurricanes coming in as +105 (wager $100 to win $105) underdogs. The total is 5.5. You can see the model's latest projections, along with expert picks for Panthers-Hurricanes Game 5, at SportsLine.