Tripleheader features Panthers raising Stanley Cup banner
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The next two sleeping giants look like the Canadiens and the Senators. Which team is best set up to become and juggernaut?
It certainly wasn’t an easier road to the Stanley Cup Finals for the Edmonton Oilers last season. They had to dig incredibly deep to get past the excellent Dallas Stars, but ultimately, they fell to the Panthers again,
The “Stanley Cup Hangover” seemed to zap many teams until 2025. The Florida Panthers ended a long drought by winning back-to-back Stanley Cups in 2024 and '25, becoming the first team to repeat since the Penguins in 2016 and 2017. Before that, no team had done it since the Red Wings in 1997 and 1998.
The Oilers sorely missed star forward Zach Hyman in the Stanley Cup Final against the Panthers, and he addressed it on Monday.
Those things are win the Stanley Cup and lead the league in penalty minutes. Florida certainly qualified for that honor this year, leading the NHL during the regular season with 853 PIMs and then again during the playoffs, with another 370. Would you believe that the Panthers are only the fifth team over the past 50-plus years to pull of this feat?
The Golden Knights won free agency by acquiring the only 100-plus point-scorer on the market and one of the best wingers in the league for the better half of the decade in Marner. They resolved a hole in the lineup on the wing, and it's no surprise to see them back in the Cup conversation.
Indeed, the teams with the two best records reached the Cup semifinals (or conference final) the same time in just six of these past 36 tournaments.