And when he started hoisting the hockey cup for the first time, an idea came to his mind.
“It’s heavy,” he said.
The 37-pound trophy wasn’t too much for him. The three-game slump wasn’t too much for the Panthers. There was no wobble with the cup, no fall with the cup on the line. The Panthers have become champions for the first time after taking the toughest route to the title.
Sam Reinhart and Carter Verhaeghe scored goals, Sergei Bobrovsky made 23 saves and the Panthers defeated the Edmonton Oilers 2-1 on Monday night in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals. This was Florida’s third title-round appearance in its 30-year history; Colorado beat them in 1996 and Vegas beat them 4-1 last season. And this team needed that loss last year.
“You have to go through it first,” forward Matthew Tkachuk said, “to know what it takes to get it done.”
This time, they were on the right side of history – having avoided a historic collapse. The Panthers won the first three games of the series, then lost the next three and needed a win on Monday to avoid joining the 1942 Detroit Red Wings as the only team to lose the finals after taking a 3–0 lead in the title round. Was.
“It’s not what I thought it would be,” Panthers coach Paul Morrissey said. “this is much better.”
it was not easy. not even close. But it happened.
Barkov handed the cup to Bobrovsky and celebrations ensued. It took until the end for the Panthers to deny Connor McDavid his first title and give Edmonton its first Cup since 1990.
“You want to be a true champion and you want to win,” said Bobrovsky, who became champion for the first time at age 35. “But at the end of the day, you don’t do it for the Cup. You do it for the love of the game.”
mcdavid conn smith won As MVP of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. He did not come out for the trophy. Anyway, this is not what he wanted. They play for the Cup and Florida hoisted it.
“No player in the world wants to win a Stanley Cup more than him,” Oilers teammate Leon Draisaitl said of McDavid, who had one of the greatest individual postseason seasons in NHL history with 42 points. “He does everything right every day.”
But the Panthers did a little more right on Monday. And this is the difference.
“This is no longer a dream. This is not a dream. This is the reality,” said Tkachuk, who came to the business in Florida two summers ago with this very goal. “I can’t believe it. I can’t believe it. …I can’t believe how good these two years have been. So grateful for this group of people. This is the best place, best friends. It’s really something special with what we have.”
Mattias Janmark scored for Edmonton and Stuart Skinner stopped 19 shots for the Oilers. The Oilers also could not end Canada’s title drought; It’s 1993 and a Canada-based team has won the cup.
Montreal was the last to do so, 30 seasons ago. Since then, there have been seven attempts by teams from Canadian-based cities – Vancouver in 1994 and 2011, Calgary in 2004, the Oilers in 2006, Ottawa in 2007 and the Canadiens in 2021 – to win the title, and all were in vain.
South Florida is now the leader in everything when it comes to titles in the four major pro sports leagues in America. The Miami Dolphins were champions twice, the then-Florida Marlins were champions twice, the Miami Heat have three titles and now the Panthers also. The party has joined it.
You’re welcome, Stanley. The Panthers were waiting. Maurice waved the cup near the bench, closed his eyes tightly to control his emotions, and shouted. General manager Bill Zito didn’t even bother trying not to yell. And in the stands, Tkachuk’s family – his father, Keith, never won the Cup – enjoyed the moment, knowing their surname would soon be on Lord Stanley.
“This is for them,” Tkachuk said.
Even in the biggest moments, Bobrovsky was as calm as could be. Oilers defenseman Evan Bouchard got a good look from the right circle with about 14 seconds remaining in the second period; Bobrovsky blocked the shot, and the puck bounced off him and into the air.
No problem. Bobrowski took his stick and threw the puck away again, looking more like he was playing pickleball in the morning at a park than in the biggest game of his life – literally, the last line of defense against the Oilers, and history. Against a piece that the Panthers fought desperately to escape.
Florida led 3–0 in this title series, then fell 18–5 in Games 4, 5 and 6 and missed three chances to win the Cup. Edmonton was one win away from becoming the second team in NHL history to win the Cup after losing the first three games; Toronto did this to Detroit in 1942, and no team has made such a comeback since.
Edmonton almost did the same. About.
“He’s got to keep his head high,” Oilers coach Chris Knobloch said. “There’s a lot to be proud of.”
The Panthers brought seven-time Grammy winner Alanis Morissette to sing the national anthem – she was born in Canada and became a dual US citizen in 2005. Hardly anyone could hear him; Oilers fans booed him for “O Canada”, Panthers fans did the same for “The Star-Spangled Banner”. He then took over ceremonial bass drum playing from Panthers legend Roberto Luongo; He urged fans to “let’s go” with an additional word that needed to be bleeped a few times.
“We have a great team,” said Luongo, whose number was retired by the Panthers and now is part of the team’s front office. “And the boys dug really deep.”
The pregame was noisy. The stage was set.
And the teams turned out to be an absolute blast.
The Panthers got their first goal just 4:27 minutes into the game. Verhaeghe waved his stick On the puck that was fired from the left side by Iván Rodríguez it was enough to redirect it past Skinner for a 1–0 lead – Florida’s first lead since the end of Game 3.
He waited for more than a week to get back on top. They stayed there for just over two minutes.
Janmark falls behind Florida defense and beat Bobrovsky with a right shoulder at 6:44, setting things up nicely and ensuring that this Game 7 of the Finals – like all 17 previous such games – would not end 1-0.
It remained that way through wild ups and downs – the Oilers controlled for long periods, the Panthers would counter back and forth – until Reinhart scored late in the second to put Florida ahead 2–1. . This included a crazy sequence in which Florida defenseman Dmitry Kulikov put the ball in the net to help prevent Edmonton’s goal just seconds before Reinhart beat Skinner. The goal was Reinhart’s 67th goal of the season, tying his Florida single-season record, and it was up to the Panthers to keep it.
“The resolution was clear,” Morris said.
Florida was entering Monday an NHL-best 44-0-3 when leading after two periods this season. That position was also an NHL best 85–2–6 in two seasons under coach Maurice.
He knocked on the door for the last time. And the cup was their reward.
“This is the best moment of my life so far,” veteran Panthers defenseman Aaron Ekblad said. “Nothing above that.”
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AP NHL Playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup And https://www.apnews.com/hub/NHL
