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๐ Good morning to everyone, but especially to …
THE FLORIDA PANTHERS
Thirty years after they entered the NHL, the Florida Panthers are finally Stanley Cup champions. The Panthers held on for a 2-1 win over the Edmonton Oilers in Game 7 to clinch the first Cup title in franchise history.
The Panthers didn’t make it easy on themselves. They became just the third team in NHL history to surrender a 3-0 lead in the Stanley Cup Final, but that’s as far as it went. Florida made sure it didn’t become just the second team to lose a Final after leading 3-0.
Carter Verhaeghe picked a good time to score his second goal of the series, tipping home an Evan Rodrigues shot with just 4:27 gone in the first period. Sam Reinhart scored what would prove to be the game-winning goal, a snapshot pastย Stuart Skinner with 4:49 to go in the middle frame.
Reinhart was a fitting hero for the Panthers considering his 57 goals in the regular season led the Panthers and were good for second in the NHL.
From there, Panthers netminder Sergei Bobrovsky shook off his shaky performances in Games 4, 5 and 6 to slam the door on the Oilers. Bobrovsky allowed just one goal on the 24 shots he faced, and many of those stops came with Edmonton throwing the kitchen sink at him in the third period.
Bobrovsky did get some help from defenseman Gustav Forsling, who made the biggest play that won’t show up in the box score. With just over seven minutes left, Forsling tied up the stick of Connor McDavid, who had Bobrovsky dead to rights at the top of the crease.
Despite not registering a point in Games 6 or 7, McDavid was named the MVP of the playoffs. It was the sixth time a player on the losing team — and only the second for a non-goalie — received the honor. None of the Panthers got to lift the Conn Smythe Trophy, but I’m going to assume they had more fun lifting the Stanley Cup anyway.
Two people who definitely enjoyed hoisting the Cup over their heads were Panthers head coach Paul Maurice and forward Kyle Okposo. It took Maurice 26 seasons as a head coach to finally win hockey’s greatest prize, and Okposo waited 17 seasons before laying his hands on Lord Stanley.
๐ Honorable mentions
๐ And not such a good morning for …
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Author: Zachary Pereles
June 25, 2024 | 9:35 am