SUNRISE, Fla. — Over his 28 years and 10 pro teams, A.J. Greer had never seen anything like it.
Flash back to Oct. 5, Quebec City: The fourth-line journeyman and one of the latest Florida Panthers reclamation projects assumed the reigning Stanley Cup champions would sleep their way through the final pre-season game. Save the good stuff for later.
Hey, that’s what his previous teams would do.
“Play some soccer, have a coffee, get on the ice,” Greer recalls.
But, nah, that’s not how these Cats roll.
“There were 22 guys working out — full workouts — before the game. It’s like we didn’t even have a game. Guys were doing power lifting. Lower body, upper body, bike sprints before the game, and I’m thinking to myself: They’re dialed in here,” Greer continues.
“It did surprise me at first, and I thought to myself: OK, maybe this will just be a one-month thing, and we might have a drop-off. There was no drop-off. That’s the culture I’m talking about. There’s no drop-off.
“They won the Cup, and they were just as hungry this year to win another one.”
No drop-off on the quick starts or the weighty forecheck. No let-up on the finished checks or the smart puck management. No whiff of goalie controversy or prolonged scoring dips.
The Panthers — hoisting back-to-back Stanley Cups thanks to Tuesday’s clinical 5-1 outclassing of Connor McDavid’s superstar-studded Edmonton Oilers, again, at Amerant Bank Arena — are the relentless model of consistency.
They are the standard for culture and teamwork. Bold management and emotional coaching.
And now that they’ve been successful in two of their three consecutive trips to the Final, they are building a case as the best hockey team of the NHL’s salary-cap era.
“I said it a few times — I might regret it later — but it almost feels normal. Like, it’s where we’re meant to be,” a victorious Aaron Ekblad said on the chewed-up battle grounds.
“We believe that as a team: We’re meant to be here. We’re gonna keep doing it.”
That the series’ first three games all reached overtime gave an illusion that these sides were evenly matched.
Then the Panthers pulled away like a blue-ribbon thoroughbred down the stretch, hoofing up dirt and never peeking back. No team in history held a lead for as much time as the Panthers did in this Cup Final (255:49).
“They’re a heck of a team. They’re back-to-back Stanley Cup champions for a reason,” McDavid said.
“They were able to stay on top of us all over the place, and we were never really able to generate any momentum up the ice. We kept f—— trying the same thing over and over again, banging our heads against the wall. Credit to them. They played well.”
So, when Sam Reinhart scored his brilliant unassisted goal in the first period, and a finding-his-legs Matthew Tkachuk doubled the lead off another Oilers’ bobble, when Edmonton coach Kris Knoblauch turned to the nuclear option and paired McDavid and Leon Draisaitl at the seven-minute mark, the coronation already felt fait accompli.
Reinhart would go on to score three more, scoring as many goals in Game 6 as Draisaitl did all series.
First rained hats, then rats.
The Panthers outscored the Oil 13-4 in first periods this series, allowing them to dictate pace, to tighten up, to frustrate till the end.
McDavid and Draisaitl both came into Game 6 saying how they “still haven’t seen our best.”
Or, how about this? Maybe their best isn’t enough against this team, that rolls four lines and always dresses a Hall of Fame goalie, and taxes the opposition with greedy waves of depth.
“I think they were better (than in 2024),” Draisaitl said. “Just deeper… Their third line did a lot of damage.”
Florida finishes the post-season with six skaters posting 20 or more points, and another parade will only encourage more talent to flock south — or take a little less to stay put.
“The sun doesn’t kill us. It’s a nice environment to live in. It’s a good place for families; it’s a good place for singles. It’s got a little something for everybody,” says GM Bill Zito, a trade deadline wizard. “So many of the players that have come to us have had career years, and it’s a function of the coaches and the room.
“That room, it’s so special, they just pull the good qualities out of you.”
The room pulled the best out of Greer, who was not so removed from giving up his Cup dream and chasing a few extra bucks in some European league before hanging ’em up.
It got the best of 37-year-old Brad Marchand, so clutch in his long-delayed second championship (three game-winners, six goals in the Final). Ditto Nate Schmidt, bought out over the summer and taking six figures to find a better fit.
Schmidt, a runner-up with Vegas in 2018, describes the countdown to buzzer as a chaotic mess of hugs and screams, surreality and adrenaline.
“It doesn’t really register right away. Like, you can’t really feel it till the Cup comes out on the ice,” Schmidt said.
“You don’t really know until you see it, feel it. It’s got its own heartbeat, right? It breathes all the players that have ever touched it.”
Captain Aleksander Barkov first passed the silver chalice to Schmidt, who gave it to fellow first-timer Seth Jones, who passed it to first-timer Tomas Nosek, first-timer Greer…
And so it went, until all 10 new winners — including third-string goalie Eric Cormier, who has never even played in the NHL — lifted the thing before any of the repeat champs.
“Watching these guys interact with each other, that’s been the gift of this place. That’s been the best thing for me,” coach Paul Maurice said.
“It was somewhat life-altering this year to watch the way they treat each other.”
Matthew Tkachuk leaned into the concept.
“Our team was a team. When things were getting hard for them, they looked to one guy. But our team, we do it collectively,” Tkachuk said.
“I don’t care about personal stats. I don’t care. Our team doesn’t give a s— about that. That’s what makes us a team, and that’s why we’re lifting the Stanley Cup right now — because we’re a team and not a bunch of individuals.”
Jones, who was so miserable in Chicago just a few months ago, tells you that he first believed they’d win before he had even arrived in Florida. Following the midseason trade, he got call after call from his future teammates. All they talked about was winning the Cup again.
“I was thinking about that the other day, the position I’m in and where I came from earlier this year, kind of the 180 it’s been,” Jones said.
“The experience that’s with this group has really calmed my heart rate down.”
And cranked up the pulse of hockey in South Florida, where the hottest team in hockey is straight-up basking in it.
Sunshine. Champagne. Glory.
“I don’t think we had a single meal on the road away from each other. Like, that’s the kind of team, right? And Vinnie Viola and Bill Zito picked up the tab 99 per cent of the time,” Ekblad said.
“That’s the thing, right? It’s a tight-knit group. This organization does everything for the players, and it’s a special place to be. A special franchise, and I don’t think there’s a better one.”
• Tough Conn Smythe vote, as Marchand, Bennett, and Sergei Bobrovsky were all worthy candidates.
Bennett got the honour, setting a playoff record with 13 road goals. He snatched 11 of 18 first-place votes.
Zito won’t take credit for Bennett’s transformation after he traded for him out of Calgary.
“You know who he has to thank for that? Him. And that room. And Q (former coach Joel Quenneville). He came in and everybody said, ‘Just play hockey, OK?’ And that’s what he did,” Zito says. “I’m so proud of him. He’s such a good person, great player and great teammate. I’m really, really proud of Sam Bennett, and he deserves every bit of credit for people to give him.”
Hey, when was the last time the Conn Smythe champ left his team two weeks later?
Pending UFA Bennett on his ability to park thoughts of his uncertain future during the most important games of the year:
“It’s actually been pretty easy. I mean, competing for a Stanley Cup has always been my goal and my passion and what I’ve wanted to do. That’s all I want, and it’s been quite easy to just not even think about what’s to come.”
• Hey, Bill Zito, how badly do you want Marchand back next season?
“I bought a Dairy Queen.”
• Tough night for Bouchard (minus-4), whose casual puck management led to turnovers that led to the Cats’ first two goals.
Fascinating decision looming in Edmonton for the most valuable RFA-to-be. Is Bouchard a $10-million asset?
• Just a little ’stitious?
Panthers legend and executive Roberto Luongo banged the drum before the club’s final home game last June and fulfilled the same duty before Game 6. Like ex-nemesis Marchand, he now has two rings — one of which they’ll share.
• Barkov becomes the first European to captain multiple Stanley Cup champions.
Who cares that the Selke champ finished the playoffs on an eight-game goal drought?
Barkov (five assists) was instrumental in containing McDavid to a minus-7 rating in the final. Turns out, Barkov was playing the whole series with 15 stitches in his hand.
“In Game 1, Sasha split the palm of his hand open. He had those sutures torn out twice till he just glued it together,” Maurice revealed. “That had something to do with his point production.
P.S. Four-goal Reinhart suffered a Grade 2 MCL sprain in the Carolina series.
