EDMONTON -— Outside the space-age-silver Rogers Place, just so you know nothing was forgotten this past year, there’s a sign to see: “The pain only increases the passion.”
Inside the arena Tuesday, the deliverers of that pain, the Florida Panthers felt it all coming back again. That noise. Those moments.
“Like a wave through the body,” Evan Rodrigues called it, looking down at his hand. “You feel it in your fingertips. Yeah, you’re starting to realize where you are.”
Finally, it’s the finals. Same teams. Similar matchups. Clear stakes, too. Win and Edmonton celebrates its first title since Wayne Gretzky with the next Gretzky, Connor McDavid. It would be his win, his time.
If the Panthers repeat, it will be seen as a more collective and threatening victory. That rarest of sports terms will be invoked: Dynasty. That’s because this win wouldn’t just be framed as them making three consecutive Stanley Cups Finals and winning two. Repeat champs has happened most recently in Tampa in 2020 and 2021 and Pittsburgh in 2016 and 2017.
What’s different about these Panthers is they would win two titles with the window flung wide open to keep winning in ways the hockey world has noticed. Go back to the opening series this postseason. Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper called the Panthers, “exceptional,” because they can, “play any game with you.”
That’s borne out so far these playoffs. The Panthers have won with defense, as three shutouts show. They’ve won with offense, scoring five or six goals in 11 of their 12 wins. They’ve won close games, as three wins by one-goal margin shows. And they’ve won on the road, as their 8-2 record away from home shows (they’re only 4-3 at home).
But Cooper also said how his roster couldn’t be kept together after Tampa Bay’s two titles in the salary-cap era. “They seem to be doing it,” he said.
By rule, no NHL contract can’t be renegotiated. The Miami Dolphins’ Jonnu Smith wanting more money? That’s the NFL. The Panthers have seven of their top skaters — Aleksander Barkov, Matthew Tkachuk, Sam Reinhart, Carter Verhaeghe, Anton Lundell, Seth Jones and Gustav Forsling — locked up at for the next five years. They range from Lundell’s 23 years old to Jones’ 30, too. Prime of careers.
What’s more they rank 16th in the league in cap space with $19 million. Sam Bennett and Aaron Ekblad will be free agents this offseason. So that’s where some of that money goes there. But sign back Brad Marchand? Why not? Keep this party going?
Well, that would be easier if a Cup is being hoisted. As Bennett said, “It’s the expectation now. The whole organization, from front office to training staff, the idea is we’re going be fighting to be in this place every year.”
Maurice called this the, “best team I’ve ever coached — and it’s not really close.” He’s right, it really isn’t close, considering he’d never had this kind of roster to work with.
These Panthers are better than last year. Deeper. Stronger. More talented. More five-star players, too, with the addition of defenseman Jones, who leads the Panthers’ postseason in ice time, and forward Marchand, who has their fourth-most points these playoffs.
Edmonton is a force itself, having built a deeper roster than last year and winning its Western Conference final in the same five game as the Panthers did the East.
So, there’s a collision coming starting with Game 1 Wednesday. McDavid talked at the NHL media day Tuesday as an enlarged photo of Tkachuk holding last year’s Stanley Cup loomed over him. That’s the symbolic manner Edmonton has felt all season.
“Now it’s time to go play,” McDavid said.
The Panthers, too, had that feeling from that final hover over their season. It felt warm, like success — like this is where they expect to be each year.
“It’s everything you could have dreamed of as a kid,” defenseman Ekblad said. “Three championship finals. A chance here to win two. We’re all really, really excited.”
He was asked what this next one would mean, this one that would start talk of a dynasty. He dropped his voice to a whisper.
“I hope to find out,” he said.