Dave Hyde: A ‘goose-bumps’ Panthers night as banner goes up, new season starts with win

SUNRISE — This never gets old. Never. It even felt better in the repeating late Tuesday afternoon as the “Stanley Cup Champions” banner rose slowly to the rafters, Florida Panthers players watched on the ice with arms locked around each other and the sold-out crowd applauded.

“Goose-bumps,” said Panthers forward Jesper Boqvist.

Yes, this scene never gets old, no matter how many times it might happen, and the fans already were counting ahead.

“We want three,” they chanted in the final seconds of the offseason inside Amerant Bank Arena. “We want three!”

The unimaginable is now imaginable.

“We obviously have the same expectations,” forward Brad Marchand said of a three-peat after the Panthers’ 3-2 win over the Chicago Blackhawks in the season opener. “But it’s going to be harder than the last two, this season.”

The familiar names returned to their familiar places on this first night to take the first, small step toward that. There was coach Paul Maurice behind the bench, taking a moment to reflect on the two titles and admiring the players putting arms around each other even started analyzing his new lines.

There was forward A.J. Greer reminding everyone how the fourth line matters to this team, picking up some loose change in front of the net and scoring the Panthers’ first goal.

There was Carter Verhaeghe scoring the second goal past goalie Spencer Knight, the former Panther who did everything to keep Chicago in the game.

Yes, the two-time champs were back for the new season, and so was the old fun, right down to the “Bobby” chants for goalie Sergei Bobrovsky, even if there was little of the emotion or consequence of the last time everyone was in Amerant Bank Arena.

There can’t be in Game 1 of the new season. Not when you’ve climbed the mountaintop like the Panthers have the past two seasons. This first game even lacked some big-night drama, because instead of showcasing the two-time champion in a prime-time opener against some Eastern Conference rival, they scheduled a 5 p.m. game against a blah Chicago team that hasn’t spilled any blood with the Panthers.

Not that Panthers need any more drama. Not really. Just reaching this starting line packed too much even without the emotion of the banner going up.

Their star of stars, Aleksander Barkov, was lost probably for the season with a knee injury. Their skating identity, Matthew Tkachuk, is out the first two or three months.

And, as if to show how much space the Panthers now occupy in other team’s heads, Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper took everyone back to the 1970s in preseason games against them. Cheap shots. Flying elbows.

“It was over the top,” NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said Tuesday at the Panthers game of Tampa Bay’s antics.

The Panthers have won in the gutter in recent years. They’ve won with the depth of their roster coming through like in this opener, too. Mackie Samoskevich, a rookie no more, got his second assist on the night by air-mailing a third-period pass across the middle that Boqvist bunted it in as he skated to the net.

“A great pass,” Boqvist said. “I kind of just skated it in.”

Greer. Samoskevich. Boqvist. Jonah Gadjovich had an assist. That’s how you cover on the first night for the missing star power of Barkov and Tkachuk.

That’s how you write a good ending to a night with a good stat. Aaron Ekblad skated out the Stanley Cup for the pregame ceremony considering Barkov couldn’t.

“It was incredible coming out in front of our fans to be able to hoist it one more time,” Ekblad said at his locker after the game. “But we’re trying to put that feeling behind us and move on to a new season.”

No, it never gets old, that feeling as the banner goes up to the rafters to stay forever. Goose-bumps indeed.

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Jesper Boqvist scores the go ahead goal during the Florida Panthers in their home opener against the Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2025 at the Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel)

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