Panthers’ journey from NHL punch line to Stanley Cup champs

SUNRISE, Fla. — Aleksander Barkov did not simply raise the Stanley Cup after defeating the Oilers in Recreation 7.

He lifted shut to 3 a long time of failures, embarrassments and frustration off the shoulders of the gamers, the followers and this franchise.

The Florida Panthers are Stanley Cup champions. Not a punch line. Not being mocked for meager attendance. Not wallowing in mediocrity, on and off the ice, because the staff went 25 years between playoff collection victories.

Oh, there might have been extra embarrassment. Like, the most embarrassment. Florida practically fumbled the bag towards Edmonton, changing into simply the third staff in NHL historical past to blow a 3-0 Stanley Cup Ultimate collection result in pressure a Recreation 7. They might have been the Atlanta Falcons in Tremendous Bowl LI or Greg Norman within the 1996 Masters or the 1942 Detroit Pink Wings, the one staff in NHL historical past to lose the Stanley Cup Ultimate after successful the primary three video games.

It could have been very “Florida Panthers” to have completed that. However that is not who this franchise is anymore. They don’t seem to be a joke. They’re Stanley Cup champions.

It is wholly applicable that Florida received the Stanley Cup towards a Canadian staff — a nation that considered the Panthers as both relocation bait or a staff located in a hotter local weather by which to observe their very own groups at considerably decrease ticket prices; and that they eradicated the NHL-leading New York Rangers within the convention finals, the form of esteemed Unique Six staff that’s handed the respect the Panthers have clawed to earn.

These groups got here near championships. The Panthers are those who completed the story, changing into simply the third staff up to now 40 years to win the Stanley Cup after dropping within the Ultimate within the earlier postseason.

However maybe most extremely: The Florida Panthers — the Florida Panthers! — are actually a status franchise within the NHL.

“It is fairly freakin’ cool,” defenseman Aaron Ekblad, who’s second to Barkov in profession video games performed as a Panther, mentioned. “It wasn’t simple these first few years. There was a whole lot of studying and rising. New GMs, new coaches … that revolving door was robust, proper? The truth that we’re at this level now, the place the expectation is to make the playoffs, and the expectation is to problem for a championship, that is a extremely cool factor. I am so comfortable to have been by way of all of it with this franchise.”

Barkov caught with them. Ekblad caught with them. And extra South Florida followers than you’d notice caught with them, from the rat-tossing mid-Nineties to their Stanley Cup parade this season.

WHEN FLORIDA WINGER Evan Rodrigues was rising up in Toronto, the media lined solely Canadian groups and successful groups.

“So I’d say I in all probability wasn’t centered on the Panthers an excessive amount of,” the 30-year-old mentioned.

Fellow Ontario native Ryan Lomberg, 29, remembered how the Panthers have been lined on social media.

“I bear in mind seeing footage of the empty enviornment. Seeing all of the crimson seats and seeing perhaps a pair thousand followers. Being a child from Toronto, I bear in mind not likely understanding how the distinction [with other teams] was so excessive,” he mentioned. “It does not even make sense to me the way it was again then. The second I received right here 4 years in the past, the followers have been wonderful. Now we have a powerful following.”

Florida’s attendance woes have been a league-wide punch line, and the franchise did nothing to discourage it.

“In 2004, whereas I used to be in school in Orlando, I met a man who was a Lightning fan whereas I used to be watching the finals at a bar,” Panthers fan David Roth mentioned. “I informed him I used to be a Panthers fan, and he checked out me with a glance of absolute bewilderment and simply mentioned, ‘Why?’ As if it have been so overseas an idea to be a fan of a staff in Florida apart from the Lightning.”

In 2006, the Panthers have been averaging over 4,100 free tickets handed out for every residence sport. In 2008, the staff launched the “First Timer” program, by which anybody with a legitimate Florida driver’s license might get two free tickets to a sport.

In 2010, after LeBron James made his determination to take his abilities to South Seaside, the Panthers responded by providing season tickets within the higher deck for $6 per sport, ostensibly in honor of his new uniform quantity with the Warmth. Even that value level did not generate sufficient gross sales — the staff introduced that summer time that it was going to tarp off 2,000 higher deck seats for many residence video games.

“If you go 25 years between playoff collection wins, after which solely make the playoffs a few instances throughout that span, you lose a few generations of followers,” Florida CEO Matthew Caldwell mentioned.

Caldwell ascended to his place in 2016, having labored with proprietor Vinny Viola for a number of years.

Viola, who bought the staff in 2013, is considered one of a handful of majority house owners in the course of the staff’s turbulent historical past. They have been based as an growth staff by billionaire Wayne Huizenga, who initially needed to call them the “Block Busters” in honor of his video rental chain.

He bought the franchise to pharmaceutical businessman Alan Cohen and former NFL quarterback Bernie Kosar in 2001. Cliff Viner turned common companion in 2010, and made two strikes that may arrange Florida for later success: Hiring former Chicago Blackhawks GM Dale Tallon as head of hockey operations, and tasking him with rebuilding by way of the draft.

When Viola took over, the actual work started to restore the Panthers’ popularity. It began with the best way they ticketed video games.

“There was a whole lot of comp tickets. Simply all these gimmicks to get individuals into the world,” Caldwell mentioned. “That does not work in the long run. It actually angers your season-ticket holders whenever you’re giving out all these freebies and promotions to individuals off the streets.”

With the staff’s attendance struggles got here fixed relocation hypothesis.

“There have been all these rumors that we must be moved,” Caldwell mentioned. “That this new possession group was fixing it up and attempting to relocate to Quebec on the time. These have been the headwinds we needed to take care of.”

The chatter received so loud that house owners Viola and Doug Cifu wrote a letter to followers in 2014 to guarantee them the Panthers weren’t relocating. “Our plan is to construct a corporation that makes South Florida proud and to win the Stanley Cup in South Florida,” they mentioned.

However even the Panthers’ personal municipality was fueling relocation hypothesis. Broward County did a full evaluation of the Panthers franchise, and extra broadly on whether or not or not there must be a hockey staff in South Florida.

Apparently, the County discovered sufficient causes to decide to the Panthers, agreeing to a brand new enviornment lease that put Viola’s staff on strong monetary footing.

“It felt like a miracle on the time,” Caldwell mentioned. “However I feel the county checked out it like, ‘Hey, that is our final shot to see if the game works right here.'”

Whereas the staff was getting its monetary home so as, Caldwell’s subsequent process was attempting to energise a fan base that had sunk into malaise.

“When there is a fan base that is mad and indignant and in search of a savior, that is really a bit encouraging. Not less than you understand, they’re on the market and in case you do the best factor, they’ll come again,” he mentioned. “The issue is that our fan base had grow to be detached. There was nonetheless like 3,000 or so season-ticket holders that have been loyal and needed to see this occur. However a whole lot of the informal followers, former season-ticket holders, had given up.”

Going 24 seasons between playoff wins will do this to a franchise. However Caldwell mentioned getting their home so as off the ice was necessary for what would occur on the ice over the following decade.

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WHEN THE COLORADO AVALANCHE celebrated their Stanley Cup Ultimate sweep of the Panthers in 1996, they skated by way of an ever-increasing pile of plastic rats.

The rat-tossing stems from a legendary second in 1995-96 when ahead Scott Mellanby used his follow exterminate a rat within the locker room earlier than a sport. He then used the identical stick to attain two targets that evening — conducting what his teammates known as “a rat trick.” To today, rubber rats can be found for buy within the official Florida staff retailer for $5 every, with the shop promoting upward of 150 on sport days.

The plastic rats have been symbolic of what the franchise had created in its third NHL season: custom. The Cinderella run bonded hockey followers and minted new ones. A number of days after the 1996 Ultimate, the Panthers hosted 15,000 followers at Miami Area for a celebration of that season’s success.

The hopes have been excessive that this was the beginning of one thing particular for the franchise — then they did not win one other playoff collection till 25 seasons later.

“It was brutal. There have been so a few years within the wilderness,” Panthers fan Scott Kandell mentioned. “We all the time appeared to have one or two good gamers with promise — like Nathan Horton, Stephen Weiss and Olli Jokinen — however possession’s reply was all the time to usher in older gamers previous their prime to attempt to create depth getting over the hump. And it was all the time with horrible outcomes.”

From 1996 to 2022, the Panthers had the Twenty fifth-best regular-season factors proportion (.513) and the worst playoff file (13-29) within the NHL. There have been exhilarating highlights throughout that in any other case moribund run — Pavel Bure’s back-to-back goal-scoring titles, Roberto Luongo’s Corridor of Fame goaltending — but in addition draft busts, younger gamers traded too quickly and a string of underwhelming groups.

“It wasn’t enjoyable being the butt of attendance jokes (you understand, when these jokes have been really reputable), by no means seeing a playoff collection, house owners actually handing tickets out without cost,” Panthers fan Max Horowitz mentioned. “It was all an enormous bummer to see contemplating the start of the franchise had such fast outcomes and promise going for it.”

When Viola bought the staff, Jonathan Huberdeau (No. 3 total, 2011), and Barkov (No. 2, 2013) had been drafted. Ekblad (No. 1) would be part of them in 2014.

However success did not observe straight away. There have been 5 teaching modifications. There was an inner wrestle between Tallon and the “Laptop Boys” — the moniker given to the data-driven entrance workplace by some members of the Canadian media — that bred an inconsistent philosophy and unhealthy selections, like letting Jonathan Marchessault slip away within the Vegas growth draft.

At one level, Tallon was demoted as GM in 2016, then reinstated in 2017.

However it was Tallon’s presence in 2019 that helped the Panthers obtain an necessary turning level of their path to success: luring Joel Quenneville to teach the staff. Tallon had beforehand employed him to teach the Blackhawks.

After Chicago fired Quenneville, the Panthers swooped in with a major monetary supply and the possibility to work with Tallon once more. He accepted.

“He was clearly a sizzling commodity on the time popping out of Chicago,” Caldwell mentioned. “Once we have been in a position to land him, I feel lots of people mentioned, ‘Wow, you understand, Joel can go wherever and he picks Florida.’ We actually supplied a superb contract, however different massive franchises needed him, too. After which we signed Bob.”

Florida handed two-time Vezina Trophy winner and free agent goalie Sergei Bobrovsky of the Columbus Blue Jackets a seven-year deal, with an annual common worth of $10 million, in summer time 2019. Previously, the franchise struggled to draw free brokers. Now, one of many high ones had chosen them.

Tallon was fired in 2020 after 10 seasons with the staff.

“Once we bought the Panthers in 2013, we did so with a singular objective: to win a Stanley Cup. Now we have not seen our efforts come to fruition,” Viola mentioned on the time.

Florida had 23 interviews for the final supervisor job. Caldwell mentioned they “scoured the Earth” to search out the best candidate. They discovered him in Columbus: assistant GM Invoice Zito, a former agent, was introduced on to run the Panthers.

The staff confirmed enchancment beneath Quenneville, though they nonetheless could not advance previous the primary spherical.

After which, on Oct. 28, 2021, the Quenneville Period ended.

Quenneville resigned as head coach of the Panthers following a gathering with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman about his involvement within the Blackhawks’ sexual abuse case.

An investigation by the regulation agency Jenner & Block seemed into the allegations that former video coach Brad Aldrich sexually assaulted and harassed participant Kyle Seaside in the course of the staff’s 2010 Stanley Cup run. The investigation revealed that Quenneville was conscious of the scenario and took half in at the very least one assembly relating to the allegations in the course of the 2010 postseason.

Quenneville had beforehand mentioned he solely realized of the allegations in the summertime of 2021 “by way of the media.”

Caldwell mentioned the Panthers’ ahead momentum as a corporation might have been “100% derailed” by Quenneville’s resignation, as he had two extra seasons price over $15 million whole left on his contract.

“We had this nice coach and we have been blindsided by all of it. We began the season 7-0 after which the information broke,” Caldwell mentioned.

Affiliate coach Andrew Brunette stepped in as interim coach, and led the Panthers to their first Presidents’ Trophy with the league’s greatest file. He additionally coached them to their first playoff collection victory since 1996, over the Washington Capitals. However after the Panthers have been swept out by the Tampa Bay Lightning within the second spherical, Brunette wasn’t retained.

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ENTER PAUL MAURICE.

He had resigned as coach of the Winnipeg Jets in December 2021, suggesting the staff wanted a unique voice. He wasn’t positive if he’d get one other head-coaching job and was content material with that.

Maurice was within the midst of “4 phenomenal days of fishing” when Zito known as him. They began speaking hockey, and instantly linked.

“I used to be good, proper? I had given all that I assumed I needed to give, actually been lucky within the sport and acquired way over I gave,” Maurice mentioned. “However there’s simply these unusual little issues that meant Florida was proper, that it was the place I used to be alleged to be subsequent.”

The Panthers employed Maurice on June 22, 2022. By this time, Zito was deep into shaping a championship roster.

His first transfer as common supervisor was a stabilizing one: buying and selling for Penguins ahead Patric Hornqvist, a Stanley Cup champion who ended up being a culture-developer for Florida.

Then got here banger after banger: signing Carter Verhaeghe as a free agent; buying and selling for defenseman Brandon Montour and winger Sam Reinhart from Buffalo; getting middle Sam Bennett from Calgary; snagging defenseman Gustav Forsling off waivers, a participant who Maurice lately mentioned is “one of the best on the planet” within the fashion that he performs.

Then got here the massive swing, one month after hiring Maurice: buying and selling Huberdeau and defenseman MacKenzie Weegar to Calgary for star ahead Matthew Tkachuk, whom Zito known as a “generational expertise” after the deal.

“Our construct was gradual, after which when Invoice received right here, it has been like a turbo increase,” Caldwell mentioned.

It wasn’t simply that Tkachuk can be a star participant for the Panthers — carrying them to the Stanley Cup Ultimate final season and enjoying a significant function of their success on this run — however that he dedicated to the Panthers with a contract that runs by way of 2029-30.

“I feel we’re all very proud to be part of that tradition shift. It was once that gamers would come and form of fade away and finish their profession right here,” Lomberg mentioned. “Now it is the place the massive canines like Matt Tkachuk wish to come and wish to set up themselves and construct that legacy. So we’re exceptionally fortunate to be part of the Florida Panthers and intensely proud to be the place we’re at.”

For years, a laughingstock. Then immediately a vacation spot. Now, lastly, a champion.

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ZITO REMEMBERED THE FEELING after the 2023 Stanley Cup Ultimate.

The Panthers had a miraculous run by way of the Japanese Convention: stunning the Bruins, rolling by way of the Maple Leafs after which sweeping the Hurricanes. However accidents and ineffectiveness had them fall brief to the Golden Knights, dropping in 5 video games.

“I can inform you how rotten it felt going residence empty-handed. How everybody had that feeling of their abdomen,” Zito mentioned.

That dissatisfaction was mirrored in coaching camp. “Paul’s camps are actually intense and a whole lot of laborious work. You may’t stop at any time,” Barkov mentioned.

Tkachuk’s one-word evaluation: “Brutal.”

However Maurice mentioned that it was concerning the gamers coming to camp with an all-business angle. It was now not about hoping to make a Stanley Cup Ultimate — it was anticipated to be there once more, and nearly determining one of the best path to get there.

“Now we have that bitter style in our mouth nonetheless, and our mindset this yr is totally completely different than final yr, when it was a bit bit ‘comfortable to be there and benefit from the expertise,'” Bennett mentioned. “This yr, it is all enterprise. Now we have one objective in thoughts, and we’re not going to be glad till we accomplish that.”

One essential change of their mindset got here due to damage: Ekblad and Montour missed the beginning of the season after surgical procedure. That inspired the staff’s management to rededicate the Panthers defensively. They went from twenty first within the league final season in goals-against common (3.32) to tied for first this season (2.41).

The work they did within the playoffs towards star opponents mirrored that dedication. By Recreation 3 of the Stanley Cup Ultimate, the Panthers did not surrender a 5-on-5 objective to McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins or Zach Hyman; nor did they offer up one in prior playoff collection to Artemi Panarin, Chris Kreider, Mika Zibanejad, David Pastrnak or Nikita Kucherov.

“For as many offensive guys we have now on the staff, we’re a defense-first staff,” Tkachuk mentioned.

The fixed of their defensive effort was Bobrovsky.

“It is phenomenal simply to observe him work on daily basis. He makes all these saves, and he is all the time in the best place it looks like in the course of the video games, and that is not accidentally. It is due to how dialed in he’s in his preparation,” commerce deadline acquisition Kyle Okposo mentioned. “I feel that is been probably the most enjoyable half for me: simply watching him on daily basis and the way it’s translating to the video games.”

There was a time when Bobrovsky was seen as an overhyped, overpaid netminder who was crushed by the burden of his contract. Now, he is Playoff Bob.

Perceptions change. Simply ask the Florida Panthers.

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ZITO STARTED TO NOTICE the elevated curiosity within the Panthers after final season.

“After I walked the canine the primary couple years, nobody mentioned a phrase to me,” he mentioned throughout a media availability with Maurice. “Now the neighbor kind of is aware of who I’m.”

“They stopped calling the cops on you?” the coach requested, deadpan.

“Yeah,” Zito mentioned, laughing. “And also you’re beginning to see an increasing number of Panthers stuff. It is great. It is actually thrilling for the sport.”

That is the second for which Viola, Caldwell and the Panthers’ possession staff have been aiming. That is the second towards which Zito has been constructing. Florida successful the Stanley Cup is the fruits of their work to alter the notion, vibe, personnel and success of this staff.

“It is actually nothing wanting … nicely, ‘thrilling’ might be a bit an excessive amount of,” Zito mentioned. “However as somebody who grew up loving the sport and by no means having performed within the NHL, to see the followers and to listen to from your mates — ‘Oh, I went there and I could not get in as a result of it was packed’ — is wonderful.”

Barkov has waited his whole profession for it.

“It is one of the best time of my life proper now. I am having fun with each single day and making these playoff runs,” he mentioned.

The Panthers have been 29-45-8 in Barkov’s first season. That they had two completely different coaches. Their main scorer was Nick Bjugstad.

A decade later, they’re Stanley Cup champions.

“There is a cycle within the NHL. That is true of the good franchises, too. We used to enter Chicago and there is 5,200 individuals in that constructing. Detroit for some time needed to give away a automobile a sport to get individuals to the sport,” he mentioned. “A few of these phenomenal franchises. However they should be constructed, after which I assume they should be maintained. We’re hopeful we’re constructing it now.”

Cup in hand, the Panthers are actually confronted with an equally difficult process: sustaining success.

“In sports activities, every part’s about consistency,” Caldwell mentioned. “When you simply have one good season, it is nice. However the market’s sensible. They wish to just be sure you’re going to be good for a few years, you understand?”

Panthers fan Jeffrey Alterman agrees.

“You understand South Florida’s sports activities popularity,” he mentioned. “We’re a successful city. When you’re successful, we’re coming. In order that they should preserve successful.”

Rodrigues feels the franchise has turned the nook. It is now a vacation spot for gamers and can proceed to be one.

“I feel in case you get the best individuals concerned, and also you construct a spot the place individuals wish to come, they will come,” he mentioned. “Have a look at our new apply facility. It is state-of-the-art. When you’re between a pair locations and also you come down right here and have a look at our facility and then you definately’re in South Florida, it is laborious to say no to. I’ve actually loved it this yr, and I will not take away, although, that successful might be the largest factor.”

The Panthers have seen how fleeting success could be within the NHL, going 25 years between the rat-tossing euphoria of their 1996 Stanley Cup Ultimate run to their subsequent playoff victory. In between, they squandered momentum, wasted good religion and alienated generations of followers.

However they are saying it will be completely different this time.

“Successful it’s the pinnacle of every part we have been speaking about during the last 10 years. I feel we have already established a whole lot of credibility, however successful the precise Cup the primary time in franchise historical past is the icing on the cake on every part that we have been constructing right here,” Caldwell mentioned. “We have all the time been very clear that we can’t cease till we deliver a Stanley Cup to our followers. And we’re not going to cease after that, both.”