2024 Was a Very Good Year for the Florida Panthers

By all accounts, 2024 was a very good year for the Florida Panthers.

Some, like Carter Verhaeghe and Eetu Luostarinen, got married.

Others, such as Sergei Bobrovsky, Gus Forsling, and Jonah Gadjovich, welcomed new children into the world.

Sam Bennett helped a lot of shelter pets get adopted.

Sasha Barkov donated a lot more money to Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital.

Then there was that thing that happened in June.

June 24, 2024, to be precise, is the night the Florida Panthers became Stanley Cup champions for what they hope is for the first time.

Like Matthew Tkachuk said, winning the Stanley Cup is not something you want to experience only once.

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“Throughout my whole career, I have said, ‘I just have to win one, and then you’re set’,’’ Tkachuk said during the summer.

“I talked about it with guys who had won it earlier in their careers, like, ‘you got one, you’re good. You’ve got it for the rest of your career.’ I could not have been more wrong with saying that.

“I want this feeling again.”

Thanks to the Panthers, 2024 will be a year long remembered in South Florida.

The Florida Panthers raise their Stanley Cup championship banner before the start of their game against the Boston Bruins on Oct. 8 in Sunrise. (AP Photo/Jim Rassol)

After losing in the 2023 Stanley Cup Final to the Vegas Golden Knights, the Panthers came back strong and took care of business.

The Panthers beat Boston, Toronto, and Carolina on their way to the 2023 Final; In 2024, they dropped the Lightning, Bruins, and Rangers en route to a date with destiny — and the Edmonton Oilers.

Florida took a 3-0 lead in the Final and were so close to the Stanley Cup they could have literally touched it.

The Cup was on full display in Edmonton that Saturday night for Game 4.

Paul Maurice talked about not having to drink coffee that morning knowing the Stanley Cup was so close.

“The emotion I did not see coming was being up 3-0, walking off that bench. It was the first time in your entire life that you could say ‘it’s possible’,” Maurice recalled on Monday.

“We would say on a Tuesday night in March if we’re not going, or things are going well, that you’re not winning the Stanley Cup one way or another. We just have to work on the details. But we actually knew we could win the Stanley Cup that next night. That changed. You were changed and I was wired for three days. I have never experienced anything like that. … It was quite an experience that I will never forget.”

The Panthers ended up losing Game 4 in spectacularly bad fashion.

The Oilers ran away with an 8-1 win, and an improbable comeback was on.

The Florida Panthers celebrate the Stanley Cup with a handful of friends at Fort Lauderdale Beach on Sunday, June 30, 2024. // Photo courtesy @FlaPanthers

The Oilers came back to Sunrise and won Game 5 before winning Game 6 in Edmonton.

All that did was set up a dramatic Game 7 on June 24, 2024.

“Whatever your sport, as a kid, it doesn’t matter if you are male or female, whatever you played at 12, the game was never over in the fourth inning or in the second half,” Maurice said. “It was always ‘bases-loaded, bottom of the ninth.’ That’s what we dreamed of. It was always an overtime goal in Game 7.

“It always felt like we were going to get maximum value out of that one. We would be pushed right to the limit. Aside from that game not going to overtime, the last 10 minutes of the third, if they score and tie it, it might be a different set of emotions going on there. You could say we experienced everything in those playoffs.”

The Panthers, after beating the Oilers 2-1 in Game 7, partied like there was no tomorrow.

After getting after it in a private party that spilled out from their locker room onto the ice, the players all headed east.

The Stanley Cup ended up going for a ride on Tkachuk’s golf cart where it ended up bellying up to the bar for an early morning drink at the Elbo Room.

Soon, the Panthers treked across the beach with the Cup and took it for a dip in the Atlantic.

Lots of other stuff happened, too.

“It was a great year, a lot of stuff that happened. I am thankful for all of it,” Verhaeghe said. “We won, I got married. Big summer. A lot of stuff. So much happened. Winning it was a dream come true. Just amazing.”

Florida captain Sasha Barkov parties with his teammates and the Stanley Cup at E11EVEN Miami on June 26. (Photo by Alexander Tamargo/Getty Images for E11EVEN Miami)

After a summer of partying around North America and Europe, the Panthers reported to training camp not ready to turn the page so much, but to realize being the defending champs doesn’t mean much if they don’t come to play.

That does not mean the glow of the Stanley Cup will not leak into 2025.

As was the case when the Panthers played Ottawa, Toronto, Seattle, and Calgary, some of their former teammates still have championship rings coming their way.

And that banner the team raised on Oct. 8 isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

The memories, Maurice likes to say, pop up in the strangest of places. Sometimes it is seeing something on television, or hearing a song.

Or simply seeing a former teammate.

For Dmitry Kulikov, he thinks about winning the Stanley Cup every time he is heading down A1A and comes up on Sunrise Boulevard.

That is, after all, where the team’s championship parade started in the rain — before Maurice had the Channel 10 sensors freak out.

“It was a great year. Hockey-wise, career-wise, coming back to where it all started,” said Kulikov, who got a new four-year contract to basically end his career with the team he was drafted with in 2009.

“Hell of a year. I am not the kind of guy who thinks about sentimental moments, but from time to time, I think about what we did. Especially when I am driving down A1A and Sunrise comes up.

“That brings up memories every time. It probably always will.”

ON DECK: GAME No. 39

CAROLINA HURRICANES AT FLORIDA PANTHERS 

• When: Thursday, 7 p.m.
• Where: Amerant Bank Arena, Sunrise 
• Local TV: Scripps Sports — WSFL 39 (Miami/FTL); WHDT 9 (WPB); LAFF 36.3 (Naples/FTM)
• Streaming: Panthers+, ESPN+
• Radio: WPOW 96.5-FM2; WBZT 1230-AM (Palm Beach); WCTH 100.3-FM (Florida Keys); SiriusXM
• Panthers Radio Streaming: SiriusXM 932, NHL App
• Last Season: Carolina Won 2-1
• This Season (Panthers Lead 2-0) — At Florida: Panthers 6, Hurricanes 0 (Nov.30); Thursday. At Carolina: Panthers 6, Hurricanes 3 (Nov. 29).
• All-Time Regular Season Series: Carolina/Hartford leads 73-49-10, 11 ties
• Postseason History: Florida 1-0 (2023 ECF)
• Up Next for the Panthers: Friday vs. Pittsburgh Penguins, 7 p.m.