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2024 Stanley Cup Champions

Thin Line Between Jubilation, Dispair in Stanley Cup Final Displayed in New Series

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5 months ago

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The Florida Panthers douse coach Paul Maurice with champagne from the Stanley Cup in the early hours of June 25 in Sunrise after beating the Edmonton Oilers 2-1 in Game 7. // Photo courtesy @FlaPanthers

There is rarely such a fine line that is drawn between glory and despair as was on display in this year’s Stanley Cup Final between the Florida Panthers and Edmonton Oilers.

Florida took a 3-0 series lead in the Stanley Cup Final — only to watch Edmonton storm back and force a winner-take-all Game 7.

The Panthers won that game 2-1 and were able to celebrate throughout the summer.

The Oilers did not.

The final two episodes in the new Amazon Prime docuseries FACEOFF: Inside the NHL — which drops today — focuses in on the Stanley Cup Final with an emphasis on stars Connor McDavid and Matthew Tkachuk.

Episode 5: Cup Or Bust, Part 1, opens with McDavid walking down the tunnel into the visitors’ locker room in Sunrise.

After slamming down his stick in frustration, McDavid slumps in the seat at his stall as Panthers’ Public Address announcer Andrew Imber’s voice can be heard in the silent room.

McDavid begins sobbing uncontrollably before the camera crew is kicked out of the small room.

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We see a lot of Edmonton’s despair throughout the two episodes — including McDavid declining to come out onto the ice to accept the Conn Smythe Trophy for MVP of the playoffs after being informed by an NHL official that he had won it.

Commissioner Gary Bettman awkwardly looks around after announcing McDavid as the winner as upset Florida fans chant for their choice: Goalie Sergei Bobrovsky.

“I wouldn’t go back out there for a million dollars,’’ McDavid said later.

Some of the crying in the episode are tears of joy — such as the pure emotion emanating from Keith Tkachuk in the moments after Game 7 as he is hugged by son Brady while Matthew celebrates on the ice below.

The six-episode docuseries features the Panthers in three of them (Eps. 3, 5 & 6) with plenty of behind-the-scene stuff never made public before.

In Game 7, the whiteboard in the Florida locker room is shown.

Written on it is ‘Brothers For Life,’ with the signatures of every player on the Panthers.

In one intermission, Paul Maurice — cursing up a storm, as usual — grabs a pair of goalie gloves from Anthony Stolarz, borrows a stick, and then gets down on the ground in a goalie crouch to show his team how they need to shoot on Edmonton goalie Stuart Skinner.

Great stuff.

Tkachuk also talks about being in the locker room with a bag of ice on his shoulder after he could not play in Game 5 of the 2023 Stanley Cup Final in Las Vegas due to his fractured sternum.

Many of Tkachuk’s exchanges with McDavid will not be printed here — again, viewer discretion is advised — but we do hear what he says to the Edmonton captain in the handshake line.

“Hopefully we see each other next year,’’ Tkachuk said.

Much of the attention on these episodes will revolve around McDavid, from what he admitted was a “meltdown’’ following the Game 2 loss, to his moments in the silent locker room following Game 7.

Box to Box Films is the production company which brought us popular Netflix series which followed F1 and the PGA Tour.

This certainly feels real — and it should. The NHL and its teams did not have editorial control over the content filmed nor the final product.

They did a nice job of getting some great stuff, as well as mixing in family video of the Tkachuks — including a young Keith Tkachuk feeding an even younger Matthew with a bottle.

For Florida fans, the series is just another chance to relive the greatest moments in franchise history.

The raging party in the locker room following the on-ice celebration — including a complete dousing of GM Bill Zito in champagne — are lasting memories of a dream fulfilled.

And yet, it could have gone the other way.

In Game 7, with the score tied at 1, Dmitry Kulikov knocks a puck away from an open net which certainly would have given Edmonton a 2-1 lead.

Yet, the puck gets cleared and Sam Reinhart scores to give Florida a 2-1 lead with 4:49 left in the second period.

It would be the final goal of the 2023-24 NHL season — and led to the biggest celebration in Florida Panthers history.

Edmonton, like the Panthers before them, will now try and use what it learned on this journey and try it all again this season.

But Tkachuk and the Panthers aren’t going down without a fight.

They seem like the kind of guys who want to party again next summer.

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