Florida Panthers
Florida Panthers Celebrate Milestone Night with Brad Marchand
SUNRISE — The floor near the entrance to the Florida Panthers dressing room was a large puddle of water long after the team celebrated a milestone evening for a bunch of players. Only Brad Marchand got soaked.
“Way to make this all about you,’’ Evan Rodrigues chirped as he passed Marchand’s stall.
Rodrigues scored his 100th NHL goal on Thursday night.
So, too, did Seth Jones.
Gus Forsling got his 200th point, and Daniil Tarasov picked up his first win with the Panthers in his fifth start.
Yet the focus — and the celebration — was all on Marchand.
Getting your 1,000th NHL point will do that.
After all, only 12 players currently in the NHL have ever hit that milestone and Marchand is just the 102nd player in the league’s history to do it.
For a guy like Marchand, getting the business from his teammates was really all the celebration he really needed.
The water shower as he sauntered into the room from the ice was simply wet icing on the cake.
“You don’t get to be a part of things like that very often,’’ Marchand said after Florida’s 6-3 win over the Washington Capitals, his two assists in the third period bringing him into quite an exclusive club.
“I didn’t know the stat until tonight, but there’s only 102 guys who have ever [scored 1,000 NHL points]. They’re cool moments in guys’ careers that we all enjoy. We all care about each other in here and are very happy for each other when they have success.”
“With Jonesy and [Rodrigues], we’re all as happy for the next guy to have success and we all celebrate together. It feels pretty incredible to be a part of a group that enjoys each other as much as we do and as close as we are. That’s what makes these moments so much more special.”
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Said Jones: “It was awesome. It was special. We’re a tight group in here. He’s had an amazing career so far and it feels like he’s got a lot left in the tank the way he’s been playing for us this year. So, that was pretty cool. He had his kids in here [postgame] and it was pretty special.”
There were milestones all over the place Thursday in Sunrise, a night reminiscent of when Roberto Luongo and Jaromir Jagr were teammates in this same room — and had their stalls catty-corner from one another.
“It’s a milestone every night with these guys,’’ Nick Bjugstad quipped back in the day.
Marchand can appreciate those days.
After all, he was on the ice that night in Sunrise when Jagr surpassed Mark Messier for second place on the NHL scoring list with his 1,888th point when his shot went off the rear end of Sasha Barkov and beat Tuukka Rask and ended up in the back of the net.
That was the only goal in a 3-1 loss to Marchand and the Bruins.
Jagr was not happy.
“I was dreaming of something else,” Jagr said after that loss in 2016. “I was dreaming of a beautiful goal, a beautiful assist, and we win the hockey game. It’s not the way I wanted it to go … that wasn’t a very good game.”
Marchand, despite his two third-period assists on Thursday, sort of had a similar reaction as Jagr did.
Perhaps not as dour, but still.
Marchand’s 1,000th point came on an empty-netter from Eetu Luostarinen with 90 seconds left.
“That,’’ Marchand said to goalie coach Robb Tallas, “was the worst game I played all year.’’
It was memorable anyway.
Marchand had a five-game goal streak snapped in Thursday’s win — the longest in Panthers history by a player over 35 since Jagr — but his secondary assist on Jones’ power-play goal in the third that made it 5-2 extended his scoring streak to nine straight games.
Everything Marchand is throwing up at the net is going in these days one way or another, right?
“Yeah, everything I touched tonight went into our net,” Marchand said. “Not a great game.”
Paul Maurice laughed when told Marchand’s reaction to his big night.
“I do appreciate that because he has a really good handle on his game,” Maurice said. “There are guys who play in this league who don’t think they ever make a mistake. He knows exactly his good nights and his tougher nights. Tonight, the puck wasn’t his friend. He only got two points, right? Must be nice.”
At the end of the day, no one is going to remember the details of Thursday’s game just like this writer had to look up the details of Jagr’s big night that Marchand reminded he was there for.
Marchand came into Thursday two points away from joining an exclusive club that already included his close pal from Nova Scotia, Sidney Crosby.
His family was in the building and, although it appeared he was at No. 999 after a scrum in front that Sam Reinhart scored on in the second, he needed those two helpers in the third to get there.
Reinhart said he had to tell Marchand that the assist he appeared to get for No. 999 in the second was pulled off the board after video review showed that his stick never touched the puck.
“We almost got to celebrate it twice,” Reinhart said with a grin. “I don’t think he knew that they took away the one in the second. I unfortunately had to break the news to him. There are only a handful of guys who got 1,000 twice; it’s probably him and Wayne. So, that’s pretty cool.”
After the game, Marchand and Alex Ovechkin swapped jerseys.
LEGENDARY. pic.twitter.com/Tze00YfhfI
— Florida Panthers (@FlaPanthers) November 14, 2025
Marchand is now part of a club he never could have imagined joining after fighting his way onto the Boston Bruins roster as a small, third-round forward who spent part of his first two professional seasons playing in the AHL.
He found stardom and a home in Boston, where the Bruins eventually named him captain in 2023.
“I had a conversation with someone in management in Boston, or scouts, early on in my career,” Marchand recalled. “And they said ‘If you can get to 400 games, that’s a good NHL career. It’s one to be proud of.’ That was my marker. That was what I was chasing for so long.
“And when you follow guys that I got to follow in Boston, and you see the way they carry [themselves] day in and day out, it doesn’t become about milestones like that. It’s more about the next day and trying to just get better and better and better. And the way that kind of amounts, just the longer you spend doing that, years and years, they compound. You can play for a while, and good things start happening.
“I remember a couple years ago, I looked and it was 800 [points]. I couldn’t believe I had that many, and I kind of started chasing from that point. But it’s exciting. It’s something I’m definitely proud of. Hopefully there’s many more.”
The Panthers do as well.
Regardless, he is part of Florida’s history.
Not only did Marchand help the Panthers win the Stanley Cup last summer, but he signed a six-year contract which will likely end his competitive career here.
Big night all around for the boys 👏 pic.twitter.com/pXXH4gB8Jd
— Florida Panthers (@FlaPanthers) November 14, 2025
“It doesn’t look like he’s slowing down any time soon,” Reinhart said, “and it couldn’t happen to a better guy.
“It’s a tough number to get. It’s going to be pretty cool to see what he can get that to over the next couple of years.’’
Once Luostarinen’s long shot from the far blueline floated into the net, Marchand was mobbed by his teammates.
The puck, which rightfully belonged to Luostarinen, was grabbed and taken for Marchand.
“I guess,’’ Marchand said, “I owe him a dinner.’’
ON DECK: GAME 18
TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING at FLORIDA PANTHERS
- When: Saturday, 5 p.m.
- Where: Amerant Bank Arena, Sunrise
- Local TV: Scripps Sports — WSFL 39 (Miami/FtL); WHDT 9 (WPB); LAFF 36.3 (SWFla)
- Streaming: Panthers+, ESPN+
- Radio: WQAM; WBZT 1230-AM (Palm Beach); WCTH 100.3-FM (Florida Keys); SiriusXM
- Panthers Radio Streaming: SiriusXM 932, NHL App
- Season Series — At Florida: Saturday; Dec. 27. At Tampa Bay: Dec. 15; Feb. 5
- Last Regular Season: Tied 2-2
- Last Postseason: Florida won 4-1 (Round 1)
- All-time Regular Season Series: Florida leads 79-53-19, 10 ties
- All-Time Postgame Series — Tied 2-2: Lightning won 2021 first-round, 2022 ECS; Panthers won 2024, 2025 first-round series
