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June 16, 2025
Panthers oilers
EDMONTON, AB - JUNE 21 : Panthers head coach Paul Maurice disagrees with a called back goal in the second period of game four of the Stanley Cup Final Round Edmonton Oilers game versus the Florida Panthers on June 21, 2024 at Rogers Place in Edmonton, AB. (Photo by Curtis Comeau/Icon Sportswire)

About a year ago, the Florida Panthers were on the verge of winning the Stanley Cup for the first time not only as an organization, but for just about everyone involved.

The Panthers were up 3-0 in their series with the Edmonton Oilers and everyone could taste what was coming next.

The Stanley Cup was in the building, ready to be handed to the Panthers then flown south to summer in Florida.


Before that Game 4, a very chipper Paul Maurice said it was the kind of morning where “you don’t need a coffee.’’

Other players admitted to having trouble sleeping, comparing their energy and excitement to when they were kids trying to go to bed on Christmas Eve.

“Obviously, it’s hard not to feel a little different,” Carter Verhaeghe said after morning skate before Game 4. “We know what’s at stake. It’s a little, obviously, a big game for us.”

We all know what happened next: The Panthers did not bring the Stanley Cup home with them that evening, the Oilers forcing a Game 5 by dropping the Panthers like a bad habit in an 8-1 win.

The Oilers then forced Game 6.

And a Game 7.

The Panthers did win that Game 7 and got the Stanley Cup with a 2-1 win on June 24.

Almost a year later, the Panthers are on the cusp of celebrating with Lord Stanley’s mug once more.

Florida holds a 3-2 lead in the 2025 Stanley Cup Final and, come Tuesday night in Sunrise, the silver trophy will be all shined up and ready to be handed out.

The Panthers say this time around will be different, this time experience will guide them through the pitfalls which may have slowed them down last year.

We shall see.

“Well, we’re hopeful,’’ Maurice said Sunday morning before the Panthers headed south following Saturday’s impressive 5-2 win in Game 5.

“Certainly, the context changes when you get this close, but having a bit of experience does matter, it does help in this. We were all pretty wired after Game 3 last year, and I think we can handle that a bit better now.”

Experience certainly is on Florida’s side.

A year ago, only a couple of Panthers (Verhaeghe, Vladimir Tarasenko) had experienced winning it all.

Now, only a handful (Seth Jones, Nate Schmidt, Tomas Nosek, AJ Greer among them) have never won the Stanley Cup.

And, the Panthers are the team that won a pressure-cooker Game 7 after the Oilers fought all the way back into the fight.

On Tuesday, however, only Florida can win it all.

The Oilers, really, have nothing left to lose at this point.

That should make them a very dangerous team — like they were in Game 4 last year.

“It’s a great opportunity. We’re not going to get ahead of ourselves,’’ Sam Bennett said. “It’s going to be the hardest game, and I think we know that. The job’s not done yet.

“It’s extremely tough, a moment you think about your whole life and it’s in the back of your head. I think we can just learn from that experience from last year. I think we were already looking ahead before we were ready to put in the work to get the job done. We know what we have to do now.”

2025 STANLEY CUP FINAL

GAME 6

EDMONTON OILERS @ FLORIDA PANTHERS 

Panthers Lead Best-of-7 Series 3-2
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