George Richards, FHN Publisher
If you checked out the newest episode of the HBO series Rooster on Sunday night — or, streamed it later — you probably noticed star Steve Carell wearing a Florida Panthers t-shirt while watching a game on television.
It was the opening scene of the third episode of the series which premiered earlier this month.
Rooster is the newest television entry from Bill Lawrence who previously brought us Scrubs, Shrinking, Ted Lasso, and more.
Carell plays Greg ‘Rooster’ Russo, a best-selling author whose books are extremely popular — although not exactly critically acclaimed.
Lawrence and producer Matt Tarses reportedly loosely based Carell’s character on former Miami Herald columnist and famed author Carl Hiaasen (Strip Tease, Stormy Weather, Lucky You, etc.) whom they worked with on AppleTV’s Bad Monkey.
Anyway, the Rooster character is a former minor league hockey player (Hiaasen was not) who moved to Florida and appears to have become a fan of the Panthers.
In Episode 3, Rooster is in Florida for a few days before moving north to start work at a Northeastern college where his daughter is a professor.
On his last night at home, he is watching a Florida Panthers game we can confirm was from last March.
Even though he says he “won’t be home until Christmas’’ which would place the timing of the episode early in the fall semester, this particular Panthers game was played on March 11, 2025 — days after Florida acquired Bruins captain Brad Marchand at the trade deadline then went to Boston to play the Bruins.
During the show, the Panthers are up 1-0 in the third while on a 5-on-3 power play.
The scene shifts away just before Mackie Samoskevich scores on that power play to give the Panthers a 2-0 lead.
The Bruins ended up rallying with three goals in the final 11-plus minutes of that game for a 3-2 win.
Rooster probably was not very happy.
Sam Reinhart, Sam Bennett and — the giveaway to when this Bruins game was played — Seth Jones are all spotted on the screen.
Jones did not join the Panthers until March 1.
Another strange quirk: Although Rooster is at his home in Florida, he is watching the Bruins’ broadcast on NESN.
Since it has not been revealed what part of Florida he lives in, perhaps it is the Tampa Bay area and he had to use his ESPN+ account to get it.
Stay tuned and perhaps we’ll find out more.
Ah, it’s all in fun — and Rooster is a pretty good show.
If you like Carell and some of Lawrence’s past work, you’ll probably like this.
Rooster drops on HBO and HBOMax Sundays at 10 p.m. ET.
ON DECK: GAME No. 70
SEATTLE KRAKEN at FLORIDA PANTHERS
- When: Tuesday, 7 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 (Kraken Lead 1-0) — At Seattle: Kraken 6, Panthers 2 (March 15). At Florida: Tuesday
- Last Season: Tied 1-1
- All-Time Regular Season Series: Seattle leads 6-3-0
- Up Next for the Panthers: Thursday vs. Minnesota Wild, 7 p.m. (ESPN)