This season, the Florida Panthers will look to become the first team since the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2020 and 2021 to win back-to-back Stanley Cup championships. However, if you want to relive the 2024 postseason run before the 2024-25 campaign begins, ESPN+ made the Stanley Cup Championship Film available for streaming as of Oct. 1. The film will also air on Oct. 6 on ESPN 2 at 1 pm EDT and on SN360 at 6 pm EDT, on Oct. 7 on Prime Video Canada, and on Oct. 8 on SN at 2 pm EDT, just before opening night.
The film also includes highlights from last season and a deeper look at players like Matthew Tkachuk, Sergei Bobrovsky, and Aleksander Barkov.
The Greatest Season in Panthers History
Fresh off of their first Stanley Cup Final appearance since 1996, the Panthers were eager to return to the Cup Final in 2023-24. With some new faces – Evan Rodrigues, Kevin Stenlund, and Steven Lorentz, along with some deadline acquisitions in Kyle Okposo and Vladimir Taransenko – they got back into the playoffs with a regular season record of 52-24-6. They entered the postseason as Atlantic Division champions for the second time in three seasons and the third time in franchise history.
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In the first round, they faced their in-state rivals, the Lightning, a team they had never beaten in a playoff series. Even with Nikita Kucherov, Steven Stamkos, and Andrei Vasilevskiy on the team, the Panthers saw it as their chance to vanquish their demons. They handled the Bolts with ease, winning the series 4-1 and moving on to the second round.
Their next opponent had revenge on the brain. After the Boston Bruins broke the NHL record for most points and wins in the 2022-23 regular season, the Panthers nonetheless found a way to defeat them in the first round in seven games despite the Bruiins holding a 3-1 series lead. The series would go Florida’s way again as they bested them by a series score of 4-2. To this day, the Bruins have yet to beat the Panthers in three all-time postseason series.
Next came one of the toughest challenges. The New York Rangers were a strong team with a deadly power play that featured Artemi Panarin, Mika Zibanejad, and Adam Fox. This, combined with the rock-solid Igor Shesterkin in goal, made them a force, and they were not going to be an easy team to beat in the Eastern Conference Final. Despite the odds, the Cats took home their second-consecutive Prince of Wales Trophy and third in franchise history, returning to the dance after failing to win it all the season before.
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In the Final, the Panthers had to deal with arguably the game’s best player, Connor McDavid, and the Edmonton Oilers. The team had not reached the Final since 2006 when they lost to the Carolina Hurricanes in seven games. The Cats won three straight games to take a 3-0 stranglehold in the series, but in Game 4, the Oilers flipped the script.
After winning Game 4 by a score of 8-1, the Oilers won the next two games and forced the series back to Sunrise for Game 7. The Panthers were one game away from either winning their first Cup or becoming the first team since 1942 to lose the Stanley Cup Final after leading the series 3-0. With a narrow 2-1 victory in Game 7, the Panthers won their first-ever Stanley Cup.
The banner-raising ceremony will be at 7 p.m. on Oct. 8 before their first regular-season game against the Bruins, with a ring ceremony the night before on Oct. 7 at 6:30 pm.
