The Florida Panthers’ road to the first Stanley Cup championship in their 30-season history was filled with memorable highs and challenging moments.
The “Florida Panthers – 2024 Stanley Cup Champions,” takes viewers through that emotional journey, culminating with a 2-1 victory against the Edmonton Oilers in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final.
Produced by NHL Original Productions, the film will begin streaming on ESPN+ on Tuesday and premiere on ESPN2 on Oct. 6 at 1 p.m. and Sportsnet on Oct. 6 at 6 p.m. It will be available on Amazon Canada on Oct. 7 and will be available to all of the NHL's international partners.
The story begins with the Panthers’ origin as a 1993 expansion team that reached the 1996 Cup Final in its third season before being swept by the Colorado Avalanche. It took until 2023 for Florida to reach the Cup Final again.
Although the Panthers lost that best-of-7 series to the Vegas Golden Knights in five games, the defeat provided valuable lessons and motivation.
“Last year, the loss in the Final I think it was a good experience for us,” Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky said. “It was a good learning experience and helped us to realize how hard it is to make that last step.”
Florida faced adversity from the start of the season with defensemen Aaron Ekblad and Brandon Montour missing the first 16 games while each recovered from offseason shoulder surgery. The Panthers were able to overcome that with their improved depth from the offseason additions of defensemen Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Niko Mikkola and Dmitry Kulikov and forward Evan Rodrigues.
Florida further strengthened its lineup by adding forwards Vladimir Tarasenko, a Stanley Cup winner with the St. Louis Blues in 2019, and Kyle Okposo before the 2024 NHL Trade Deadline and finished the regular season first in the Atlantic Division (52-24-6), looking primed to make another run in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The Panthers’ opponent in the Eastern Conference First Round was the Tampa Bay Lightning, their cross-state rivals who defeated them in their previous two playoff series in 2021 and 2022.
“That first series was our time to slay the dragon,” forward Matthew Tkachuk said.
After Florida won 3-2 in Game 1, Bobrovsky put his signature on the series in Game 2 with his spin-around, back-of-his-right arm save on Tampa Bay defenseman Matthew Dumba to keep the scored tied 2-2 in the second period. The Panthers went on to win 3-2 on Carter Verhaeghe’s goal 2:59 into overtime and won the series in five games.
“Throughout the playoffs, you look for moments like that,” forward Sam Reinhart said of Bobrovsky’s save. “And that’s something that’s going to be seen on highlight reels for years to come.”
Up next was a rematch with the Boston Bruins in the second round. The Bruins were heavy favorites entering the playoffs the previous season after setting NHL records for wins (65) and points (135) during the regular season, but the Panthers upset them in seven games.