History stacked against Panthers' bid for Cup 3-peat, Hall of Famers say

Thirteen times since the NHL was founded in 1917, eight times since expansion in 1967, a team has won the Stanley Cup two consecutive times, then failed to make it three in a row (not counting streaks of three or more championships).

On four occasions, a team has won two titles then come up short after having advanced to the Stanley Cup Final a third straight year.

Should the Florida Panthers make it three in a row this season, they’ll impressively do so after having played some of the season without a sparkplug forward and likely the entire schedule without their captain.

Matthew Tkachuk seems likely to be sidelined until at least December following Aug. 22 surgery to repair a torn adductor muscle. Captain Aleksander Barkov then had surgery on Sept. 26 to repair the ACL and MCL in his right knee, the Panthers announcing recovery time at 7-9 months.

Former Detroit Red Wings coach Scotty Bowman walks toward the Stanley Cup for a celebration of the team’s 1997 championship during a pregame ceremony at Detroit’s Little Caesars Arena on Nov. 3, 2022.

“That’s a pretty tough division,” legendary coach Scotty Bowman said of the Panthers’ Atlantic Division, considering the challenges Florida faces to win a third straight title. “Knowing (general manager) Bill Zito, he’s going to be shopping around to replace those two players. If you told me the Panthers are just going to stand pat, well, I don’t think they’re going to do that.”

Bowman’s Montreal Canadiens won the Stanley Cup four consecutive years, from 1976-79. He was behind the bench of the Red Wings for championships in 1997 and 1998, Detroit falling to the Colorado Avalanche in a six-game 1999 conference semifinal series to end their bid for three straight.

“Florida is lucky to have two good centers with Sam Bennett and Anton Lundell (on the depth chart behind Barkov),” Bowman said. “Imagine if they didn’t have those two.

“We had a lot of good players in Montreal, but imagine if we started a season without Guy Lafleur or Larry Robinson or Serge Savard. Those great players make other players look pretty good, too, like Barkov and Tkachuk can.

Scotty Bowman at home in Buffalo in 1984 with five Stanley Cup miniatures, representing the championships he won coaching the Canadiens.

“The thing you’ve also got to consider with the Panthers is that they’ve already been in the Stanley Cup Final three years in a row (losing in five games to the Vegas Golden Knights in 2023, then defeating the Edmonton Oilers in 2024 and 2025, in seven and six games, respectively). To win again, they’d have to get to the Final four years in a row. In this day and age, I’m not sure what the odds are of that.”

The four three-peat bidders who fell short in the final round:

The Red Wings won in 1954 and 1955, then lost to the Canadiens in a five-game 1956 Final. Montreal was setting off on its unprecedented run of five consecutive titles;

The Canadiens won in 1965 and 1966, then were upset by the Toronto Maple Leafs in a six-game 1967 Final;

Philadelphia Flyers legend Bill Barber salutes the crowd during player introductions before playing against the New York Rangers in an alumni game prior to the 2012 NHL Bridgestone Winter Classic at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia.

The Philadelphia Flyers won in 1974 and 1975, the first 1967 expansion team to go all the way, the Flyers then were swept in four by Montreal in the 1976 Final as the Canadiens began their run of four straight;

Finally, the Tampa Bay Lightning won in 2020 and 2021, then fell to Colorado in a six-game 2022 Final.

Philadelphia Hall of Fame forward Bill Barber spoke of the physical and mental punishment endured by a team that successfully defends a championship, then very much is the hunted setting off in search of a third Cup win.

“My first season as a pro, in 1972-73, we went to the semifinals (losing in five games to the Canadiens),” Barber said. “Then we go to the 1974 Final, we win, we go to the 1975 Final, we win, then we go to the 1976 Final and we lose. Look at what happened to us our third year. It was the injuries and the wear and tear on the team itself, mentally.

“It takes a toll on you, it really does. Even though you have time off in the summer, it’s the mental battle you go through, starting with training camp, then through the season and playoffs. And yes, the other teams are gunning for you. There’s no two ways about it. Everyone plays harder against you. The good part about that is, as a young player, it probably makes you better.

“For me then, as it is with the Panthers now, you’ve got to be on top of your game all the time. You can’t go in and not be mentally prepared to play 60 minutes. Playing 50 minutes, 48 minutes, it’s not going to work.”

Former Edmonton Oilers goalie Grant Fuhr salutes the crowd before a ceremonial faceoff prior to a game between the Oilers and Calgary Flames at Edmonton’s Rexall Place on Dec. 2, 2011.

Goalie Grant Fuhr played on two back-to-back Edmonton Oilers champions, in 1984 and 1985, then 1987 and 1988. The Oilers lost a seven-game division final to the Calgary Flames in 1986 and were bounced in a seven-game division semifinal by the Los Angeles Kings in 1989, each ending their bid for three straight.

First off, Fuhr said he feels for Barkov. The Hall of Fame goalie was shelved with a torn ACL and MCL on April 18, 1996, two games into his St. Louis Blues’ Western Conference quarterfinal series against Toronto when he was run over by the Maple Leafs’ Nick Kypreos.

Fuhr underwent 4½ hours of reconstructive surgery nine days later, missing the balance of the playoffs. He rehabbed furiously through the summer to arrive at training camp ready for a typically monstrous workload, ultimately playing 73 games for the Blues that year, including their season-opener.

“Rehab for an ACL is no fun,” he said. “I rehabbed seven days a week all summer so I could make it back for training camp. It wasn’t a fun summer. There was not one part of it that I enjoyed.”

Grant Fuhr makes a flashy glove save during Game 3 of the 1985 Campbell Conference Final against the Chicago Blackhawks at Chicago Stadium on May 9, 1985.

Fuhr said he believes the Panthers were in tough territory for their three-peat bid even before Barkov and Tkachuk were sidelined.

“They had a short summer,” Fuhr said, Florida’s 23-game playoff run ending on June 17. “You’re not getting a chance for your bodies to heal and you’re not giving your mind a break, that’s the other thing.

“You’re going to probably end up with more injuries and injuries are the big thing. You’ve got to be healthy to be able to win and you look at Florida now -- with those two guys banged up, it just got a lot harder to win.”

Another part of the equation is that the 82-game NHL schedule is compressed this season, with the NHL’s pause for the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 in February.

“Florida will make the playoffs, that’s too good a coaching staff, too good an ownership to miss them,” Fuhr said, dismissing suggestions the ailing Panthers are on thin ice in the tough Atlantic Division. “They’ll be hard to beat because they run four lines. They’re a very deep team. they’re going to be competitive.”

Pittsburgh Penguins forward Ron Francis in action during Game 3 of the 1992 Stanley Cup Final against the Chicago Blackhawks on May 30, 1992 at Chicago Stadium.

But like Barber of the Flyers, Fuhr said he believes every Florida opponent will have extra motivation.

“Even if you’ve won two Cups in a row, you’re starting from scratch and you realize that you’re going to play 82 games that are all going to be like Stanley Cup Final games,” he said. “Everyone wants to beat the champion. It doesn’t matter how far ahead you are of the team you’re going to play, you’re going to see their best.

“For 82 nights, you’re going to see the opponent’s best hockey. You don’t get a break, there are no easy games or no time to relax because they’re all measuring themselves up against you.

“It gets even harder late in the season because you’ve got teams that are going to miss the playoffs. They’re going to measure their success on the year based on beating the Stanley Cup champion.”

It won’t be easy, Fuhr said, for the Panthers to fill the gaping holes left in their roster.

“Your best players make the players around them better,” Fuhr said of Barkov and Tkachuk. “That’s what makes them stars. Take them out of the lineup and it doesn’t really matter who you replace you them with, because whoever’s coming in is new. It takes time to find that chemistry. You might find someone who has equal talent but do they fit in the locker room the same way? There are a lot of variables that come with bringing someone in.”

Ron Francis speaks to the media in November 2024 before a game of his Seattle Kraken.

Forward Ron Francis won the Stanley Cup with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1991 and 1992, Bowman coaching those teams, too, before the Penguins lost a seven-game Division Final to the New York Islanders in 1993, the clincher in overtime. A Hall of Famer who today is president of hockey operations for the Seattle Kraken, Francis looks at the Panthers today with a view of been there, done that.

“There’s an old saying: You never count the champs out until they’re out,” Francis said of the defending two-time Cup winner’s challenge. “No matter what people think about it, they were champs for a reason. They found a way to win when it was hard and they know how to win in those difficult times when other teams are trying to knock them off the pedestal.

“Having gone through it, well, I don’t know if it makes it easier but you know you’ve been there and know you can do it. There’s a little bit more comfort in that locker room when someone is chasing you.”

The rugged 2025 playoff road and short summer doesn’t smooth the road for the Panthers’ bid to win a third consecutive championship.

“It’s a grind playing almost every other night for two months at that level of play in the playoffs,” Francis said. “What people don’t talk about is the mental challenge. You’re playing a hockey game, then trying to get yourself down so you can rest, and 48 hours later you’ve got to get yourself elevated again to play at that level. You’re not doing that once or twice, you’re doing it over a multi-month period.”

Francis said he believes the 1993 Penguins, a team that failed to win the Cup, “was still the best team I played on. We had 17 (consecutive) wins down the stretch, before shootouts, and that’s still the record today. Did that hurt us a little in the playoffs? I don’t know.

“First and foremost, you need things to bounce and go your way to win the Cup. In 1991 and 1992 I can point to some things that went our way and then didn’t go our way in 1993. There are so many good teams today, so many things have to go your way, so many guys have to stay healthy. That’s what makes it so tough.”

Top photo: With coach Paul Maurice behind them, Aleksander Barkov (r.) and Matthew Tkachuk of the Florida Panthers celebrate after defeating the Edmonton Oilers 5-1 to win the Stanley Cup on June 17, 2025.