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Greg Wyshynski, ESPNJun 24, 2024, 11:20 PM ET
CloseGreg Wyshynski is ESPN’s senior NHL writer.
SUNRISE, Fla. — Aleksander Barkov didn’t just lift the Stanley Cup after defeating the Oilers in Game 7.
He lifted close to three decades of failures, embarrassments and frustration off the shoulders of the players, the fans and this franchise.
The Florida Panthers are Stanley Cup champions. Not a punch line. Not being mocked for meager attendance. Not wallowing in mediocrity, on and off the ice, as the team went 25 years between playoff series victories.
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Oh, there could have been more embarrassment. Like, the most embarrassment. Florida nearly fumbled the bag against Edmonton, becoming just the third team in NHL history to blow a 3-0 Stanley Cup Final series lead to force a Game 7. They could have been the Atlanta Falcons in Super Bowl LI or Greg Norman in the 1996 Masters or the 1942 Detroit Red Wings, the only team in NHL history to lose the Stanley Cup Final after winning the first three games.
It would have been very “Florida Panthers” to have done that. But that’s not who this franchise is anymore. They’re not a joke. They’re Stanley Cup champions.
It’s wholly appropriate that Florida won the Stanley Cup against a Canadian team — a nation that thought of the Panthers as either relocation bait or a team situated in a warmer climate in which to watch their own teams at significantly lower ticket costs; and that they eliminated the NHL-leading New York Rangers in the conference finals, the kind of esteemed Original Six team that is handed the respect the Panthers have clawed to earn.
Those teams came close to championships. The Panthers are the ones who finished the story, becoming just the third team in the past 40 years to win the Stanley Cup after losing in the Final in the previous postseason.
But perhaps most incredibly: The Florida Panthers — the Florida Panthers! — are now a prestige franchise in the NHL.
“It’s pretty freakin’ cool,”…
Source link : https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/40357551/nhl-playoffs-2024-stanley-cup-florida-panthers-journey-franchise-legacy
Author : Greg Wyshynski
Publish date : 2024-06-25 04:44:06
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