Florida Panthers 2024: A Year In Review

2024 was a year for the Panthers’ history books from Sam Reinhart’s incredible season to the Finland trip and, of course, the Florida Panthers winning their first-ever Stanley Cup. This calendar year has been filled with so many memories for the team and fans alike that things like bad weather trying to ruin two separate Stanley Cup celebrations can’t put a damper on spirits. The Cats finished the year how they started it, winning hockey games and they’ll look to repeat as Stanley Cup Champions in 2025.

Early 2024:

Florida came into 2024 riding a winning streak and extended it to nine straight games in January. The block of games from January to March showed what the team was really capable of doing and just how much of a true Cup Contender they were. The most impressive part of that was they lost only two games in the entire month of February. The Cats put their head down and ground out wins while the power play was hitting a big hot streak, with Sam Reinhart being a near-guaranteed goal when shooting from the slot. Florida imposed its will onto other teams and looked to be nearly unstoppable, flirting with being President’s Trophy Champions during that block of time. Going into the All-Star break things were looking great with Sam Reinhart and Sergei Bobrovsky being selected as All-Stars. In true Florida fashion, the team decided to give fans some reason to doubt as they lost 9 of their final 16 games but they did go into the playoffs on a four-game win streak and healthy. With a final win over Toronto, the Cats won the Atlantic division after battling all season with the Bruins for the no. 1 spot and secured home-ice advantage for the majority of the playoffs.

Stanley Cup Playoffs:

No road to the Cup is easy, and Florida faced down a gauntlet of goaltenders in the East. First up was Vasilevskiy and the Tampa Bay Lightning. Florida had lost to Tampa in the playoffs in consecutive years and didn’t get a shot to take them down in 2023 as the Leafs eliminated them in the first round. The Battle for Florida proved to be an exciting but short series as the Panthers took control early with a 3-0 stranglehold on the series. Tampa fought off one elimination game to force a Game 5, but that’s how things went as the Cats finally took down their in-state rival. The goalie battle was a good one, especially in Game 2, where the now viral The Bobbery save happened. The only true blowout win was Game 5, when the Cats finished things off with a 6-1 win. The player sentiment was that if they were going to win the Cup, they needed to take down Tampa Bay, and they did just that despite missing Sam Bennett for most of the series as he was injured.

Round 2 was nothing but a grudge match, and Boston had a massive axe to grind after the Panthers eliminated the record-setting Bruins in 2023. Boston came out swinging in Game 1 despite coming off a seven-game series with Toronto and looked no worse for ware as they took the 5-1 win. But the Panthers answered back, taking back-to-back blowout wins at 6-1 & 6-2. Florida did the seemingly impossible and made Jeremy Swayman look human after he had an amazing first round. The remaining games were nail-biter,s with a single goal being the difference between winning and losing. No one scored more than three goals in the final three games. It was as hard and physical a series as you’ll see, with multiple games descending into complete chaos and fights. Plenty of controversy surrounded the series between questionable plays, calls, and goals. It’s a shame, really, that there was so much controversy. All the discourse was about those things and not anything else in the series. The Panthers continued their win streak in TD Garden and ended things with three wins there and a win on home ice, eliminating the Bruins for a second straight year.

If there’s one thing the Cats aren’t intimidated by it’s President’s Trophy winning teams. Two straight playoff runs, Florida has faced down the President’s Trophy winner and come out victorious on the other side. Igor Shesterkin was by far the best player for the Rangers and the main reason that series went to six games. Florida dominated New York for long stretches and entire games. The Panthers took Game 1 in a 3-0 shutout fashion at Madison Square Garden. The Rangers had two OT games go their way as they took a 1-2 series lead before Florida won three straight games to repeat as Eastern Conference Champions. This series, even more so than the ones before it was a goalie battle, with nearly all the games being a one-goal differential. Florida opted not to balk at superstition this year and didn’t touch the Prince of Wales trophy like they did last year. The celebration wasn’t as exuberant as the year prior, but that was because the team knew the job wasn’t finished.

A Stanley Cup Final for the ages, when the series looked all but over Edmonton pushed it to a Game 7. In true Florida Panthers fashion, they won their first-ever Stanley Cup in the most stress-inducing way they could find. Looking at the two teams, logic would reason that it would be a six or seven-game series, but when the Panthers took a 3-0 lead in the series, most assumed it’d only go four or five. The Oilers stormed back and took the next three games to force a definitive Game 7. That final game in Sunrise was Florida hockey to a T: Heavy forechecking, big names scoring goals, and tight defense. After heartbreak in the Cup Final in 2023, Florida flipped the script. Barkov became the first Finnish Captain to lift the Cup, Paul Maurice finally won a Stanley Cup after 30 years in the game, Sam Reinhart capped off his incredible season by scoring the Cup-winning goal, and Bobrovsky all but cemented his place as a Hall of Famer. It was a magical run for the Cat,s and all the right pieces came together to make this team a juggernaut in the Playoffs.

Summer Of Celebration:

Following an exciting Game 7, the Panthers had their parade quite literally rained on as the South Florida weather decided to not cooperate. Although some might say that it added to the experience, the rainy weather didn’t deter fans as they showed up in droves to celebrate with the team on the beach. Paul Maurice’s speech was a live TV nightmare with all the expletives he added in but the fans loved it. He even showed off a custom shirt his daughter made, he thanked the community for welcoming his and the team’s families and for all their support. The Cup certainly saw a lot of miles traveled as each player got their day with it. All the Finns and Swedes took their days with the cup in their respective home countries. Barkov’s hometown of Tampere held a big celebration for him and his teammates in tow for the celebration at the arena, where all sporting shirts said Barkov city. The Cup spent several days in Canada for all the Canadian native players to take their turn with it. Tkachuk spent his day with the Cup in St. Louis. There were some firsts as well, with Barkov bringing in a local skater to be the first person ever to skateboard over the Cup, and Evan Rodrigues became the first Evan to ever be engraved on the Cup. A hurricane prevented fans from attending the Ring Ceremony but there was plenty of video posted online from the team to share the moment. Fans did get to share in the opening night Banner Raising Ceremony, where the Stanley Cup Banner was unveiled for the first time and now hangs in the rafters.

New Players, New Season, Same Goal:

With most of the core locked up long term the two biggest question marks this season are if Sam Bennett and Aaron Ekblad will get re-signed. There was plenty of chatter over all the free agents the Cats lost but not enough talk about how Florida’s top nine forwards only lost one player. The biggest question mark is how the defense will hold up after losing Brandon Montour and Oliver Ekman-Larsson. In the off-season, Bill Zito signed in some new players to rebuild the fourth line and the defense: Tomas Nosek, A.J. Greer, Jesper Boqvist, Adam Boqvist, and Nate Schmidt. Mackie Samoskevich and Uvis Balinskis got promoted from Charlotte to be full-time members of the main hockey club. If there’s a Cup Hangover then the Panthers don’t believe in it. Florida’s opening night game was a statement win over the Bruins, showing that they were just as good in October as they were in May. They’re sitting at nearly the same spot to end 2024 as they did to start 2024, fighting for first in the Atlantic with a record of 23-13-2. They had a strong start to the season and are 10-1-0 against teams they’ve faced in the playoffs in the last two years. They’ve had some grueling travel between going to Finland and their west coast trip. Not to mention, illness and injury have been circulating in the locker room lately. Fans have felt a bit panicked during December over Florida getting shut four times in the month; however, at this point last season, they’d also been shut four times. It was just more spread out. In fact, the Panthers hadn’t been shut out beyond the second period until their shutout loss to Vancouver. With a win over the Rangers to end the year, Florida ended where it started this calendar year: winning hockey games. Despite all the roster changes in the bottom part of the lineup and the defense, the Cats are just as dangerous as ever and are in the hunt to win a back-to-back Stanley Cup.

2024 will be a year that the Panthers Organization will always remember with an incredibly special team that reached the summit for ultimate victory and immortalization.