The Florida Panthers: Champions.
For the first time in franchise history, the Panthers have won the Stanley Cup.
Down but not out.
Having seen both their series lead evaporate and been throughly outplayed over the past week, there were no guarantees that the Florida Panthers would come away with a Game 7 victory on Monday night.
Even in returning to enemy territory, the Edmonton Oilers had the lion’s share of the momentum, having won three straight games, while putting the Panthers firmly on the back foot.
But in a winner-take-all scenario?
Just one goal can be enough.
And in the end, that is all it took - with a 2-1 win in the deciding game, the Panthers are the 2024 Stanley Cup Champions: the definitive capper in what has become the most successful era in franchise history.
After decades of toiling on the outside looking in, the past few seasons have seen the Panthers establish themselves as one of hockey’s most consistently competitive teams and now, champions, redeeming their Cup Final loss to Vegas last season, albeit, in the most dramatic way possible - as they actively teetered on two different sides of history.
Game 7 was no different, a tightly-contested affair that was a battle right down to the final moments.
Sam Reinhart broke open the 1-1 tie deep in the second period with what would ultimately be the series clincher for Florida, though not without expected pushback from Edmonton.
Fair enough, considering that the Panthers defensive struggles throughout most of the series, would, theoretically, make them more at risk against that high octane Oilers offence.
Yet when the stakes were at their highest? The Panthers, backstopped by an in-vintage-form Sergei Bobrovsky held Edmonton at bay. Absolute team defense, in this, our era of high-scoring spectacle, it may not always be flashy but there is no substitute for it either.
Case in point - one sequence in particular, with some seven minutes left in the third?
Yeah, the Oilers are going to be playing the tape on that one all summer.
Within a matter of moments, both Connor McDavid and Zach Hyman were denied at the edge of the crease, in the midst of one of many mad scrambles: Florida’s Gustav Forsling, Brandon Montour and Bobrovsky, who made nine saves in the third, all coming up clutch in the biggest game of their collective careers.
It can be, at times, a game of inches.
But the Panthers, when it mattered most, made sure they came out on top - an impressive display of their inherent resilience.
The players, Paul Maurice and his coaching staff, the front office and everyone else on the edges, contributing to a tremendously hard-won achievement.
After all, losing three in a row? Well, when all is said and done, it doesn’t matter all that much when you’re the only team to collect those ever-elusive sixteen wins.
That being, more broadly, a testament to what the NHL has built in “non-traditional” hockey markets over the past 30 years
The Tampa Bay Lightning and now, The Panthers, have won three of the last five Stanley Cups (2020, 2021 and 2024), with the Vegas Golden Knights reaching the summit in 2023.
Sure, they’re always going to be at the receiving end of jabs regarding their “hockey chops” or the legitimacy of their respective fanbases but until further notice? It seems the Cup runs through the Sunbelt.
But while Florida’s next steps are pretty clear: parades, wicked hangovers and eventually, working to defend their title, what of the Oilers?
They deserve massive credit for even making it to Game 7 in the first place but becoming just the second team to erase a 3-0 deficit on their way to a title was always going to be an uphill battle.
And as the handshake line began, you could tell, as a group, they had nothing left to give.
Individually, he had one of the greatest playoff seasons in NHL history - he scored 42 points, including back-to-back four point games in the Finals, the fourth highest scoring playoff ever.
No doubt though, it is a cold comfort.
And outside of McDavid, number-two man Leon Draisaitl and Evan Bouchard, the Oilers still boost one of the more impressive cores in the sport: the question remains however, if they’ll be able to do it all over again next year, with question marks hovering around both their roster construction and the talent within it.
But as disappointment hangs over Alberta, in South Florida, the party is only just beginning.
The Panthers, taking their well-earned seat atop the mountain.
As champions.