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Greg Wyshynski
SUNRISE, Fla. — After 14 years, Brad Marchand was reunited with the Stanley Cup. He lifted and kissed the silver chalice moments after the Florida Panthers gained Recreation 6 in opposition to the Edmonton Oilers 5-1, closing out their collection and capturing the Cup for a second straight season Tuesday night time.
“It feels fully completely different. I’ve a lot extra respect and appreciation for the way tough it was to get right here, how arduous it’s and the quantity of issues that must go proper to win. All the pieces has to line up completely,” stated Marchand, who gained the Stanley Cup with the Boston Bruins in 2011. “My scenario’s an ideal instance of that. I should not have been right here, nevertheless it labored out.”
Marchand, 37, was a driving drive behind the Panthers’ Stanley Cup win. He had 10 objectives and 10 assists in 23 video games, skating a plus-17 with linemates Anton Lundell and Eetu Luostarinen. Whereas he did not rating in Recreation 6, Marchand had six objectives in six video games within the Stanley Cup Closing with two game-winning objectives.
“He is been a big-game participant his complete profession. In 2011, he was arguably our greatest participant,” stated Shawn Thornton, Marchand’s teammate on the Bruins who’s now a enterprise govt for the Panthers. “I wasn’t shocked to see the magic he was making. I do not assume the age factor is in his head.”
Marchand spent 16 NHL seasons with the Bruins till a contract extension deadlock led to an NHL commerce deadline transfer to the Panthers. It was a surreal second for Marchand and the Panthers, as Florida had eradicated Boston from the 2023 and 2024 playoffs. Final postseason, Panthers middle Sam Bennett injured Marchand with a sucker punch. On Tuesday night time, they skated with the Stanley Cup as teammates.
“As quickly as he acquired traded right here, he chirped me within the group chat immediately for our historical past and the final playoffs,” recalled Bennett, who gained the Conn Smythe Trophy as Stanley Cup playoff MVP.
“What he is meant to this crew … I really do not assume we win a Stanley Cup with out him. His management, his will to win, it is inspiring. I used to be telling him earlier than each recreation, ‘We’ll comply with you.’ And we did. He was a canine each night time. He for certain may have gained this trophy,” Bennett stated. “He is a greater participant and particular person than I ever knew, and I am grateful that I acquired to play with him.”
Marchand stated going from nemesis to teammate is a tribute to the chemistry of the Panthers.
“It simply exhibits you that after you turn out to be a part of a gaggle and also you get into this atmosphere … whenever you’re taking part in on the identical crew with one another, you create such an unimaginable bond,” Marchand stated. “They already had an unbelievable tradition that the brand new guys had been capable of type of come into and simply purchase in and revel in it and embrace it. They made it very simple.”
Florida normal supervisor Invoice Zito stated Marchand additionally did his half to construct crew chemistry.
“I have been telling everybody that as a lot as he did on the ice, it is what he did within the room that issues,” Zito stated. “In case you got here on this morning, you would not have identified who the brand new man was. That claims as a lot about who he’s as a teammate and a hockey participant as his extraordinary efficiency.”
For instance, the Panthers began a convention within the Stanley Cup playoffs the place they’d shoot the plastic rats followers tossed on the ice after victories — a decades-long custom for the crew — at Marchand as they left for the dressing room. At the same time as Florida celebrated the Stanley Cup win, the custom continued: Ahead Sam Reinhart, who scored 4 objectives within the victory, reached down and threw a rat at Marchand as he was kissing the Cup.
“It nonetheless felt heavy, that is for certain,” Marchand stated of the Cup. “It is fairly unimaginable to do it right here at house. It is so many individuals right here that I like and that had been a huge effect on being a part of this, so it is an unimaginable feeling.”
Marchand now faces an unsure future as an unrestricted free agent this offseason. After the perfect playoff collection of his profession within the Stanley Cup Closing, he could have loads of suitors.
Florida closed out the Oilers with two straight wins, each of them outlined by early offensive and persistently good protection.
The Panthers took the lead 4:36 into the primary interval on an unimaginable particular person effort from Reinhart. Oilers defenseman Evan Bouchard handed the puck proper to Reinhart simply outdoors of the Edmonton zone. Reinhart skated into the zone, turned defenseman Mattias Ekholm inside out and beat goalie Stuart Skinner whereas falling down for his eighth aim of the playoffs. Skinner had returned because the starter after being benched in Recreation 5.
It will stay that manner via the remainder of the primary interval, which pitted two nervous groups in opposition to one another on specious ice, till Matthew Tkachuk scored his eighth of the playoffs. Utilizing an ideal display screen from Lundell in entrance of Skinner, Tkachuk’s shot from between the circles sailed into the again of the web for a 2-0 lead.
It continued a string of early dominance for the Panthers within the collection. Florida scored at the very least two objectives within the first interval of all six video games and outscored the Oilers 9-0 within the final 4 video games of the collection.
The Panthers relied on goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky, who had assist in the zone when he wanted it, for 10 saves within the second interval. Then Reinhart struck once more at 17:31 of the second interval, as Aleksander Barkov turned a lackadaisical rebound by Skinner right into a shot that banked off Reinhart and into the web for a 3-0 lead.
Reinhart accomplished his hat trick at 13:26 of the third interval with an empty-net aim. Simply 1:29 later, he scored his fourth aim of the sport into one other empty Edmonton web, giving him 11 objectives on the postseason.
Because the seconds ticked down, the Panthers started leaping over the boards to start their celebration. The Panthers are the primary crew to repeat as Stanley Cup champions by beating the identical crew each years because the Montreal Canadiens defeated the Bruins in 1977 and 1978.
It was their third straight journey to the Stanley Cup Closing. Does that make them a dynasty?
“Hell, yeah,” Tkachuk stated. “Completely.”
