Panthers punch ticket to Stanley Cup Final — is Connor McDavid next?

New York Times

29-05-2025

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Happy Thursday! Today marks Day 41 of the NHL playoffs, and the Stanley Cup Final will (likely) start Wednesday. It's sure looking like we're in for a rare rematch, too …
The Carolina Hurricanes looked like they might make things interesting after winning Game 4 3-0 and then putting up an early 2-0 lead in Game 5 last night.
Then the Florida Panthers did what they do — i.e., ending hopes and dreams — in what became a heartbreaking 5-3 win to eliminate Carolina in Round 3 (yes, again).
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The story of this Panthers run has really become one of balance. Again, they had goals from five different scorers last night, with Evan Rodrigues becoming their 19th different goal-getter of the postseason. Only eight teams in NHL history have ever had more than that, but there's still another round for Tomas Nosek and Mackie Samoskevich to get on the board and help them match the record (21, held by the 2019 Bruins and 1987 Flyers).
Florida also became the ninth team in league history to make three consecutive finals, which is ridiculously hard to do in a 32-team, hard-capped league. The Lightning (2020-22) are the only other club to pull it off since the 1985 Oilers (!).
In fact, in all of the Big Four North American men's pro sports, the Panthers are just the 11th team in the last 30 years to play for a 'ship three years in a row.
This team is special. So special we might have to pull out the D word if they win again. (No, not that D word.)
This was a weird season for Carolina. The Hurricanes lost quite a bit of talent to free agency a year ago, then stunned the hockey world by acquiring Mikko Rantanen, only to stun everyone again by trading him 13 games later.
They again dominated the ol' shot attempts in the regular season (a heady 59.5 percent), but this wasn't a close series, with Florida outscoring them 15-5 at five-on-five and outclassing them on special teams and in goal.
This has happened often enough that the Hurricanes are going to have to find a way to adapt in the offseason. Winning the Meh-tropolitan Division isn't the goal at this point. The good news is they have their core signed, some strong young players coming and nearly $30 million in cap space. (Not a typo.)
They're obviously going to take another run at Mitch Marner, but upgrading in goal and on the blue line — where Brent Burns and Dmitry Orlov's age has been showing — are vital, too. But the best still appears to be coming.
My apologies to Stars fans, who are hoping they can claw back into this series while down 3-1 with Game 5 in Dallas tonight (8 p.m. ET puck drop).
But all you hear when you talk to folks around the league right now is how a finals rematch will be the only good thing to come out of a blah Round 3. Oilers-Panthers didn't disappoint a year ago, with a crazy Edmonton comeback from down 0-3 ending with Game 7 dramatics going Florida's way.
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The clash of styles between the take-no-prisoners Panthers and the Connor McDavid Show is fun to watch, too. (Really too bad about Zach Hyman, though.)
Plus, we almost never get a championship rematch in this league. This one would, again, be only the second time since the 1984 final.
The recent Cup final double shots
(The first two, the teams split, with the upstart Oilers and Pens getting the better of the dynastic Isles and Wings. The second two, the Habs won all four as part of a stretch of 10 Cup wins in 15 years.)
We'll have to wait and see if Dallas mounts an unlikely comeback, but right now, everyone seems to be looking forward to moving on from these conference finals. And getting this thing over with by mid-June, for once.
The 1968 and 1969 Blues and 1977 and 1978 Bruins were the last two teams to lose back-to-back Cup finals to the same team. Which big names were they coached by?
🙂‍↕️ Trade SZN is almost here, and that means a big ol' trade board from Christopher E. Johnston to get us ready for the fury. Spoiler: Chris Kreider takes the top spot. With free agency looking kind of tame, this might be our best hope for fireworks this offseason.
🏒 Harman Dayal has an interesting feature today about the mental health challenges that slumping NHL players face during hard times. (Wyatt Johnston came to mind for me, given he's staring at a record low minus-18 right now.)
📑 The PWHL is about to hold a big expansion draft to bring Seattle and Vancouver — its seventh and eighth teams — into the league, and the terms are pretty favorable for the newcomers. Hailey Salvian has a good breakdown of the latest here.
🤔 Jonas Siegel digs into the question everyone in Toronto wants to know: Is there a way the Leafs can be ready to try and pry McDavid out of Edmonton when his contract is up in 2026? (Hey, they're looking for hope these days.)
🎙️ On 'The Athletic Hockey Show,' the gang explores how Corey Perry found the fountain of youth with the Oilers, plus much more.
With Round 3 winding down, it's time for our weekly Conn Smythe ranking. As always, direct all complaints to Sean McIndoe on social media:
If you missed it: DGB handicapped the uncoveted Conned Smythe award, looking for 'the team that had the biggest impact on the playoffs by making the worst trade with a contending club.'
I don't know how he comes up with all this stuff either. But at some point, they should study his brain for science.
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Some key upcoming dates
Who doesn't love a good stat? The NHL's official data squad has been coming up with all kinds of good numbers of late. Here are a few that caught my attention this week:
1. 'The home team has won 49 games during the 2025 playoffs, which is tied with 1993 and 1992 for the third most through this stage of a postseason (78 GP). Only 2013 (54) and 1990 (52) have seen more.'
That was prior to last night in Raleigh, so it's now 49 in 79 games played. Home teams winning 62 percent of the time, however, is domination by NHL standards. This follows a regular season where teams had surprisingly good home records, a trend I'm afraid I don't have a great explanation for.
No matter who advances from the West, the Panthers will be the road team in the final. Given they're 23-10 away from the Elbo Room the last three postseasons, however, I'm not sure they're all that worried about it.
2. 'Connor McDavid recorded the 45th multi-point game of his playoff career (in Game 4 on Tuesday). McDavid has recorded a multi-point outing in more than 50 percent of his postseason games (45 of 89).'
And…
'McDavid (89 GP) can become the second-fastest player in NHL history to record 100 playoff assists behind only Wayne Gretzky (70 GP). No other player has reached the mark in fewer than 125 games.'
Hot tip: Someone should really cover that guy.
In NHL history, only Gretzky and Mario Lemieux have a better career playoff points per game than McDavid, who is up to 1.58. Talk about thriving under the pressure of being a star in a hockey-crazed Canadian market.
If McDavid's not on hockey's Mount Rushmore yet, he will be with a Cup win.
3. 'A Hurricanes win (in Monday's Game 4) guaranteed there will be no sweeps through the first three rounds in a postseason for the fifth time since the Division Semifinals changed from best-of-five to best-of-seven in 1987.'
It still kind of felt like a sweep though, didn't it? 🧹
A couple of bench bosses you may have heard of … one was Scotty Bowman, who started his coaching journey in his early 30s with the expansion Blues. The other? Don Cherry.