Once loathed by Panthers, Brad Marchand delivers the biggest goal of their season: ‘Unreal'

New York Times

14 hours ago

EDMONTON – With the game on his stick during a second clean breakaway look at Stuart Skinner on the night, Brad Marchand had only one thought in his mind.
'Just don't forget the puck,' he said. 'That's the main thing. I've done that before. It's not a good feeling.'
Marchand evened the Stanley Cup Final with Friday's double-overtime winner in what had to be the biggest Florida Panthers goal of this season. The only other one even in the conversation was the overtime goal Marchand scored in Game 3 of Round 2 against Toronto, which kept Florida from falling into an 0-3 hole during that series.
Advertisement
'He could play 'til he's 47 the way he's going,' Matthew Tkachuk said. 'Unreal player, unreal competitor. He's scored, if you think about it, two of our biggest goals in the playoffs so far.'
It's safe to say the decision to acquire the 37-year-old spark plug at the trade deadline is paying huge dividends now. He now has five career playoff overtime goals on his sterling resume, trailing only Maurice Richard (six) and Joe Sakic (eight) in NHL history.
Marchand was in line for the game-winning goal against the Edmonton Oilers in regulation on Friday night after scoring on a short-handed breakaway at 12:09 of the second period. However, extra time was needed for the second straight game to open this Stanley Cup Final after 40-year-old Oilers forward Corey Perry tied it up with 18 seconds remaining.
That left center stage to the other graybeard in this series, with Marchand having one glorious chance in the first overtime period — sliding the puck under Skinner and hitting the right post — before he sent a rocking Rogers Place crowd home unhappy following the fourth intermission.
Just like earlier in the night, Marchand was sent in alone by linemate Anton Lundell. He jumped the defensive zone in anticipation of Lundell corralling a bouncing puck that had been shot wide by Oilers defenseman Mattias Ekholm and came pinballing around the boards.
Leon Draisaitl, the overtime hero in Game 1, was in hot pursuit of Marchand and got a piece of his stick, inadvertently helping the puck find its way through Skinner.
BRAD MARCHAND PLAYS HERO FOR THE CATS 🐀
The Panthers even the #StanleyCup Final on Marchand's Subway Canada OT winner 🚨 pic.twitter.com/V09QsQFb2N
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) June 7, 2025
'I think our whole bench stood up when he had a breakaway there,' said Panthers teammate Sam Bennett. 'It's just a huge play at a huge time and he's been incredible for us this whole playoffs. He's scoring massive goals at massive times. That one was definitely the biggest.'
After the goal, as Marchand sent disappointed Oilers fans into the night, cameras caught Marchand's mom, Lynn, celebrating in the stands.
Brad Marchand's mom was so excited after her son won it for the Panthers in Game 2 🥲 pic.twitter.com/caxvfJSN1S
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) June 7, 2025
She looked to yell, 'Way to go, Bradley!'
Asked what kind of hockey mom she was, Marchand — one of the NHL's biggest on-ice chirpers — joked, 'She is one that you need to put a muzzle on.'
Brad Marchand sneaks in alone and tallies a shorthanded goal, putting Florida up 4-3!#TimeToHunt | #StanleyCup pic.twitter.com/qmcQVLZIT9
— Hockey Daily 365 l NHL Highlights & News (@HockeyDaily365) June 7, 2025
It was fitting that Lundell, one of Marchand's two proteges along with Eetu Luostarinen, set up both of Marchand's breakaways.
Marchand, who used to consider the youngsters two of Florida's dirtier players, now considers them his 'Finnish phenoms.'
Marchand is competing in his fourth Stanley Cup Final, having won a championship with the Boston Bruins at the end of his first full NHL season in 2011 and lost in 2013 and 2019. He knows first-hand how fickle playoff hockey can be and has chosen to treat this series like it might be his last opportunity to lift the Cup.
Advertisement
Consider that the Panthers' incredible run to three straight Finals might never have started had Marchand made good on a breakaway chance he had while playing for the Bruins in 2023. A goal there would have eliminated Florida in Game 5 of a first-round series and instead propelled them to an incredible comeback from a 3-1 series deficit.
'So many things that are out of your control and your team's control that can dictate the course of a series or a game,' said Marchand. 'I keep going back to when we lost to Florida a couple years ago and, you know, we never should have lost that series. But we did. We missed a breakaway in Game 5 and a couple seconds left and it should have been over right there. That one play, (Sergei Bobrovsky) making a big save, and Florida ends up winning.
'There's little moments like that through all kinds of series that kind of create these opportunities for teams.'
His big moment on Friday night came after Marchand spent the intermissions riding an exercise bike. Tkachuk couldn't believe a veteran would choose to do that on a night where he saw 22 minutes of ice time, but who can argue with Marchand's methods after he scored twice and had a team-high seven shots on goal?
'You're trying to keep your legs going in overtime,' he said. 'Keep them feeling good.'
June 6, 2011: Brad Marchand scores a shorthanded goal in the Stanley Cup Final
June 6, 2025: Brad Marchand scores a shorthanded goal in the Stanley Cup Final pic.twitter.com/x4LcmWWIxv
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) June 7, 2025
It's amazing how this one bitter rival of the Panthers is now suddenly so embraced inside their locker room.
'Playoffs aside, I think his best strength as a player, like he's really skilled, hard on pucks, wants the puck, but his anticipation and his just being in the right spots and his hockey sense, it's unbelievable,' Tkachuk said. 'You see it tonight, two breakaway goals, just seeing a play, seeing it go to a player, and he's gone and gets an unbelievable chance.
Advertisement
'I saw that a ton from him in Boston, and it's waaaaay better seeing it here.'
Nate Schmidt was reminded Friday night of how Marchand jumped him twice earlier this season.
Now? It's been 'hashed out.'
Who would have guessed after so many battles that guys like Tkachuk would be talking so glowingly about the once detested Bruin? Who would have thought Marchand would become best buddies with Aaron Ekblad, whom Marchand guesses he's had the most run-ins with on the Panthers over the years? Who would have guessed last postseason when Bennett landed that sneaky rabbit punch that concussed Marchand and knocked him out of the Bruins' lineup, that 14 months later he'd be sitting behind the same stage next to Bennett during a postgame press conference at the Stanley Cup Final?
Now, Panthers players shoot plastic rats at 'The Rat' after victories. Now, it's become tradition that Marchand takes teammates to Dairy Queen the night before road games.
He took them on a team excursion to DQ during the Eastern Conference Final in Raleigh. In the Eastern Conference Final, after one home game when cameras captured him licking a spoon between periods, he joked that it was a cookie dough Blizzard.
Turns out it was actually honey.
So naturally Marchand found a Dairy Queen in Edmonton the night before Game 2.
When asked Friday night what players were munching on between periods to recharge their batteries, Bennett joked (we assume), 'I think Marchy grabbed a Blizzard. Oreo.'
'Nice plug, I like that,' Marchand said.