Finland’s Aleksander Barkov captained the Florida Panthers to their second Stanley Cup in a row.
photo: © International Ice Hockey Federation / Stan Gilliland
The Florida Panthers are the 2025 Stanley Cup champions, having beaten the Edmonton Oilers 5-1 in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final.
The big hero of the Florida team was Sam Reinhart who scored four goals and became the second player in history to do that in a Stanley Cup winning game. Baby Dye scored his four goals for the Toronto St. Pats 103 years ago.
Reinhart, who scored the Stanley Cup winning goals last year, became the fourth player in NHL history to score a hat-trick in a Cup clinching game, after Dye, the Ottawa Senators Jack Daragh (1920) and the Vegas Golden Knights’ Mark Stone (2023).
“I can’t really put into words what it means,” Reinhart said about his second Cup. “It’s something you never really think about. It’s pretty special. I mean, we’ve had guys step up all postseason long. It almost takes the pressure off us knowing that someone’s going to do it.”
Sam Bennett led the league in postseason goals scoring, with 15 goals in 23 games. He also won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the playoffs MVP.
“I’m so grateful. It’s such a huge honor, but I truly mean that it could’ve went to anyone, and I couldn’t have done it without my teammates,” he said.
Roster depth was one of the reasons the Panthers went all the way. Even though the Oilers’ super duo Connor McDavid-Leon Draisaitl top the scoring race with 33 points each, eight Panthers are inside the Top 13, compared to only four Oilers. Reinhart led the Panthers in scoring, with 23 points, tied with Carter Verhaeghe and Matthew Tkachuk, and a point ahead of team captain Barkov.
In short, the Panthers always found a way, and that was what made them champions. If the opponents managed to shut down Aleksander Barkov’s line, then Anton Lundell, Eetu Luostarinen and Brad Marchand stepped up. Marchand scored six goals in the final series, and ten in total. He won his second Stanley Cup, having won his first with the Boston Bruins in 2011, and having lost the final twice with the Bruins, in 2013 and 2019.
“It feels completely different,” Marchand said. “I have so much more respect and appreciation for how difficult it was to get here and how hard it is and the amount of things that need to go right to win. There’re so many great teams in the league and so much talk about ‘this guy deserves it, that guy deserves it,’ and you want to see certain guys win. But everything has to line up perfectly. My situation is a perfect example of that. I shouldn’t have been here. But it worked out – and I’m enjoying the hell out of it.”
The Panthers beat the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Toronto Maple Leafs, and the Hurricanes on their way to the final while the Western Conference champion, the Oilers, had to go through the Los Angeles Kings, the Vegas Golden Knights, and the Dallas Stars.
The first two games of the final series went into overtime, promising a close and long series, but in the end, the Oilers ran out of steam and the Panthers could clinch their second consecutive Stanley Cup in six games, outscoring the Oilers 10-3 in games five and six.
Reinhart scored his fourth goal of the game into an empty net, the clock wound down, and all that was left was for the Cup to be handed out to the captain. Barkov took a short victory lap, and handed the silver trophy to Nate Schmidt, a first-time Cup champion.
The big hero of the Florida team was Sam Reinhart who scored four goals and became the second player in history to do that in a Stanley Cup winning game. Baby Dye scored his four goals for the Toronto St. Pats 103 years ago.
Reinhart, who scored the Stanley Cup winning goals last year, became the fourth player in NHL history to score a hat-trick in a Cup clinching game, after Dye, the Ottawa Senators Jack Daragh (1920) and the Vegas Golden Knights’ Mark Stone (2023).
“I can’t really put into words what it means,” Reinhart said about his second Cup. “It’s something you never really think about. It’s pretty special. I mean, we’ve had guys step up all postseason long. It almost takes the pressure off us knowing that someone’s going to do it.”
Sam Bennett led the league in postseason goals scoring, with 15 goals in 23 games. He also won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the playoffs MVP.
“I’m so grateful. It’s such a huge honor, but I truly mean that it could’ve went to anyone, and I couldn’t have done it without my teammates,” he said.
Roster depth was one of the reasons the Panthers went all the way. Even though the Oilers’ super duo Connor McDavid-Leon Draisaitl top the scoring race with 33 points each, eight Panthers are inside the Top 13, compared to only four Oilers. Reinhart led the Panthers in scoring, with 23 points, tied with Carter Verhaeghe and Matthew Tkachuk, and a point ahead of team captain Barkov.
In short, the Panthers always found a way, and that was what made them champions. If the opponents managed to shut down Aleksander Barkov’s line, then Anton Lundell, Eetu Luostarinen and Brad Marchand stepped up. Marchand scored six goals in the final series, and ten in total. He won his second Stanley Cup, having won his first with the Boston Bruins in 2011, and having lost the final twice with the Bruins, in 2013 and 2019.
“It feels completely different,” Marchand said. “I have so much more respect and appreciation for how difficult it was to get here and how hard it is and the amount of things that need to go right to win. There’re so many great teams in the league and so much talk about ‘this guy deserves it, that guy deserves it,’ and you want to see certain guys win. But everything has to line up perfectly. My situation is a perfect example of that. I shouldn’t have been here. But it worked out – and I’m enjoying the hell out of it.”
The Panthers beat the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Toronto Maple Leafs, and the Hurricanes on their way to the final while the Western Conference champion, the Oilers, had to go through the Los Angeles Kings, the Vegas Golden Knights, and the Dallas Stars.
The first two games of the final series went into overtime, promising a close and long series, but in the end, the Oilers ran out of steam and the Panthers could clinch their second consecutive Stanley Cup in six games, outscoring the Oilers 10-3 in games five and six.
Reinhart scored his fourth goal of the game into an empty net, the clock wound down, and all that was left was for the Cup to be handed out to the captain. Barkov took a short victory lap, and handed the silver trophy to Nate Schmidt, a first-time Cup champion.