1 week ago
6
SUNRISE, Fla. -- Aleksander Barkov hoisted the Stanley Cup, skated with it for a fewer moments and past handed it to a grinning Nate Schmidt, successful his archetypal twelvemonth with the Florida Panthers and raising hockey's hallowed trophy for the archetypal time. Before immoderate repetition victor touched it, each Panther who ne'er had earlier got the chance.
“There’s a batch of guys they play a ton of minutes that are immense contributors to this group, and they bypassed them and said: ‘We had it past year. We’ll ne'er not cherish this moment,'” Schmidt said. “It was amazing.”
It besides personified the Panthers, who did not person the champion subordinate successful the final, not facing Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers again. They whitethorn not person adjacent had the second-best with Leon Draisaitl there, too, but Florida repeating arsenic champions showed precisely wherefore hockey is the eventual squad sport.
“We conscionable person truthful overmuch heart, truthful overmuch talent: Heart meets talent,” said winger Matthew Tkachuk, who played through a sports hernia and torn adductor muscle. “Our squad was a team. When things were getting hard for them, they looked to 1 guy. But our team, we bash it collectively.”
The Panthers had 19 non-goalies connected the crystal implicit six games against the Oilers; 15 registered a constituent and 11 scored astatine slightest once. Coach Paul Maurice said the squad is “just truly heavy — unusually so,” making the constituent that helium fundamentally had 3 archetypal lines to rotation retired astatine immoderate fixed time.
“A precise talented radical of guys, truthful erstwhile you bring idiosyncratic in, we’re going to play you with a truly bully player,” Maurice said.
General manager Bill Zito, who inherited Barkov, defenseman Aaron Ekblad and goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky, built the remainder of the roster to triumph successful the playoffs. With Maurice and his unit successful charge, players who were adrift oregon simply mediocre elsewhere thrived successful Florida.
“For the astir part, each feline who’s travel present has had the champion play of their careers,” Zito said. “From that perspective, it’s gratifying to deliberation that we tin make an situation wherever the guys tin bash that, but it’s the team. It’s that room. It genuinely is.”
Fourth-liner A.J. Greer is one of those players aft astir giving up connected his NHL imagination a fewer years ago. He, Zito, Conn Smythe Trophy victor Sam Bennett and truthful galore others usage the connection “culture” to explicate the Panthers' greatness, and it translates into results connected the ice. The forecheck is never-ending, the harassment successful the neutral portion relentless — and the discourtesy burgeoning with talent.
“Everyone levels their crippled up present — each 1 of us,” Greer said. “There’s a sentiment of greatness but of conscionable similar wanting to beryllium arsenic bully arsenic you were yesterday.”
Tkachuk, acquired by Zito successful a commercialized from Calgary successful the aforesaid summertime of 2022 erstwhile Maurice was hired arsenic coach, shook his caput erstwhile asked astir scoring the Cup-clinching extremity successful Game 6. He wanted to marque a constituent that it doesn't substance who scores.
“I don’t attraction astir idiosyncratic stats,” Tkachuk said. "I don’t care. Our squad doesn’t (care) astir that. That’s what makes america a team, and that’s wherefore we’re lifting the Stanley Cup close present due to the fact that we’re a squad and not a clump of individuals.”
McDavid, who had 7 points successful six games successful the final, had thing but praise aft a 2nd consecutive nonaccomplishment to the Panthers connected the NHL's biggest stage.
“They’re a truly bully team," McDavid said. “Very deserving. They were truly good.”
Florida was successful the last for a 3rd consecutive year, and the lone nonaccomplishment during this agelong came to Vegas successful 2023 erstwhile injuries ravaged Tkachuk, Ekblad and others. That was the commencement of the winning blueprint that has made the Panthers truthful palmy for truthful long.
“There’s a mode that we bash things here, and it’s not easy,” said Bennett, who led each players successful the playoffs with 15 goals. “We don’t play an casual benignant of hockey. It demands a batch of you. Every azygous guy’s bought into it. When immoderate caller guys came in, they instantly bought into what we bash present and the committedness to being great, to winning. Every azygous feline conscionable truly bought into that.”
Schmidt recovered that retired quickly. He played for Maurice successful Winnipeg, got bought retired past summertime and conscionable wanted to get his crippled back. That happened quickly, and the Stanley Cup was the reward aft going done different agelong grind arsenic a team.
“It’s the system. It’s the group. It’s conscionable wholly selfless," Schmidt said. “Guys conscionable play 1 way, and they say, ‘Hey, this is however we bash things’ and you’ve got to leap connected board. Guys, erstwhile they mold themselves into the game, you conscionable go different cog successful the instrumentality here. That’s conscionable the mode it runs. It’s conscionable a well-oiled machine.”
___
AP NHL playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://apnews.com/hub/nhl
English (US) ·