This time last year the story of the Stanley Cup final between Florida and Edmonton was mostly about Connor McDavid, hockey’s generational talent, getting the chance to bring the Cup back to hockey’s generational home. And it almost went his way, after the Oilers overcame a three-game deficit to force a deciding Game 7. Instead, McDavid’s win came a little later. His series-winning goal against the US in February’s Four Nations Cup amid the febrile nationalism created by Donald Trump’s annexation threats and tariffs seemed to quiet the doubters about where hockey both belonged and who rightly owned its highest honours. But here we are again, on the eve of the final, with the Oilers back in Florida for the second season in a row – Game 1 is on Wednesday night – and with a team from that state contending for the Cup for the sixth straight year.
The easiest way to explain why the Tampa Bay Lightning (2020-22) and Florida Panthers (2023-25) have each reached the Stanley Cup final as Eastern Conference champions in three consecutive seasons is that, well, they have both been very good teams. You can point to some common elements between the two, like scoring depth, a certain level of tenacity and grit, elite Russian goaltending, and Carter Verhaeghe. But there has also been something less obvious or quantifiable about these teams. Some characteristic that they share, beyond the on-ice talent and performance. It may be Florida itself.
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There’s the income tax rate, for one thing, in that there isn’t one. Given that, the common refrain goes, Florida teams have an inherent advantage when free agents are looking for a new place to play. Indeed, Panthers general manager Julien BriseBois confirmed it last summer, telling reporters that Florida’s “favourable tax situation” had helped entice players to sign. The Associated Press ran the numbers on Sam Reinhart’s new deal at $8.625m per year. In Florida, he will owe $3.15m in annual taxes – $1.1m less than if he lived in California, and $1.4m less than if he was in Toronto. Then again, there are no state income taxes in Tennessee, either, and Nashville finished third-last in the NHL last year. None in Texas, either. No Cups there recently. Nor in Washington. So, maybe there’s more to it – less bureaucratic and more geographic reasons, like the beach and the weather. Or it could be the vibe.
“Nothing in Florida is ever quite what it seems,” former Tampa Bay Tribune reporter Craig Pittman wrote in his book about the state, adding that “in Florida, the crimes tend to be weirder and the scams bigger.” Florida is where all the “nation’s unctuous elements tend to trickle down as if [it] were the grease trap under America’s George Foreman grill,” Kent Russell wrote in the New York Times. Both writers made those assessments in the summer of 2016. Since then, Florida has had quite the decade. And even for what was already America’s strangest state, it’s been an interesting few years. Much of that is due to Donald Trump’s ascension to the US presidency – twice – not in his original big-suited, big-dealing New York City tycoon form, but as something much weirder, angrier, and noticeably more sunkissed: that is, as a kind of alpha Florida Man.
Of course, all of that might have had little or nothing to do with hockey had it not been for Trump’s personal vendetta against Canada this year, all but vowing to annex it as the 51st state. Or if Wayne Gretzky wasn’t such a staunch Trump supporter – a fact that has made him persona non grata in the country he once led to Olympic gold. Or if Gary Bettman (and Gretzky) hadn’t been hanging out with Trump-nominated FBI director Kash Patel at Capitals games. Or if a Panthers minority owner hadn’t called a Toronto Maple Leafs supporter an “51st anti semite loser” on X last month. But all that stuff did happen, both setting and capturing the tone of the season, hounded at every turn by a Florida Man. To no small degree, it would make an Oilers win all the more satisfying for many Canadians.
Still, even if none of that off-ice stuff had happened, there is still undeniably a high level of that brash, unapologetic, and moderately crazed Florida attitude in the Panthers. They might not all be men from Florida, but they sure feel like Florida Men. It’s by sheer coincidence that the Panthers’ spirit animal is not the team’s namesake cat but is instead a rat. But let’s be honest, it fits with how many see the team (and not just because Brad “the rat” Marchand plays there now – that’s just fate). Because, as much as you might respect the rat’s hustle or its capacity to survive against long odds – as the Panthers did during their 2023 Cup run, sweeping the seemingly unbeatable Boston Bruins in the first round – most of the time you want them to go away for ever.
Yet, the life of a rat is also a story of a certain kind of success. It’s no easy feat to find your way when everyone hates you. Still harder to do it more than once. “Part of Florida’s appeal is that it’s the Land of a Thousand Chances, the place where people go who have screwed up elsewhere and need to start over,” Pittman wrote. He was thinking of guys like Carlo Ponzi, creator of the Ponzi scheme. But you could just as easily point to someone like Verhaeghe, who spent six years in the AHL and ECHL after being drafted before the Lightning and Panthers gave him a chance. Now he’s a two-time Cup winner.
Connor McDavid and the Oilers have a second chance in Florida now, too. Another opportunity to make the rats go away. Of course, that won’t be easy. The Panthers are relentlessly tenacious, with an aggressive offensive pinch. They’re gritty, some may even say dirty. And they’ve proven that they can scrape and scramble to the top. Just like the state they call home.
