Who says Florida's not a traditional hockey market? The Sunshine State is home to a team in the Stanley Cup Final for the fifth consecutive season. The silver chalice was in the house in metropolitan Miami as the Florida Panthers and Edmonton Oilers got the 2024 championship series underway at Amerant Bank Arena. The Panthers are in the title round for the second straight time—following three appearances (and two hoists) by the Tampa Bay Lightning—while the Oilers are back for the first time since an unlikely run to the 2006 final as the lowest-seeded team in the Western Conference.
Florida took the first step toward a first title and took the first final series lead in franchise history with a 3-0 win in Saturday night's opener, and the B/R hockey team was in the building to take it all in and put together a list of crucial takeaways. Take a look at what we came up with and drop a thought of your own in the comments. Sometimes, you've just got to hand it to the goalie.
That was certainly the case on Saturday night when Florida's Sergei Bobrovsky was the best player on the ice for either team, earning the game's first star by stopping 32 shots and continually frustrating an Edmonton team averaging 3.5 goals per game through three rounds. Affectionately known to the home fans as "Bob," the 35-year-old became the first goalie his age or older to win a game in the final round since Martin Brodeur in 2012.
And he frequently did it in spectacular fashion—stopping 25 shots th.