Stanley Cup 2023

Florida V. Vegas

Not exactly your traditional NHL markets, but the Panthers and Golden Knights are the final 2 teams left and whichever team wins, it will be the franchise’s first championship.

Back in 1996, the team’s 3rd year in the league, the Panthers made a surprising trip to the Stanley Cup finals.

They lost to Patrick Roy and the Colorado Avalanche.

The 96 Panthers were made up of good players who really gelled at the right time and they got stellar goaltending from “The Beezer” John Vanbiesbrouck.

This year’s Panthers, despite a bad start to the season and making the playoffs on the last week of the season as the eighth seed in the East are only a season removed from finishing first overall (in the regular season).

They’re made up of great players such as Matthew Tkachuk, Aleksander Barkov, Aaron Ekblad and very good players Carter Verhaeghe, Brandon Montour and Anthony Duclair who upped their game in these playoffs.

Another major contributor to the Cats success this spring has been goalie Sergei Bobrovsky.

Many, including myself, thought Bob had his best years behind him, but his play in these playoffs has him as the front runner for the Conn Smythe trophy as playoff MVP.

The Panthers have also been opportunistic as shown by their 6 overtime wins.

In their first year of existence (2017-18), the Golden Knights made  it to the Stanley Cup finals losing to Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals.

Since their inception, the Knights have always iced deep teams, built on solid goaltending, good defense, and “heavy” playoff hockey.

This year’s Knights aren’t much different.

After starting goalie Laurent Brossoit got injured earlier these playoffs, Aidan Hill took over and has made the most of his opportunity with notably 2 shutouts in the Western Conference Final against Dallas.

The Knights are made up of string players such as Mark Stone, Jonathan Marchessault, Jack Eichel, Alex Pietrangelo, and have adopted an extremely sound defensive structure under first year head coach Bruce Cassidy.

This series is extremely hard to pick.

Both teams are playing really well.

The series not starting until Saturday June 3rd, both teams should be as healthy as can be.

Vegas have home ice advantage but Florida has had no problem winning on the road.

I’m not really going out on a limb picking either team here, and I’ll go with the Florida Panthers winning the Stanley Cup Finals in 6 games.

Conn Smythe to Sergei Bobrovsky.