Paul Maurice had been expecting a tough challenge from the Oilers in the Stanley Cup Finals. With his team looking for a repeat and the Oilers looking for redemption, he was undecided as to which emotion would prove the more potent one. “I’ve talked all year, there’s different energy sources, right? I can’t measure which one’s more powerful yet.” However, going by what has transpired in the series till now, it would perhaps not be too far-fetched to think that Maurice was just being extremely humble.

Granted, the first two games at Rogers Place were close, and things probably would have been very different had Brad Marchand not latched onto the puck on the breakaway in double overtime in Game 2. But Game 3? It was all Panthers. It took Brad Marchand (again) just 56 seconds to put one past Stuart Skinner. Then, in the second period, Verhaeghe extended the lead to 2-0. And while Corey Perry pulled one back with a power play goal, hope soon fizzled out as Reinhart, Bennett, Ekblad, and Rodrigues all chipped in with a goal each. The Panthers’ captain Aleksander Barkov, simply said, “We were good today.” 

While Barkov has always been a man of few words, he perhaps could have used a better adjective there. Because the six-goal onslaught was not just a reflection of how quickly and drastically the Panthers have been able to turn things around in the ongoing series after going down 1-0. It was also a reflection of how consistent they have been throughout their postseason run this year. A piece of stat that happened to come out after the game showed exactly that.

Greg Harvey of OptaSTATS recently took to X to share the list of “Teams in NHL history to have a 4+ goal victory against four different opponents in a single playoff run.” It only had the names of two teams. First, the dominant New York Islanders of 1981 and 1983, and now, the unstoppable Florida Panthers of 2025.

To be specific, the Panthers began their run on April 22, when they defeated the Lightning 6-2 in Game 1. Their next victims were the Toronto Maple Leafs, whom they beat with the same 6-1 scoreline in both Game 5 and Game 7. Finally, just before the Oilers, came the Carolina Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference Finals, who were shut out 5-0 in Game 2 by the Panthers, only to be hit with a 6-2 defeat at home in the very next game.

In 1983, the New York Islanders beat the Washington Capitals, the New York Rangers, and the Boston Bruins on their way to the finals against the… the Edmonton Oilers, whom they beat 4-0 in the best-of-seven series to clinch the Stanley Cup for the fourth consecutive time. History is funny after all. And while we are still on the topic of history, let’s not forget that Brad Marchand, who helped the Panthers make history also recently entered the record books himself.

Is age just a number for Brad Marchand?

“Brad’s a big moment guy.” Those were the words of the Panthers’ GM, Bill Zito, after Brad Marchand’s 3-point performance in the all-important Game 7 against the Toronto Maple Leafs. Thanks to that win, the ‘Little Ball of Hate’ went 5-0 in Game 7s against the Leafs—an NHL record. Cut to Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Finals at Rogers Place, Marchand made sure that Bill Zito’s praise aged well. With the score tied at 4-4 in the second overtime, it was Brad Marchand’s breakaway goal at 8:05 that leveled the series for the Panthers. With that he became the only player in history to score a shorthanded goal (which he had scored in the second period) and an overtime goal in a Stanley Cup Final game. And wait, there’s more.

That goal he scored within 56 seconds of Game 3 against the Oilers? Yeah, that put him in the NHL history books, too. Having already scored in Game 1 and Game 2, that goal made Brad Marchand the oldest player (37 years) to score in the first three games of a Stanley Cup Finals series. It was a record held for 52 years by Frank Mahovlich, who had achieved the feat as a 35-year-old in 1973.

Although he is one of the oldest players on the ice in the series, Marchand has scored 18 points in 20 games so far. More importantly, he has managed to contribute when it has mattered the most. Remember that series-saving overtime goal against the Maple Leafs in Game 3 of the second round? Yeah, he probably has more where that came from.