The Stanley Cup Final game 6 can finish off the 2024-25 season, with the Panthers having an amazing chance to win hockey’s biggest prize on home ice. What makes the occasion more special is that if they win on June 17, the Florida Panthers will be retaining the Stanley Cup. Yep, that’s how consistent they have been, and Paul Maurice’s men are easily the favorites for Game 6.

They look like a well-oiled machine on repeat, doing the same things but better and more imposing. The way they dominated the Oilers on the road in Game 5 was telling. Where does this efficiency come from? For the Panthers coach, it’s the adversities that ended up being a blessing in disguise. Yes, before the big game, Paul Maurice has revealed what gives them the edge.

Apparently, that this Panthers roster doesn’t throw any surprises is key to their performance. While doing the media communications on June 17, Coach Maurice was asked how comfortable he is with the lineup. The point being, he doesn’t have to change anything drastically. The Panthers have had a fully fit roster across the entire 2025 Stanley Cup Finals series, so he has had all his main guys to choose from. And Maurice acknowledged that, “We’re pretty healthy team, fortunately at this point. We’ve got good players.”

But what he shared next was eye-opening: “There’s a real advantage at times for your injuries that happen during the year, because it forces you to play people.” And how would that have helped now? “So, there wouldn’t be a substitution that we would make now that would be a change for our group where you’re, ‘How is this going to impact it if Boqvist would were to come in and play on any one of the lines.’ He’s already done it, right?”

All the injuries and rotations have actually helped the Panthers coach to experiment with all his players and test out possible combinations that will work in a game. And they have had their fair share of injuries and absences. Matthew Tkachuk missed the last 25 games of the regular season with injury. Captain Aleksander Barkov, Sam Bennett, and many others missed games due to injury. In total, the Panthers missed 133-man games due to injuries in the regular season. Add to that the suspensions –Aaron Ekblad was suspended for 20 games in March, then again during the playoffs for 2 games.

All this forced the Panthers to dig deep and look for solutions. But now they are all the wiser for it. In fact, Paul Maurice mentioned how he even tinkered with the lineup just to make things better, “Through injuries and travel and all those things, you get into stretches where the chemistry is off, so you fool around with the lines.” But this command over your roster from top to bottom has also been possible because of time. “The fact that these guys have been together, the core of them for 3 years, there isn’t an adjustment that we would make in our lineup that would change the room.”

No change they make now would be out of the blue. Everyone knows their role. They have had experience on the ice over the course of the season, So, all the players are comfortable when they have to step up, and even the coach is, knowing they don’t have to invent anything new in the biggest series of the season. In fact, for the newcomers, the Panthers have followed a specific process.

The system that helps newcomers find their feet in Paul Maurice’s team

The Panthers have been getting their deserved praise for how collective they have looked on the ice. It’s not just standing up for your fellow teammates like they did in Game 3. The Oilers thought they would just be allowed to throw some punches without the Panthers hitting back. From Matthew Tkachuk to Jonah Gadjovich, everyone’s ready to throw down the gloves. But Stanley Cup winner Pat Maroon has seen something else, too.

When he came on the Pat McAfee Show on May 19, he mentioned how the Panthers are doing it. “You know, when someone gets traded there, they bring them in right away”. That’s how Brad Marchand and Seth Jones have become an integral part of the Panthers in these playoffs. And Marchand has loved every minute of it in Florida.

When asked about his experience in the new team, Marchand’s answer was this: “The group is incredible. And it’s a very easy group to feel at home with.” Mind you, Jones and Marchand had joined just about 4 months ago, in the March Trade deadline. Jones even had to adapt to a different style of play from what he was used to. But he had help from the assistant coaches to become a key D-man in a team known for their defensive shifts.