The Stanley Cup Final starts on Saturday and is it ever an unexpected matchup.
The Vegas Golden Knights, the best team in the Western Conference this season, will be playing in their second Final in just their sixth season of existence.
Their opponent, the Florida Panthers, just took out the three of the top four seeds in the Eastern Conference, and will be going for the Cup for the first time since 1996, their third season as a franchise.
Regardless of the series’ outcome, the Cup is going to one of these teams for the first time.
Here’s what you need to know about the best-of-seven NHL championship series.
What is the 2023 Stanley Cup Final schedule?
The best-of-7 series will begin in Las Vegas. All games will start at 5 p.m. Arizona time and can be seen on TBS, TNT and TruTV.
Sat., June 3: Panthers at Golden Knights
Mon., June 5: Panthers at Golden Knights
Thu., June 8: Golden Knights at Panthers
Sat., June 10: Golden Knights at Panthers
*Tue., June 13: Panthers at Golden Knights
*Fri., June 16: Golden Knights at Panthers
*Mon., June 19: Panthers at Golden Knights
*If necessary
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How can I watch the Stanley Cup Final?
Every Stanley Cup Final game will be aired by the Turner family of networks: TNT, TBS and Tru TV. It will be Turner Sports’ first telecast of a Cup final after reaching a seven-year agreement with the NHL in 2021.
Kenny Albert, Eddie Olczyk and Keith Jones will be on the call, and the pre- and postgame “NHL on TNT” coverage will be hosted by Liam McHugh, joined by “The Great One” Wayne Gretzky, 10-year NHL veteran Anson Carter and former Arizona Coyotes fan favorite Paul “BizNasty” Bissonnette.
Who is the favorite to win the Stanley Cup?
The Golden Knights are given -133 odds to win the Stanley Cup, according to Tipico Sportsbook, which gives the Panthers +110 odds.
Vegas winning the series in seven games is at +400 odds, while Florida winning it in six games is at +450. Vegas winning in six games is at +480 and Vegas winning in five games is at +520. Florida in seven games is at +500 and Florida in five games is at +750.
Vegas is +1100 to sweep Florida and Florida is at +1300 to sweep Vegas.
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How did the Florida Panthers get to the Stanley Cup Final?
The Panthers are one of the unlikeliest teams to make the Final in some time. As the second wild card in the Eastern Conference, the Panthers essentially were the No. 8 and last seed, and drew the Boston Bruins in the first round. The Bruins set the NHL record for points in a season, 133. Florida managed 92. Yet, the Panthers persevered in seven games, coming back from a 3-1 series hole and winning two overtime contests in Boston including the clincher.
Then the Panthers really turned it on, beating 111-point Toronto in 5 close games, two more going to overtime, and capped that by taking down the conference’s No. 2 seed, the Carolina Hurricanes, in a spectacular four-game sweep. The series-clinching goal was scored with 4.9 seconds left in regulation by Matthew Tkachuk, son of former Coyotes star Keith Tkachuk.
How did the Vegas Golden Knights get to the Stanley Cup Final?
In one respect, the Golden Knights’ run to the Western Conference’s top spot with 111 points and now the Final is unusual in that the team had to use 5 different starting goalies this season due to injury issues.
In the postseason, only two have seen ice time, Laurent Brossoit (who only played 11 times in the regular season while rehabbing offseason hip surgery) and Adin Hill, who had never started a playoff game before this year. That changed when Brossoit was injured in the second round against the Edmonton Oilers. Hill, who had only been in one game since March 7 because of a lower-body injury of his own, has been carrying the brunt of it ever since.
Regardless, Vegas has had little trouble pushing its way to the Final, first dispatching the Winnipeg Jets in five games, then the Oilers in six and finally the Dallas Stars, also in six.
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What is the Florida Panthers’ playoff history?
It’s not deep. This is the team’s 23rd season but only its eighth playoff appearance. They only qualified once between 2000-01 and 2014-15. That unexpected romp to the Final in their third season of existence, 1995-96, was quickly snuffed out in a four-game sweep by the Colorado Avalanche.
That season, however, left in its wake a rather unique tradition. Panthers fans took to throwing rats — generally plastic toys — on the ice after wins. The story goes that on the night of the season opener, team captain Scott Mellanby used his hockey stick to kill a rat that had been in the team’s dressing room, then went out and using that same stick scored two goals. Panthers goalie John Vanbiesbrouck then nicknamed Mellanby’s feat the “Rat Trick,” and at the start of the team’s next game a fan threw a rubber rat on the ice.
It was game on from there. The Panthers even contracted with Orkin, a pest control company, to do the ice-clearing honors when thousands of rats rained down on the rink.
What is the Vegas Golden Knights’ playoff history?
It’s short and particularly sweet for this expansion franchise of 2017-18, which in that debut season went all the way to the Final, a tribute to the Vegas front office’s ability to navigate the expansion draft and free agency and cobble together a solid, contending team with excellent veteran goaltending. The Golden Knights have been in the playoffs in five of their six seasons, three times reaching the conference final and now, twice, in the Stanley Cup Final.
Who are the Florida Panthers’ key players to watch?
Matthew Tkachuk, RW, 25: Has team-leading 21 points with nine goals — four of them game-winning tallies — in 16 postseason games. He was the sixth overall pick in the 2016 entry draft by Calgary and was traded to Florida last summer after telling the Flames he would not sign a new long-term contract.
Sergei Bobrovsky, G, 34: He’s won the Vezina Trophy as the NHL’s best goalie twice, but this postseason he’s been electric: 11-2 record with a 2.21 GAA in 13 starts.
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Who are the Vegas Golden Knights’ key players to watch?
Jack Eichel, C, 26: The second overall draft pick by Buffalo in 2015 came to Vegas two seasons ago and scored 66 points in 67 games in the regular season, adding 18 points in 17 games in his first Stanley Cup playoff run.
The “expansion six”: There are a half-dozen players remaining from the original Vegas team that went to the Cup Final in 2018: forwards William Carrier, William Karlsson, Jonathan Marchessault, Reilly Smith and defensemen Brayden McNabb and Shea Theodore. Four of them figured in the scoring in the West-clinching 6-0 win over Dallas, with Karlsson leading the way with two goals and an assist.
