Panthers to Play Lightning in 1st Round of Stanley Cup Playoffs

Get ready to make the trek across Alligator Alley, the Battle of Florida is back.

On Tuesday, the Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning locked into a first-round series matchup, making it the second-consecutive season and fourth time in the past five years the two in-state rivals met in the postseason.

In the first-round last year, the Panthers knocked out the Lightning in five games en route to its first Stanley Cup in franchise history.

As the No. 2 seed in the Atlantic and higher seed in this matchup, the Lightning will have home-ice advantage. Last year when these teams met in the playoffs, Florida had home-ice, winning all three games at Amerant Bank Arena while also stealing Game 3 on the road at Amalie Arena.

This time around, games 1 and 2 will be in Tampa before the series flips over to Sunrise for games 3 and 4.

While the core of both teams look very similar to when they met last year, there are noteworthy newcomers on each side of this Sunshine State playoff rivalry.

The Panthers lost players like Brandon Montour, Vladimir Tarasenko and Steven Lorentz — all of whom made an impact last postseason. Despite their losses, the defending Stanley Cup champions added plenty of new faces including Seth Jones, Brad Marchand and rookie standout Mackie Samoskevich.

As for the Lightning, their most noticeable departures include Mikhail Sergachev — who played two games last postseason — and former captain Steven Stamkos, who had five goals and six points (5-1-6) in the first-round against Florida last year. Tampa has retooled quite nicely, adding guys like Jake Guentzel, J.J. Moser and getting two-time Stanley Cup champion Ryan McDonagh back in Lightning colors.

In the other Atlantic series, the division-winning Toronto Maple Leafs will take on the Ottawa Senators (also in the Atlantic), who are locked into wild card 1.

The 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs are set to begin on Saturday, April 19.

Start dates and times are to be determined.