Panthers Win Home Opener Against Bruins, Raise Stanley Cup Banner

SUNRISE — Aleksander Barkov hit the ice with the Stanley Cup raised over his head for one final time this year — before he and his Florida Panthers teammates stood by each other on the blueline as they watched their 2024 Stanley Cup banner raise to the rafters of Amerant Bank Arena. 

This historic night in Sunrise was one the franchise awaited for 30 years. The sold out crowd cheered on their champions as the team applauded their fans. One final team picture with the Cup iced off Florida’s summer as champions and with that, the start to the 2024-25 NHL season.

When the puck dropped on Tuesday night, there was no Cup hangover for the hometown Panthers. They scored four goals in the opening period, en route to a 6-4 win over the Boston Bruins. 

“It’s an emotional start to the season,” Sam Bennett said. “Obviously seeing that banner going up, shoulder to shoulder with all the guys, it was a pretty special moment. I think it definitely gave us a little juice to start the season off and we came out flying.”

Contract year Bennett gets rolling

Florida’s ‘big 3’ pending UFAs this season are Carter Verhaeghe, Sam Bennett and Aaron Ekblad, or at least that’s what we thought. Bill Zito brought Carter Verhaeghe into the media scrum post game to announce that the team signed the forward to an eight-year extension. 

So,‘big 2’ now. 

Last season, Sam Reinhart was the big Panther forward looking to lock up a contract extension. All he did was bury 57 goals — the second most goals in the NHL that year. 

On Tuesday, Bennett wasted no time getting his contract year off to a hot start.

6:27 into the first,  Bennett opened the scoring with his first of two goals on the night. 

“He’s fast, he’s heavy and he;s got finishing hands,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said of Bennett.” I thought that line was very, very strong.

His second goal came with 26 seconds remaining in the period — giving the Panthers  4-1 lead into the break. 

No love lost in this new Atlantic Division rivalry 

Florida-Boston has become much watch hockey over the past two seasons. Being in the same division, they’ve seen each other a ton in the regular season, but the playoffs is where the real hatred between these two teams has come to brew. 

“It’s a great way to start the season,” Paul Maurice spoke about facing Boston. “You know you’re not wading into it. It’s not a no hitter, up and down puck mover… it was on.”

The Panthers obviously beat the Bruins in each of the past two postseasons before reaching the Stanley Cup Final. Those playoff series were always played hard; plenty of big hits, fights and trash talking. 

No surprise that opening night saw a lot of that. 

AJ Greer and Mark Kastelic got the ball rolling when the two heavy weights dropped the gloves less than six minutes into the game.

The actual box score didn’t have too many penalty minutes — at least for this matchup — with 34 total between the two sides, but the numbers didn’t tell the whole story. 

And shocker, Matthew Tkachuk is still disliked by the Bruins, which was clear as multiple players tried dropping the gloves with him.  

Boston hang Korpisalo to dry, keep Swayman on the bench

After ending his contract hold out by signing an eight-year, $66M extension with the Bruins on Sunday, Jeremy Swayman watched from the bench as his new goalie partner Joonas Korpisalo got lit up by the Panthers.

To be clear, the Bruins did not give Korpisalo much help early on Tuesday. Florida started the season the same way they ended their Cup run — a physical, hard forecheck.

Florida skated Boston into the ground in the first period — and the offense came with it. Florida beat Korpisalo four times on 17 shots in the opening frame. 

When Swayman remained on the bench to start the second period, the feeling in the rink was that he wouldn’t see the ice — that feeling was right. 

The sold out crowd in Sunrise had their fun poking the bear as they chanted “we want Swayman” after the Panthers scored their fifth goal of the game.

Korpisalo would play the full game, giving up six goals on 35 shots.

NOTES

Defensemen Adam Boqvist left Tuesday’s game in the first period after taking a puck to the face. Pau Maurice said he would be brought in on Wednesday for imaging and that right now they  are “hopeful”.

Chris Driedger, who was the Panthers’ backup on Tuesday, was placed on waivers earlier in the day. If he clears, he will report to AHL Charlotte. Spencer Knight is expected to return after being sent down to the AHL ahead of opening-night roster deadlines — which appeared to be a cap move.