What the Rangers can learn from the Panthers repeating as Stanley Cup Champions

The Florida Panthers clinched back-to-back championships with a dominant 5–1 win over the Edmonton Oilers in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final on Amerant Bank Arena ice. Still, to truly understand the magnitude of their triumph, we must take things from the top.

Tuesday night was a coronation on hockey's latest dynasty. Florida came out with that familiar bite. Just like they had in Games 2-5, they struck first. Edmonton had started the tilt well, as they hemmed Florida in early, put a few good looks on Bobrovsky, and appeared as a team playing for its season. Then, Evan Bouchard made the mistake that'll haunt your summer. A bobbled puck in the neutral zone became a steal for Sam Reinhart. Ekholm tried to close in but got beat clean, and Reinhart, while falling, sniped it over Stuart Skinner's glove. One shot, one goal. Panthers up 1–0.

From there, Florida never looked back. Their forecheck, puck support, and neutral zone suffocated Edmonton's hopes of forcing a Game 7 on home ice. The Oilers were stuck chasing, stuck turning pucks over, stuck watching the Panthers do what they've now done for two straight years: play mistake-free, disciplined, relentless playoff hockey.

Matthew Tkachuk played through a torn adductor and a hernia. Later in the first, he made it 2–0 on a shot Skinner should've stopped. Traffic in front, yes, but it snuck through the glove. Again, the Panthers didn't overcomplicate. Anton Lindell entered with pace, sucked Connor McDavid and Jake Walman into the right side, found Tkachuk as the trailer, and let him fire through the screen. That goal capped a period where Florida dictated, and the Oilers were leaking. The Cats scored on 16.8% of their even-strength shots with Lundell on the ice, the highest % for any player in the playoffs since at least 2007-08.

The Panthers weren't just better, setting a record for time led in a final with 255:49—they were smarter. Captain Aleksander Barkov, who became the first European captain to win back-to-back Cups, split the palm of his hand open, in Game 1. Still, he won 70% of faceoffs in the series. Gustav Forsling might've put together one of the most underrated shutdown series in years. He kept Connor McDavid wide all series and was a quiet giant in the cup-clincher.

In the second, McDavid and Corey Perry had a dangerous two-on-one chance after a Florida turnover, but Bobrovsky shut the door with a toe save. Later, Brett Kulak had a point shot deflected through traffic, but again—the officer was there. The Oilers won the shot battle but not the scoring one. Then came the dagger. Carter Verhaeghe snapped one from the right boards that Skinner completely misplayed. It bounced off his chest. Barkov grabbed the rebound and sent it toward the crease, where it bounced in off Reinhart's skate—his second of the night, making things 3–0, kickstarting the polishing sequence of the Cup.

The third period was a party. The Panthers tightened the screws. They smothered the Oilers into submission. Then, to finish it off, Sam Reinhart added two empty-net goals, becoming the first player since Wayne Gretzky in 1985 to score seven goals in a Stanley Cup Final. The hats rained down until morning as he awoke Wednesday morning to find hats on his front lawn.  Meanwhile, Bobrovsky was his usual brilliant self. He made 28 saves in Game 6 and was inches away from his fourth shutout of the playoffs before Vasily Podkolzin scored the season's final tally with 4:42 left .

He finished the postseason with a .914 save percentage, a 2.20 GAA, and three shutouts across 23 starts. Florida leaned on one man—again—and he delivered. The $10 million AAV goalie also had +6.7 goals saved expected on the final, reinforcing the idea of paying your goaltender top dollar like the New York Rangers did for Igor Shesterkin this season.

The Conn Smythe went to Sam Bennett—rightfully so. Fifteen goals in the playoffs. It's not the same guy who was mocked as a draft bust a decade ago for not being able to do a pull-up at the combine. Now, he's a Cup hero. It's easy to forget how much turnover Florida dealt with last offseason. They lost pieces like Brandon Montour, Ryan Lomberg, and Nick Cousins. They brought in guys like Nate Schmidt, Tomas Nosek, and A.J. Greer—names you don't associate with Cup runs. Schmidt was the first teammate Barkov handed the Cup to. Then Seth Jones became the first "Seth" to win a Cup. Then Nosek. Then Greer. That's culture. That's Coach Paul Maurice's room and GM Bill Zito's vision.

Edmonton heads into the offseason, watching Florida celebrate again and becoming the first squad since the 1978 Boston Bruins to lose consecutive Stanley Cup Finals. McDavid becomes the only player in NHL history with nine straight 90-point seasons and no Cup to show for it. This series showed why depth matters. Only three Stanley Cup champions in the last 30 years have had three or fewer legit stars. Eight of the last ten had at least five. All of the previous six did. Nearly 88% of teams with four or more true stars make the playoffs. None with two or fewer made playoffs this year.

Florida's dominance shows how far behind the Rangers are. They've had opportunities to build something sustainable, but they never capitalized on them: recycling coaches, questionable roster decisions, and underwhelming development. Everything the Cats touched turned to gold, including the trade deadline acquisition of 37 year-old Brad Marchand who potted six goals in the finals and three playoff overtime winners. Perhaps the wildest part of their roster is Mackie Samoskevich's 15 goals and 31 points in 72 games during his first NHL season, before barely seeing playoff ice due to roster limitations. There's depth summer signing Nate Schmidt, who led all NHL defensemen in expected goals percentage this postseason. The champions have clarity in their blueprint, and in how they measure impact. It's why Florida are winners, and the Blueshirts aren't.