The annual Florida springtime tradition continues beach weather, baseball spring training, and the Tampa Bay Lightning and Florida Panthers going head-to-head in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
For the fourth time in five seasons, the Sunshine State rivals collide in the postseason — this time with even higher stakes. The defending champion Panthers head west across the peninsula to face the Lightning in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference first-round series Tuesday night in Tampa. It’s a series that not only reignites one of the NHL’s fiercest recent rivalries but also could determine who continues Florida’s streak of Stanley Cup appearances.
Tampa Bay dominated the East from 2020 to 2022, making three consecutive Cup Final appearances and hoisting Lord Stanley’s chalice in the first two. Florida has since matched the Lightning’s run, winning the Eastern Conference in 2023 and again last year — capping it off with their first-ever Stanley Cup victory.
Tampa Bay took the first two playoff series in this rivalry — a 4-1 win in 2021 followed by a 2022 sweep in which they allowed just three goals. But Florida got the last laugh in 2023, winning a six-game war on their way to a championship.
Need evidence of how evenly matched these teams are? Consider this:
- Wins this season: Florida 47, Tampa Bay 47
- Head-to-head in 2024: 2 wins each
- Last 20 meetings (including playoffs): 10 wins apiece
- Goals in the last 40 meetings: 128 each
- Record across 168 all-time meetings: 80-80-8
It’s not just a rivalry. It’s a statistical deadlock.
Both teams bring goaltenders with championship pedigrees — and both are peaking at the right time. Since the season resumed in February after the 4 Nations Face-Off break, Tampa’s Andrei Vasilevskiy has posted a sparkling 1.89 GAA and .927 save percentage with three shutouts. Not to be outdone, Florida’s Sergei Bobrovsky — last year’s playoff hero — has a 1.95 GAA, .914 save percentage, and also three shutouts since February. Whichever goalie blinks first could tilt the series.
Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov has been nothing short of electric, winning the NHL scoring title with 121 points. It’s his second straight scoring crown and third consecutive 100-point season. But there’s a catch — no scoring champion has won the Stanley Cup in the same season since Evgeni Malkin in 2009.
Florida counters with a balanced attack led by Matthew Tkachuk, Aleksander Barkov, and the clutch playoff presence of Carter Verhaeghe, who always seems to rise in the postseason spotlight.
The Lightning-Panthers winner will look to extend a remarkable streak: a Florida-based team has reached the Stanley Cup Final each of the last five seasons. Should that stretch hit six, it would mark the longest streak by any U.S. state in NHL history, and the longest by any region since Alberta’s dynasty days of the 1980s.
Tampa’s Jon Cooper, already the NHL’s longest-tenured coach, enters this series with 87 career playoff wins — third-most all-time with a single franchise. He’s two wins behind Glen Sather (Edmonton) and chasing the legendary Al Arbour (119 with the Islanders).
Expect a fast, physical, and emotionally charged series. These teams know each other inside and out. They share the same state, the same goal, and nearly the same DNA when it comes to recent playoff experience.
It’s not just a series. It’s the series — at least for fans in the Sunshine State. And if history is any indicator, the winner just might punch another ticket to the Stanley Cup Final.
Game 1: Tuesday night in Tampa. Let the battle begin — again.
