SUNRISE, Fla. — It felt like déja vu in South Florida. There wasn’t any question about it, though; this has happened before.

The sold-out crowd of 19,665 in Amerant Bank Arena roared like their team’s namesake as the Florida Panthers’ second consecutive championship banner rose next to its lookalike earned in 2023-24. It’s one of the loudest venues in the NHL, so surely the road team overheard the ceremony in the locker rooms.

“We’ve put in a couple of hard weeks here and you want to take steps forward. I’ve said this a lot, you’re taking steps in the right direction or you’re not, so we want to take steps forward,” Chicago Blackhawks coach Jeff Blashill said before the game. “When you play really good teams, you get to gauge where you’re at.”

The Hawks have recently been the villains

See Full Page