A few years ago, the Florida Panthers had a hard time selling tickets. On Saturday, they sold out a preseason game.

What changed?

Winning the Stanley Cup in back-to-back seasons is a good start, but in this particular instance, it had more to do with who they were playing: the Tampa Bay Lightning.

The “Battle of Florida” has become one of the fiercest rivalries in the NHL. The close distance, both teams’ recent success and three playoff series in five years against each other combine for a bitter (but fun) hatred among both the fans and the players.

That particular game was the third consecutive matchup between the two teams. There were a combined 525 penalty minutes handed out.

For context, that’s more than twice as many minutes as the Mammoth’s Liam O’Brien played last year. There w

See Full Page