They would skate off the ice, their third consecutive Eastern Conference win in the bank. They would don the hats, avoid touching the Prince of Wales Trophy, as they had also done in 2024, hand their sticks to the equipment guy, and walk into the dressing room.
They would do it calmly and coolly, hardly a trace of emotions to be found.
As Rodrigues said, “I think going into this year, we kind of knew what the goal was, right? It’s an accomplishment, winning the conference, but I think we all knew from day one what the goal was, and that’s to win a Stanley Cup. We’ve got four more to go.”
There was, Barkov admitted, some celebration in the postgame room. Or, as he put it, “a little party, for two minutes.”
That was it.
“We didn’t come here to win the Eastern Conference,” Barkov said. “Huge achievement, I’m not saying anything bad about it. But we got where we wanted. We’re in the Finals once again. We want to win the Stanley Cup, just like any other team.”
They have a chance to do it, again. A chance to face the winner of the Western Conference, either the Edmonton Oilers or the Dallas Stars, who will face off on Thursday at American Airlines Center (8 p.m. ET; ESPN+, ESPN, SN, TVAS, CBC) with the Oilers leading the best-of-7 series, 3-1, in their bid for a Cup Final rematch.
The Panthers will be waiting for whoever emerges, waiting to complete the goal that they set at the start of the season, waiting to complete the task they have attacked with single-minded focus since the season started, since the playoffs started.
Why celebrate now, when you have the chance to celebrate so much more later?
“You could just see that the guys have been here before. We’re excited that we got through the round, but that’s where it stops,” Marchand said. “Obviously the toughest team that we’re going to face is coming up next. And if you don’t do the job there, you didn’t win anything.”
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