Greg Cote: Wounded, doubted but no underdog, champion Panthers open with 3-2 win

Greg Cote, Miami Herald on Oct 7, 2025

Published in Hockey

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SUNRISE, Fla. — Beware the champion that is wounded, and doubted. You have given that team another layer of hunger, an element of underdog motivation — ill-fitting as that seems.

The Florida Panthers opened their 32nd NHL season Tuesday afternoon-into-night (an odd 5 p.m. puck drop) as a two-time defending Stanley Cup champ.

“We want three!” chanted the sold-out Sunrise crowd beforehand as the championship banner was ceremonially raised to the rafters.

“Great to see their expectations are there,” said Brad Marchand, calling the banner-raising “a great opportunity to enjoy it one last time, then turn the page.”

The team had received its championship rings in a private event the night before. They were gaudy-huge.

“Tough time to have little fingers,” noted Marchand.

The fans’ wish could happen. It would be historic — hockey’s first three-peat in more than 40 years. And it would be against odds. Florida is the eighth double-champ since then looking to three-peat, and those previous teams are 0 for 7 getting it done.

Once again, few think it will happen. Especially now.

“Usually you have to get into the season before you feel adversity and find out what will define you,” as Cats coach Paul Maurice puts it. “We have that right in front of us from the start.”

The Panthers skated surrounded by that adversity as the season opened with a 3-2 victory over the visiting Chicago Blackhawks. Goals by A.J. Greer and Carter Verhaeghe (on a power play) erased an early deficit, then Jesper Boqvist cashed a deflected shot mid-third period to untie a 2-2 knot.

Verhaeghe you expect on the scoresheet; Greer and Boqvist less so, an encouraging sign, a flex of that depth.

“Kind of the model,” Marchand called that. “The recipe for success.”

Said Maurice: “We’re going to need other people to fill in with some goals.”

Nice opening victory, though Chicago has been pretty bad for years, is mired in a rebuild and was ranked No. 32 (dead last) in ESPN’s season-opening power rankings. Philadelphia visits on Thursday and then Ottawa, two other opponents down in recent years, before a five-game road trip. The doubts chasing Florida into this season did not melt much Tuesday and will not disappear easily.

The adversity, of course: Captain Aleksander Barkov’s season-ending injury last week on top of scoring star Matthew Tkachuk being sidelined until December sent perceived chances of that three-peat cratering. (Both were watching in street clothes Tuesday.) Stanley Cup betting odds at DraftKings have since seen Florida fall from the favorite to a tie for sixth. In an ESPN.com season preview Tuesday, 25 experts predicted who’d win it all, and only three chose the Panthers.

ESPN’s opening-night tripleheader Tuesday led with the Panthers game, while the coveted prime-time spot went to a Pittsburgh Penguins-New York Rangers game — neither of whom even made the playoffs last season.

That’s disrespect to a two-time champion. And another sign the perception is of a Panthers team diminished.

The notion is most decidedly not shared from within the Cats’ dressing room.

“It will be a challenge for us. A great test. But we have that depth in our team,” said defenseman Gustav Forsling. “I know what kind of players we have in here. Basically the same team as last year, but we have even more experience.. I don’t see why we couldn’t do it again. People said last year, ‘They won. They won’t be as hungry again.’ I wouldn’t doubt us again.”

I wouldn’t doubt Florida’s three-peat chances, either. The depth and scoring punch remains four-lines quality. Maurice and this team know how to win, and that experience matters.

And this is a wide-open NHL season, by all accounts. Scanning a half-dozen major sportsbooks finds that Carolina, Edmonton, Vegas, Tampa Bay, Dallas and Colorado all get love as favorites or close to it. Florida also is in that mix. The idea the two-time defending champs are tantamount to underdogs to make history is itself a compelling story — good for the league.

“The great thing about sports is you don’t know. There’s a reason we play the games, and it’s about the stories that can be generated,” as NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said between periods in Sunrise Tuesday. “Two of the biggest stars on the team are injured. How well they come back, how resilient the team is without them — that’s going to be a great story to see unfold. This is an organization and a team that’s been well put together.”

We saw some of that Tuesday night with multiple secondary players contributing to the win.

But the reality that will be with the Cats all season was there, too, in the hallway outside the home team’s dressing room, as Barkov moved slowly past, on crutches, his right knee in a brace.