It’s all come down to this. After 3 wild and unpredictable rounds, the Stanley Cup Finals are here! Who could have possibly foreseen that the Stanley Cup would come down to these two teams: The Vegas Golden Knights and the Florida Panthers! Two franchises from nontraditional hockey markets both looking to etch their name on the Cup for the first time

Let’s see how got here:

In the Eastern Conference the 8th seeded Florida Panthers were written off, even their “home” crowd had turned against them, after going down 1-3 in their opening series against the powerful Boston Bruins. A Boston team that had one of the greatest regular seasons in the history of the NHL But they crawled their way back; taking  out the Bruins in 7 games, and have hardly looked back since . Next up, they dispatched, 4-1, a hapless Toronto Maple Leafs in a hapless Toronto Maple Leaf kinda way. Then they swept aside the Carolina Hurricanes in a series that was actually closer than most sweeps tend to be. The Florida Panthers are to simply put it; on fire!

Over in the Western Conference; The Vegas Golden Knights, the top seed in the West, grounded the Winnipeg Jets 4-1. Then Vegas beat down the high-powered Edmonton Oilers in a bruising series 4-2. Lastly they faced the Dallas Stars in the Conference Finals, and looked like they might blow a 3 game lead, before bringing  the Stars back down to Earth 4-2. The victory sent Vegas Golden Knights to the Stanley Cup Finals for the second time in only their sixth season of existence!

The Schedule: (Thanks NHL.com)

So here we are! It’s time for things to heat up… On Ice!