The Florida Panthers are carrying their Stanley Cup title defense into Round 2 of the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The Panthers entered the NHL postseason as the Atlantic Division's No. 3 seed, and they recorded the exact same first-round result as last year -- a five-game series victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning. Florida had six players record at least five points against Tampa Bay, including Matthew Tkachuk as he made his return to the ice, while Sergei Bobrovsky posted a .901 save percentage and a 2.21 goals against average.
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Paul Maurice's club will now meet the Atlantic's No. 1-seeded Toronto Maple Leafs in the conference semifinals. The Leafs, looking to snap the franchise's record Stanley Cup drought, won the Battle of Ontario over the wild-card Ottawa Senators in six games in Round 1.
Florida and Toronto recently met in the second round of the 2023 playoffs, when the Panthers stunned the Leafs in five games.
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The Panthers last year finally got over the hump and captured the franchise's first Stanley Cup championship. After losing the 2023 Stanley Cup Final to the Vegas Golden Knights, Florida made it back to the championship series in 2024 and defeated the Edmonton Oilers in a roller-coaster seven-game set.
Now, Florida sits three series victories away from doubling its number of Stanley Cup trophies. But just how many clubs in NHL history have been able to go back-to-back? Here's what to know:
How many teams have won two straight Stanley Cups?
In the expansion era, which began with the 1967-68 season when the league grew from six to 12 teams, there have 10 different instances of a team winning at least two straight Stanley Cups.
Who's the last team to win consecutive Stanley Cups?
The most recent team to go back-to-back was the Lightning. Tampa Bay defeated the Dallas Stars in the 2020 Stanley Cup Final, played in the NHL bubble amid the COVID-19 pandemic, before repeating the following year with a Cup Final win over the Montreal Canadiens.
And Tampa Bay nearly pulled off a three-peat, losing the 2022 Cup Final to the Colorado Avalanche in six games.
What's the most Stanley Cups won in a row?
The expansion era record for consecutive Stanley Cup triumphs is four, which has been done twice. And, believe it or not, they happened back-to-back.
The Canadiens first ripped off four straight championships from the 1976-79 Cup Finals, before the New York Islanders hoisted the next four Cups from 1980-83.
The Isles got back to the Cup Final in 1984, but lost to Wayne Gretzky and the Oilers. That was the start of a back-to-back title stretch from Edmonton.
No other team in the expansion era has won more than two Cups in a row. During the Original Six era, the Canadiens won five straight Cup Finals from 1956-60, while the Maple Leafs won three straight from 1947-49 and 1962-64.
List of NHL teams to win consecutive Stanley Cups
Here's a full look at the repeat Stanley Cup champions in the expansion era (the years listed are when the Cup Finals were played):
- Tampa Bay Lightning: 2 straight from 2020-21
- Pittsburgh Penguins: 2 straight from 2016-17
- Detroit Red Wings: 2 straight from 1997-98
- Pittsburgh Penguins: 2 straight from 1991-92
- Edmonton Oilers: 2 straight from 1987-88
- Edmonton Oilers: 2 straight from 1984-85
- New York Islanders: 4 straight from 1980-83
- Montreal Canadiens: 4 straight from 1976-79
- Philadelphia Flyers: 2 straight from 1974-75
- Montreal Canadiens: 2 straight from 1968-69
