Florida Panthers

Florida Panthers
Florida Panthers
Founded	1993
Home ice	BankAtlantic Center
Based in	Sunrise
Colors	Red, navy, gold, white.
League	National Hockey League
Head coach	Jacques Martin
General manager	Mike Keenan
Owner	Alan P. Cohen

The Florida Panthers are a National Hockey League (NHL) team, based in Miami, Florida and playing in the suburb of Sunrise.

Founded: 1993-94 NHL season

Arena: BankAtlantic Center (capacity 19,452)

Uniform colors: red, navy, gold, white

Logo design: a panther (puma subspecies)

Mascot: Stanley C. Panther

Stanley Cup final appearances: 1 (1995-96 [loss])

Franchise history

Blockbuster Video magnate Wayne Huizenga was awarded an NHL franchise for his native Miami in 1992. The team played at the Miami Arena, and its first major stars were New York Rangers goalie castoff John Vanbiesbrouck, rookie Rob Niedermayer, and Scott Mellanby, who scored 30 goals. They had one of the most successful first seasons of any expansion team, finishing one point below .500 and narrowly missing out on the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

After missing another close brush with the playoffs in 1994-95, coach Roger Neilson was fired and replaced by Doug MacLean. They then acquired Ray Sheppard from the San Jose Sharks on the trade deadline in 1996 and they looked towards the playoffs for the first time.

The 1996 playoffs were a dream for the Panthers. They upset the Boston Bruins, Philadelphia Flyers and Pittsburgh Penguins to reach the Stanley Cup finals. South Florida was euphoric. Against Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, series comebacks were part of the astonishment.

It came to an end in the Stanley Cup finals though. Their opponents, the Colorado Avalanche, would sweep the Panthers on Uwe Krupp's third-overtime goal in game 4. The next season, a team ravaged by injuries would lose to the New York Rangers on the first round. More injuries caused the team to have their worst record to that point in 1997-98.

The Panthers moved into the National Car Rental Center (now known as BankAtlantic Center) in 1998, the new arena being the result of bickering and threatening to move the team. In 1999, they acquired Pavel Bure (the "Russian Rocket"), in a blockbuster trade with the Vancouver Canucks. They would reach the playoffs again in 2000 riding on his 58 goals, losing in the first round to the eventual Stanley Cup Champion New Jersey Devils.

The team slumped in the 2000-01 NHL season despite a 59 goal season from Bure. The following season, 2001-02, the Panthers would have their worst record ever. Bure struggled despite being reunited with his brother Valeri, and was traded to the New York Rangers on the 2002 trading deadline.

The Rat Story

It was 1995, the Year of the Rat on the Chinese calendar. Specifically it was 8 October 1995, at approximately 6:30pm in the locker room. With an hour to go before face-off in the home opener against the Calgary Flames, a live rat dashed about the Panthers' locker room.

Scott Mellanby, the future captain, remembers, "Guys were jumping out of the way and screaming. It made a beeline right towards me." So, Mellanby, armed with his stick let his fine-tuned instincts take over. He one-timed the rat with a slap of his stick against the locker room wall. "I one-timed it," said Scott, "and it was dead."

Soon, a tradition would be born. That night Mellanby scored two goals in a 4-3 win. Goalie John Vanbiesbrouck called it a "rat trick." Later that night in the locker room, an unidentified team member marked the spot on the wall with a circle and inscription "R.I.P. Rat 1." Two games later, on 13 October 1995, the team's third home game which was a 6-2 win against Ottawa, two rubber rats hit the ice after a Panther goal. This was the first recorded rat throwing. The next game the total was 16 and the game after that it was 50. By the time the playoffs began, the per-game rat count exceeded 2,000.