On Monday, the next installment of the Battle of Florida will be contested between the Tampa Bay Lightning and Florida Panthers, a rivalry that has certainly intensified in recent years.
The two teams entered the league one year apart. The Bolts in 1992 and the Cats a year later.
Although the Panthers miraculously made it to the Stanley Cup Final in their third season, the state of Florida wasn't truly on the hockey map until the Lightning won the title in 2004.
But for most of the two teams' existence, the rivalry was purely geographical, with the hockey world largely focusing on other feuds or thriving franchises. Despite achieving far less success in the 23 years after they made the Cup Final in 1996, the Panthers won the lion's share of games against the Lightning. In that same 23-year span, the Cats had a sub-.500 record against the Lightning in only seven seasons, and the club's all-time record against their in-state rival is 79-54-29.
But this truly became the "Battle" when both teams became great, and that has been in the past six seasons. The pair met in the playoffs for the first time in 2021, which is the perfect start of this era -- Tampa Bay was coming off a Stanley Cup win in 2020 (in the bubble) and dispatched Florida in six games en route to their second straight Cup. The Lightning would sweep the Panthers the next season before bowing out to Colorado in the Cup Final, marking three straight trips to the Final.
Then it was Florida's turn to do the exact same thing, making their three straight trips to the Cup Final (with the streak still active), and beating Tampa Bay 4-1 in back-to-back first rounds in 2024 and 2025 en route to Cup wins. Their playoff records against each other are identical: two series wins, 10-10 overall.
And this feud has turned ugly, bloody and downright nasty. Two preseason games (!) this October saw Lightning and Panthers players maul each other on the ice to the tune of a combined 508 penalty minutes and 26 misconducts. "It just got silly, got stupid," lamented Panthers forward Evan Rodrigues, describing the chaos that some hockey fans absolutely relish. There were so many ejections that Florida's Niko Mikkola got ejected, didn't leave and then assisted on a goal, that had to be called back upon review.
It took a while to get there, but the Battle of Florida is now one of the most bitter rivalries in hockey and has no signs of slowing down. Both teams have thrown haymakers (literally and figuratively) at the other throughout the years. Although this might hurt many traditionalists to hear, the rivalry is an offshoot of both team's playoff and championship success and that means -- if you're judging this purely on glory at the highest levels -- Florida is cemented as the current "State of Hockey." I don't make the rules, people, I just bring them to light.
The Panthers and Lightning drop the puck on Monday in Tampa Bay. It's without a doubt one of the biggest games of the week.
Jump ahead:
Games of the week
What I loved this weekend
Hart Trophy candidates
Social post of the week
Stick taps
Biggest games of the week
I have my eyes firmly on every game the Minnesota Wild, Pittsburgh Penguins and Edmonton Oilers play this week. Purely because I want to see the immediate impact the traded players will be making. And there's some overlap!
The Quinn Hughes trade was a Friday night shocker. Minnesota! What a coup!
The Wild play the Washington Capitals on Tuesday (one of the teams rumored to be in on the Hughes trade talks), followed by the the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday, and the Colorado Avalanche on Sunday (a big test). Before the Avs, they'll host the Oilers on Saturday ... when I hope Tristan Jarry will be starting, and we get some sort of Hughes scoring chance on the new Oilers goalie.
Aside from the showdown in Minnesota, the Oilers have the Boston Bruins on Thursday and Vegas Golden Knights on Sunday (a big offensive test).
Jarry won his first game with the Oilers on Saturday, a 6-3 victory in Toronto.
The Penguins, with Stuart Skinner and Brett Kulak now in the mix, face the Ottawa Senators on Thursday, then have a home-and-home series against the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday and Sunday.
But I have a big red circle around Tuesday on my calendar, because the Oilers face the Penguins. Hockey trade bingo! It's always awesome when traded players face their old teams right away. It's like getting early and tangible "who won the trade?" argument fodder based on how the traded players perform. Let's hope the coaches help out the narrative and start both Jarry and Skinner in this one.
Other key games this week
MONDAY
Los Angeles
Kings at
Dallas
Stars
8 p.m. ET | ESPN+
TUESDAY
Utah
Mammoth at
Boston
Bruins
7 p.m. ET | ESPN+
Philadelphia
Flyers at
Montreal
Canadiens
7 p.m. ET | ESPN+
New York
Islanders at
Detroit
Red Wings
7 p.m. ET | ESPN+
WEDNESDAY
Los Angeles
Kings at
Florida
Panthers
7 p.m. ET | ESPN+
THURSDAY
Los Angeles
Kings at
Tampa Bay
Lightning
7 p.m. ET | ESPN+
FRIDAY
Carolina
Hurricanes at
Florida
Panthers
7 p.m. ET | ESPN+
Dallas
Stars at
Anaheim
Ducks
10 p.m. ET | ESPN+
SATURDAY
Detroit
Red Wings at
Washington
Capitals
12:30 p.m. ET | NHL Network
Carolina
Hurricanes at
Tampa Bay
Lightning
7 p.m. ET | ESPN+
SUNDAY
Washington
Capitals at
Detroit
Red Wings
1 p.m. ET | NHL Network
What I loved this weekend
The San Jose Sharks are a lot of people's second favorite team, and they made a whole bunch of fans happy -- outside of Pittsburgh, of course -- on Saturday. Down 5-1 with 12 minutes to play in the game, the Sharks scored four unanswered goals in the third period, then won the game in overtime. And no, this was not Stuart Skinner's debut -- his immigration paperwork was held up, so it was Arturs Silovs in goal for the Penguins.
This marks only the 26th time in NHL history a team was down four goals in the third period and won the game.
This is where I tell Maple Leafs fans to look away. Because the ESPN Research team dug even deeper, and found that there were only two instances of teams that came back from five-goal deficits in the third period and won the game.
The two teams that pulled off this feat were the Calgary Flames in 1986-87 and the St. Louis Blues in 2000-01.
Their opponents on both occasions? Yes, the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Hart Trophy contenders if the season ended today
Nathan MacKinnon obviously gets a spot. He still leads the league in points and in goals, and has points in five straight games, with nine points total in that span.
Connor McDavid is second in scoring, back to his "I'll score at will" video game mode, and is also on a five-game point streak, where he has a silly 15 points. Casual Connor, no big deal.
Finally, enough is enough; I'm putting Logan Thompson on my Hart Trophy list! I'm all for goalie Hart pushes. Deal with it.
The Caps are third in the Metro Division, and Thompson has an excellent .922 save percentage through 23 games. Scott Wedgewood will likely rotate into this spot on occasion given how much of an absolute wagon the Avs are this season. Aside from his last game where he let in five goals, Wedgewood has had a terrific stretch, including a shutout.
Social media post of the week
I said this last week, and I'm serious -- the 6-7 trend is getting out of control! Now it's on the back of warmup jerseys. STOP IT NOW!
On to my actual favorite social media from this week. As my fellow pro wrestling heads out there know, John Cena's final WWE match took place on Saturday (and Cena's submission to Gunther ignited a reaction from the WWE crowd more heinous than a lengthy offside review). A part of the homage this week was reflecting on the jerseys Cena wore over the years, including a few hockey ones. The Oilers, Kings, Jets and Canadiens were among the pro teams to share posts with Cena wearing their threads:
The funniest one was the Habs, because Cena mimics shooting a puck in his entrance. Which confirms in WWE retirement he will be signing with Montreal, adding bottom-six depth for a playoff push.
Stick taps
I'm going to give my ESPN colleague (and, of course, Stanley Cup champion) T.J. Oshie a lot of credit. He had a "welcome to TV" moment where, because he's a retired NHL player-turned-citizen of hockey by being on national broadcasts, he received a Stadium Series jersey like the rest of us:
We revealed the #StadiumSeries jerseys! @espnSteveLevy @TJOshie77 @espn @NHL @NHLBruins @TBLightning https://t.co/3nlxP4pgFf pic.twitter.com/sCy6CJ0H5W
— ᴀʀᴅᴀ Öᴄᴀʟ (@Arda) December 12, 2025
The problem is, Oshie never played for the Lightning or the Bruins. But we egged him on and like the true good sport that he is, he put on the Boston jersey, explaining that it resembled his old Warroad team colors.
"I did put it on, somewhat against my will." 😅@TJOshie77 and @Arda broke down the fine details on the Boston Bruins' 2026 NHL Stadium Series jerseys 🐻 pic.twitter.com/XuCg9lTzCl
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) December 12, 2025
What a sight. I'm sure it was equally jarring to see "Oshie" on the back of the Boston jersey, and perhaps more jarring to see No. 77, Oshie's number in the NHL that also happened to be Ray Bourque's number -- which the Bruins retired in 2001.
I will jump in here and say that I believe that the retired number rule applies only for active players on that team. Celebrities, analysts, media types, or really anyone that wants to customize a jersey ... pick whatever number you want. You're not suiting up for the team with that number. It's fine. We can let that one go.
If you want to nominate someone for stick taps in a future column, reach out to me on social media.