The Florida Panthers begin their Stanley Cup title defense with a 6-4 victory over the Boston Bruins

Florida Panthers fans got just about everything they could want on Tuesday.

A final reminder of last season's Stanley Cup winning season where the team raised the championship banner in a pre-game ceremony.

A heated game against a division rival with whom tensions have increased over the past two years.

And the best thing for them: a victory to start their title defense, even if the consolation game was a bit close later.

The Panthers jumped out to a huge lead in the first period and never looked back after their 6-4 win over the Boston Bruins at sold-out Amerant Bank Arena.

Florida received contributions from across the team. Sam Bennett scored two goals in the first period. Eetu Luostarinen and Sam Reinhart also scored in the first frame, with Reinhart's goal coming while shorthanded. Jonah Gadjovich increased Florida's tally in the second period and Evan Rodrigues scored the final goal in the third period. In total, eleven Panthers scored at least one point.

Sergei Bobrovsky made 24 saves, conceding a shorthanded goal to Pavel Zacha in the first half and equal goals from Charlie McAvoy in the second half and Trent Frederic and David Pastrnak in the third. This is career win No. 397 for Bobrovsky, putting him just three away from becoming the 14th player in NHL history with 400 career wins.

But the entertainment value went beyond the film's music.

Less than six minutes into regulation time, a fight broke out – Florida's AJ Greer (a former Bruin) forced out Boston's Mark Kastelic – and there were several near misses and scrums during the game.

After Rodrigues' goal, things came to a crescendo with 13:34 left in regulation as all ten field players were involved in a long scrum behind the Bruins' goal after Mason Lohrei hit Bennett, sending the Florida center into Boston Goalkeeper Joonas Korpisalo flew.

It should come as no surprise that this game got choppy early on and stayed that way. Bad blood has quickly formed between these teams over the last two postseasons.

Florida erased a 3-1 deficit in 2023 to knock off a Boston team that set the NHL record for most regular season points in NHL history in the opening round of the playoffs and made a surprising trip to the Stanley Cup Final.

And then last year, the Panthers defeated the Bruins in the second round of the playoffs in six games en route to winning the Stanley Cup.

“It's a wonderful part of our game – that competitive, multi-organization nature,” Bill Zito, the Panthers' president of hockey operations and general manager, said Tuesday before the game. “It's fun. That's what we care about. We’re in the entertainment business and it’s fun, and from a hockey perspective it’s competitive and hard.”

Well, the Panthers made it look easy at first. Bennett and Luostarinen scored 64 seconds apart to give Florida a 2-0 lead at 7:31, and they kept going from there.

Bennett's first goal came when he saved a rebound from a Rodrigues shot from the right point and pushed the puck past Korpisalo. Luostarinen then cleared Anton Lundell's shot from the right circle into traffic at the net.

After the Bruins and Panthers traded short-handed goals – Zacha scored with 4:27 left in the first period, Reinhart scored with 1:26 left – Bennett scored the first goal with 26 seconds left in the quarter. It was only the third time in Bennett's career that he scored multiple goals in the first period of a game when he scored on another rebound generated by a Greer shot attempt.

Gadjovich, who signed a two-year extension with the Panthers in March, scored his first goal of the season off an assist from Jesper Boqvist 9:12 into the second period.

Rodrigues capped Florida's scoring with a wrist shot from the slot with 13:34 left.

this and that

▪ Panthers defenseman Adam Boqvist left the game in the first period after taking a puck in the face while trying to clear the ball during a power play. He didn't return.

▪ With his assist on Reinhart's shorthanded goal, Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov became the third player in NHL history to record an assist in at least ten consecutive home openers. The others: Jaromir Jagr (10 games) and Wayne Gretzky (13 games).