"¡Vamos Gatos! Night" is the Panthers' annual celebration of the Hispanic community in South Florida. It includes music, dancing and food vendors offering much more than the normal chicken fingers and fries. But the most memorable aspect of "¡Vamos Gatos! Night" features the Panthers inviting local artists to transform the team's logos and jerseys into vibrant art pieces. Previous jersey designs have incorporated iconography such as pineapples, Cafecito cups and the colors of Latin American countries' flags.
As the time wound down and the Florida Panthers closed in on their second consecutive Stanley Cup, Panthers coach Paul Maurice huddled together his fourth line of left wing A.J. Greer, center Tomas Nosek and right wing Jonah Gadjovich. He told them they were going onto the ice for the final shift of the game. They were going to be the ones who get to celebrate first.
Can the Florida Panthers be bigger than the Miami Heat in a crowded South Florida sports market? Can hockey not merely survive where ice is born to melt but thrive to a degree it surpasses basketball in overall stature? It is time to wonder that as a reasonable debate, and not as a maybe-someday hypothetical but as a tectonic shift that might already have begun to happen.
Sharks defenseman Vincent Desharnais upended Panthers forward Mackie Samoskevich along the boards in the San Jose end. Evan Rodrigues then came in and leveled Desharnais with a hit from behind. That caused a melee to the side of the Sharks' net, with Nedeljkovic jumping to get a piece of Rodrigues. A few seconds later, Bobrovsky skated the length of the ice to get at Nedeljkovic.
Nikolaj Ehlers notched a hat trick and added an assist; Taylor Hall scored twice; and Mark Jankowski lit the lamp and had a pair of helpers in the rout. Andrei Svechnikov, Eric Robinson and Alexander Nikishin also lit the lamp for the Hurricanes, who went 4-for-5 on the power play to empathetically ended a two-game losing streak.
After remarks by the president and members of the team, the Panthers presented Trump with a custom jersey with his last name and the number 47 a longstanding tradition for championship visits. The Panthers, however, didn't stop there. In addition to the jersey, the team gifted him with a gold hockey stick and two championship rings. It's unclear if the stick was made of real gold, but it certainly had some heft to it.
A.J. Greer got off the schneid, scoring a pair of goals to help the Florida Panthers topple the Buffalo Sabres by a 4-3 count at Key Bank Center. Aided by an early interference minor on Josh Doan, the Panthers drew first blood 2:35 into the action when Carter Verhaeghe took a pass from Sam Reinhart, who was knocked down, and fed Uvis Baliniskis at the left point.
Brad Marchand joined already-named Florida Panthers teammate Sam Reinhart on Canada's 2026 Winter Olympic team. The 37-year-old Marchand is enjoying a stellar season, leading the Panthers in the scoring with 23 goals, 22 assists and 45 points. Marchand and Reinhart for Canada at the 4 Nations Face-Off this past February. It won't be official until Friday, however, defenseman Seth Jones has reportedly been named to the United States entry for the tournament in Milano Cortina.
"I thought we played well," Wilson said. "I mean, it's two teams play a similar style. Hard hockey, it's big boy hockey. "The effort was there," he added. "The guys were competing, and it was a fun hockey game, but a frustrating one."
The year 2025 was defined as much by its major milestones as by the quiet moments in between. This collection features the Sun Sentinel staff's most visual work of the year, from the high-energy celebrations of a Florida Panthers championship to local scenes of everyday life. View the people, places, and community events that made 2025 memorable across Broward and Palm Beach counties.