NHL Global Series Between Stars, Panthers Could Preview The Next Stanley Cup Final

The NHL Global Series returns on Friday and Saturday with two clubs each looking to win their second Stanley Cup in franchise history at the end of the season.

The Dallas Stars and defending Stanley Cup-champion Florida Panthers are in Finland, preparing for back-to-back games in Tampere. While we can only predict the final two teams left in the playoffs come June, the Stars and Panthers look ready to make the games a preview of the 2025 Cup final.

As expected by many, the Stars and Panthers are already off to great starts to the regular season.

Florida is on a three-game win streak and ranks first in the Atlantic Division, with a 7-3-1 record. The Stars, meanwhile, are tied for the Western Conference’s second-best points percentage at .778 via a 7-2-0 mark. They’ve been victorious in three of their last four games.

There’s very little that separates the two teams, and that’s what’s going to make these two games must-see TV.

Dallas and Florida are deep, balanced squads with solid goaltending and strong coaching. The Stars have the lowest goals-against average at 1.89, while the Panthers have a top-five penalty kill at 87.1 percent and four players averaging more than a point per game.

Last season, the Panthers won each of their two games against the Stars, but each game was decided by one goal. The Stars and Panthers are also getting their season series out of the way early with Friday and Saturday's contests. That almost certainly means we’ll see Dallas and Florida use their starting goalies – Sergei Bobrovsky for the Panthers and Jake Oettinger for the Stars – in one game of the Global Series, while understudies Spencer Knight and Casey DeSmith will likely get the other start.

The Panthers and Stars each have a number of Finnish-born-and-raised stars who will be huge fan favorites at the Global Series games. Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov, centers Anton Lundell and Eetu Luostarinen and defenseman Niko Mikkola all hail from Finland.

The Stars' Finns include center Roope Hintz and defensemen Miro Heiskanen and Esa Lindell. That should split the crowd responses at the Global Series games rather evenly, making for a terrifically competitive environment.

A lot can happen between the Stars’ and Panthers’ upcoming showdowns and the post-season. But Dallas will be hungry to go all the way this year after losing in the Western Conference final in the last two post-seasons, and the Panthers can't be ruled out to defend their championship by making the Cup final for the third year in a row. They're also close to the salary cap, which means whatever groups are out there in Finland should be mostly unchanged by the playoffs.

The NHL meticulously chooses which teams will do battle in international battles, and they’ve managed to hit a home run with their choice of the Panthers and Stars. It’s unlikely Dallas or Florida will lay an egg in the Global Series games, and that’s all the more reason why fans everywhere should be tuning into the two games in Finland.

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Related: NHL Writers Poll: Predicting The Stanley Cup Champion And Major Award Winners In 2024-25