Thursday Commentary: Oh What A Night

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Oh what a night.

And what a dichotomy of two contrasting teams.

In fact, three.

The Florida Panthers put the wrapper on the ’25-’26 NHL season with an 8-1 drubbing of the Detroit Red Wings in Sunrise. Neither team is going to the playoffs, but they’re each going in totally opposite directions.

It was a real warm feeling in Amerant Bank Arena, with the fans singing Country Roads in unison during stoppages, the Cats laying the boots to an Original Six team, and afterwards coach Paul Maurice saying he’s real proud of what his team accomplished despite being unable to pull off a three-peat of Stanley Cup wins.

Their salute to the crowd afterwards was lump-in-the-throat material.

I also got reports that Florida goalie Sergei Bobrovsky was seen crying on the ice after the game. That could mean a lot of things; none of which we want to think about.

As for the Wings, it’s been a total two-month collapse and coach Todd McLellan – the pride of Melville – didn’t even want to talk about it afterwards.

I was seated beside a young ECHL broadcaster in the press box and during the beatdown, he turned to me and exclaimed, “Detroit quit!”

Todd might want to do the same.

Across the country in Vegas, the Golden Knights claimed the Pacific Division title with a home victory over Seattle. They’re 7-0-1 since John Tortorella took over from Bruce Cassidy. It’s also their fifth banner in nine seasons since entering the league – the most in the NHL in that span – and the Knights are headed into the playoffs on a roll.

Are you gonna bet against ‘em? I’m not.

And now here we go into the final night of the regular season which will decide who the Edmonton Oilers face in Round 1.

What a time to be alive.

That’s today’s Rod Pedersen Commentary.

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