When the puck drops Tuesday night at Raleigh’s Lenovo Center, it won’t be just another game. This matchup drags along history, heartache, and two seasons’ worth of pent-up revenge. The Florida Panthers and Carolina Hurricanes are set for the 2025 Eastern Conference Final—and if you think it’s just another best-of-seven, think again.

Two years ago these clubs played one of the longest games in Stanley Cup lore: four overtimes, 139 minutes, and a Matthew Tkachuk dagger with 13 seconds left. That sixth-longest overtime marathon set the tone for a Florida sweep and left Carolina nursing scars that never fully healed. Now both rosters are deeper, both fan bases louder, and the stakes somehow higher.

Florida is riding a third straight trip to the conference final. The journey to this point included a 4-1 series win against the Tampa Bay Lightning and a challenging seven-game series against the Toronto Maple Leafs. This latter series turned around dramatically when the Panthers overcame a 0-2 deficit and delivered a decisive 6-1 victory in Game 7. In the series, Sergei Bobrovsky made an impressive 88 saves out of 92 shots. Trade additions Seth Jones and Brad Marchand have sprinkled grit and clutch scoring into an already Cup-tested core.

Carolina’s path was brisk and brutal: five games against New Jersey, five more against Washington. The Hurricanes’ penalty kill has clicked at 93.3 percent, their blue-line—led by Jaccob Slavin—has smothered chances, and Frederik Andersen owns a postseason-best 1.36 goals-against average. They also have home-ice advantage, a nod to a 99-point regular season that edged Florida by a single point.

The history is impossible to ignore. In 2023 the Panthers swept the Canes; every game was decided by one goal and Game 1 stretched into quadruple overtime. Carolina never found its footing, and Florida parlayed the sweep into a finals appearance. That memory frames every mention of this rematch.

Two years later, the ghosts of overtime return for the Carolina Hurricanes and Florida Panthers

Hurricanes captain Jordan Staal admitted the 2023 loss still lingered. ““It’s definitely in the back of your mind and you want to get them back.”  This time he brings reinforcements. Andrei Svechnikov, sidelined with an ACL tear two springs ago, is second in the playoffs with eight goals in ten games, including two winners. Carolina also tops the league in offensive-zone time percentage (46.6 percent) and spends the least time defending (34.7 percent). Depth runs from Sebastian Aho and Seth Jarvis up front to Brent Burns on the back end.

Florida counters with the league’s most balanced attack: 17 different skaters have scored, and the club’s 45 goals rank first. Marchand is tied for the team lead with 12 points with Eetu Luostarinen, including an overtime winner that flipped the Toronto series. Bobrovsky’s resurgence—.957 save percentage since Game 3 against the Leafs—gives the Panthers confidence no shot is safe.

Stylistically it’s strength against mirror-image strength. Both teams forecheck in waves, block shots with abandon, and punish mistakes in transition. Special teams could tip the scales: the Panthers’ power play hums at 36.8 percent, while Carolina’s kill has been nearly automatic.

Florida owns the only playoff meeting—4-0 in 2023—but Carolina controls the all-time ledger at 71-63-11-3. One side craves validation for a budding dynasty; the other seeks closure for a wound that’s festered two long years.

Bobrovsky versus Andersen headlines the duel, yet this series will likely swing on greasy goals, net-front chaos, and which bench wins the war of attrition in Games 5, 6, and—if fate allows—overtime. Marathon hockey seems inevitable; these franchises simply don’t end anything quickly.

Will the Florida Panthers ride last year’s Cup and this year’s comeback mojo to another Final in the NHL, or will the Hurricanes finally flip the script? Either outcome promises drama that could stretch long past midnight—just the way this rivalry likes it.