More than 500 penalty minutes mar Panthers-Lightning preseason games
Only one number really is needed to sum up the Florida Panthers’ final two preseason games — if you can even call them that — against the Tampa Bay Lightning: 508, as in the combined number of penalty minutes over the course of their final two exhibition contests
Or maybe 26 — as in the total number of misconducts handed out — works best.
Either way, the Panthers and Lightning spent more time in the weeds dealing with hijinks over the past two games — a 5-2 Lightning win on Thursday in Tampa and a 7-0 Panthers win on Saturday in Sunrise — than actually getting meaningful reps in their final tune-ups before the regular season.
The preseason finale was the most egregious. It featured 18 misconduct penalties and had 322 total penalty minutes by the time the final horn sounded Saturday at Amerant Bank Arena. That came two days after another slugfest of a contest that saw the teams combine for eight misconducts, four fights and another 186 penalty minutes at Tampa’s Benchmark International Arena.
Just how bad were things on Saturday? The preseason game took more than three hours to complete, at times saw a half-dozen Lightning players in the penalty box and at one point saw a third-period goal taken off the board because a player that had gotten ejected (Florida’s Niko Mikkola) was on the ice and assisted on the tally.
“It just got silly, got stupid,’’ said Panthers forward Evan Rodrigues, who had a hat trick and four points and perhaps most impressive was one of just 10 skaters on either team who didn’t have a penalty called on him Saturday. “By the end of it, it wasn’t really hockey out there. Best thing to do is just move on and start focusing on Tuesday.”
Tuesday is the Panthers’ season opener — when things get real, when their chance to go for a third consecutive Stanley Cup truly begins.
It’s a chance for real hockey to be played.
That wasn’t what was seen for the majority of these two games between teams who are known to let their tempers flare against each other.
Bad blood has been spewing for the better part of six years as the Sunshine State’s two teams have taken control of the Eastern Conference. Either Florida or Tampa Bay has represented the Eastern Conference in the past half-dozen Stanley Cup Finals, with the Lightning winning it all in 2020 and 2021 and the Panthers going back-to-back in 2024 and 2025.
“I think anybody that’s been a part of this rivalry would probably look at this box score and not be surprised and be like, ‘I can’t believe it’s taken this long for something like that to happen,’” Lightning coach Jon Cooper told reporters postgame Saturday. “It’s two extremely proud franchises and the boys played with their heart on their sleeves. That’s all I can say.”
Panthers coach Paul Maurice, as is usually the case, did not want to say much about the shenanigans that took place on the ice.
The 16 players ejected on Saturday: Carter Verhaeghe, Jonah Gadjovich, A.J. Greer, Luke Kunin, Mikkola, Mackie Samoskevich and Uvis Balinskis for Florida; Scott Sabourin, Roman Schmidt, J.J. Moser, Dylan Duke, Gage Goncalves, Mitchell Chaffee, Oliver Bjorkstrand, Max Crozier and Conor Geekie for Tampa Bay.
Three of those Tampa Bay players — Sabourin, Schmidt and Duke — were among six players the Lightning called up from their AHL affiliate hours before puck drop. Two others in Wojciech Stachowiak and Charle-Edouard D’Astous received 10-minute misconducts during the game but were not ejected entirely.
“You always have a concern when you are down to five or six forwards; that’s dangerous,” Maurice said. “But we got through it. The league will look at that, handle it the same way they do in the playoffs. I’ll leave it at that.”
For what it’s worth, the NHL record for most penalty minutes in a game between both teams is 419 minutes, set between the Ottawa Senators and Philadelphia Flyers in March 2004.
This story was originally published October 5, 2025 at 6:00 AM.
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