Personally, I’m not a big fan of the Florida Panthers, but I’ve got to give them their due. Three straight trips to the Stanley Cup Final and a shot at their second straight championship is pretty impressive. The Tampa Bay Lightning made three straight appearances in 2020, 2021 and 2022 and won the first two. Still, I wonder if history will look back at these teams some day as among the great champions in hockey?

Regardless of history, I’ll be cheering for the Edmonton Oilers. (Though I have my doubts about their chances. It’ll be odd if Toronto ends up giving Florida their biggest challenge!) It’s been rare in the Stanley Cup annals for the same two teams to meet for the Cup in two straight years as is about to happen.

So, will the champion Panthers make it two in a row?

Or will the “challenger” Oilers win this year?

Let’s see what history has to say…

The first rematch for the Stanley Cup actually occurred in the same calendar year … back in 1896 when the Cup really was a challenge trophy. This was just the fourth season in Stanley Cup history and the year it became a national passion in Canada.

On February 14, 1896 the Winnipeg Victorias faced the defending champion Montreal Victorias in a one-game challenge for the championship. After they scored a 2–0 victory and brought the trophy back with them to the capital of Manitoba, it was cause for a great celebration. Certainly much bigger than what had been seen in Montreal when teams from there won the trophy in 1893, 1894 and 1895.

After both teams retained the championships of their respective leagues, the Victorias of Montreal challenged their Winnipeg counterparts to a rematch on the eve of the next season. In the lead-up to the game, the pursuit of the the Stanley Cup made news all across the country. The Montreal Victorias scored a 6–5 victory on December 30, 1896 and would retain the Cup until 1899.

REMATCH SCORE: 1–0 for the challengers

The Winnipeg Victorias won the Stanley Cup again in a challenge victory over the Montreal Shamrocks in 1901. In January of 1902 they successfully defended the championship over the Toronto Wellingtons, but in March they were defeated by the Montreal Hockey Club (aka, the Montreal AAA or Amateur Athletic Association.) Again, both teams retained the championship of their respective leagues and Winnipeg challenged Montreal to a rematch. The series was played at the end of January and beginning of February in 1903 and Montreal won again to retain the Stanley Cup.

REMATCH SCORE: 1–1 challengers and champions

The Ottawa Silver Seven (officially the Ottawa Hockey Club) won the Stanley Cup at the end of the 1902–03 season and held it until being defeated by the Montreal Wanderers at the end of the 1905–06 season. Among their many successful title defenses, Ottawa had defeated the Rat Portage Thistles in 1903 and 1905. Under the town’s new name, the Kenora Thistles defeated the Wanderers in January of 1907 in a challenge carried over from the previous year. After both teams successfully defending their own league championships, the Thistles and Wanderers met again in March for the Stanley Cup and this time the Wanderers came out on top.

REMATCH SCORE: 2–1 for the challengers

There would be no more back-to-back Stanley Cup rematches until after the NHL came on the scene for the 1917–18 season and then became the only league to compete for the trophy starting in 1926–27. In the spring of 1932, Toronto won the Stanley Cup for the first time under the Maple Leafs name with a three-game sweep of the New York Rangers in the best-of-five series. A year later, the Rangers got revenge with a victory in four games.

REMATCH SCORE 3–1 for the “challengers”

The Maple Leafs would be involved in the next rematch too. After an upset over the Montreal Canadiens in a six-game series in 1947, Toronto defeated Detroit in a four-game Stanley Cup sweep in 1948. A year later, it was the Leafs and Red Wings again with Toronto scoring another sweep and becoming the first team in NHL history to win the Cup three years in a row.

REMATCH SCORE: 3–2 for the “challengers”

And speaking of threes, the only time in NHL history that the same teams have met in the Stanley Cup Final three years in a row occurred from 1954 through 1956. The Red Wings defeated the Canadiens in 1954 and 1955, winning in seven games each year. But in 1956, Montreal downed Detroit in five games to launch the greatest dynasty in NHL history with the first of five consecutive Stanley Cup championships. During that dynasty, the Canadiens defeated the Boston Bruins in both 1957 and 1958 and the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1959 and 1960.

REMATCH SCORE: 5–4 for the champions

After the Maple Leafs won the Stanley Cup in 1951, they wouldn’t win again until 1962. Believe it or not, as we’re now at 58 years without a championship in Toronto, that 11-year drought was once the longest in Maple Leafs history! Toronto defeated the Chicago Black Hawks to win the Stanley Cup in 1962, and then beat the Detroit Red Wings two years in a row in 1963 and 1964. The Leafs would win again (defeating the Canadiens) in 1967 … but Toronto is still waiting for the next Stanley Cup victory.

REMATCH SCORE: 6–4 for the champions

After Montreal lost to Toronto in 1967, the NHL added six new expansion teams. The rules of the day established a playoff format that guaranteed a new team would reach the Stanley Cup Final for the next three seasons. In 1968, the Canadiens swept the St. Louis Blues and then did so again in 1969. (St. Louis was swept by the Boston Bruins in 1970, making them and the Toronto Maple Leafs of 1938-to-1940 the only NHL teams to lose the Stanley Cup Final in three straight seasons.)

REMATCH SCORE: 7–4 for the champions

The Montreal Canadiens of the late 1970s were arguably the most dominant team in NHL history. After ending the Philadelphia Flyers’ reign (of terror) as two-time champions by sweeping them 1976, the Canadiens swept the Boston Bruins in 1977 and beat them in six in 1978 en route to four straight Stanley Cup titles.

REMATCH SCORE: 8–4 for the champions

Hot on the heels of the Canadiens 1970s dynasty came the 1980s New York Islanders. Entering the NHL as the worst expansion team to that point in history in 1972–73, the Islanders quickly became a powerhouse but could never get it done in the playoffs. Until they did. The Islanders defeated the Philadelphia Flyers for the Stanley Cup in 1980, the Minnesota North Stars in 1981, the Vancouver Canucks in 1982 and then the Edmonton Oilers for four in a row in 1983. Wayne Gretzky and others would say losing to the Islanders showed them just how much dedication it would take to win the Stanley Cup. In 1984 the two teams were back in the Final, and after the Islanders had won a record 19 straight playoff series over five seasons the Oilers ended their reign and launched their own dynasty.

REMATCH SCORE: 8–5 for the champions

No two teams met again in a Stanley Cup rematch until the Detroit Red Wings and Pittsburgh Penguins in 2008 and 2009. The Red Wings — who had gone from 1954 through 1996 without winning a championship — won their fourth title since 1997 when they downed a young Sidney Crosby and the Penguins in six games in 2008. Both teams were back a year later, and this time it was Pittsburgh who came out on top. The Penguins were 2–1 winners in Games Six and Seven, with goalie Marc-Andre Fleury making a diving stop off Nicklas Lidstrom with two seconds remaining to preserve the Stanley Cup victory.

REMATCH SCORE: 8–6 for the champions

So, it would seem the Panthers have the better odds of winning again than the Oilers do of winning this rematch. Although the 1984 Oilers did pull it off, and the “challengers” have won the last two times this has happened. But it’s hard to prove there’s any mathematical correlation, and even if there is there’s probably not enough evidence to reach any conclusions. So even though it gets harder and harder to stay inside and watch hockey when (if!) the weather finally heats up in June and you don’t really have a team in it, I guess we’ll just have to watch and see what happens.