The War of Florida and The Lineage of How We Got Here
- Derek Caldwell
- Oct 8
- 3 min read
Updated: Oct 10
By Derek Caldwell | thunderstrucksports.com
You don’t just get 312 penalty minutes in a single game without a little history between two teams. Florida and Tampa have been called the Battle of Florida for a while, but haven’t lived up to it until the last five years or so. Now, it’s become so over the top with every passing game, I’m now calling it The War of Florida.
A battle alludes to a single altercation and a short span of time. A war, however, refers to several events each elevated by the last and that’s exactly what we have between the Lightning and the Panthers.
How did we get here though? Scott Sabourin didn’t just wake up Saturday morning and decide he hated Aaron Ekblad. This was premeditated. Whether you agree it was right or wrong, it was a reaction to something that happened in a previous battle.
War is ugly, it’s unjust in the eyes of the victim, and beyond fair in the eyes of the perpetrator. Just ask Ekblad and his teammates when he gave Brandon Hagel’s head a forearm shiver in last year’s opening round of the playoffs. To them, that’s just hockey, but to the Lightning, their fans, and their brass, it was a targeted effort to take a game changer out of the game. Did it work? Yes. Did it come without repercussion? Ask Scott Sabourin.
To understand how this all started, I believe we need to go back to 2021 and the opening round of the playoffs. The world’s finally starting to open up and Tampa is looking to go back-to-back. Florida couldn’t find an answer for the defending champs and was disposed of in six games.
Fast forward one year to the 2022 playoffs, where Tampa holds Florida to three goals in four games to sweep the Cats, but so many members of the Lightning went back the tunnel during those games to be checked, taped, stitched, and basically glued back together. Here we could see the team’s success finally starting to wear on them. Here we could see Florida had found their identity.
This is what has gotten Florida to three straight Stanley Cup Finals. The physical game that toed the line between hard-nosed and flagrant misconduct. Throughout their three Cup Final appearances, they played this way, added players like Nikko Mikkola and Brad Marchand whose game reflected the way their team played. The Panthers haven’t been bucked by the Department of Player Safety or any other team walking the tight rope they do so why would they stop? No one has until this past Saturday.
Saturday’s game was just the next level of what has been brewing for the last six years. Friday’s game was the biggest melee in this war prior to that. Dressing the goon squad from Syracuse wasn’t just a masterclass in what to do when no one will come to your aid (looking at you Collin Campbell), but it was necessary. Florida has been able to run amuck for the last few years, and Tampa has had enough. Even in Saturday night’s game, Carter Verhaeghe ran Zegmus Girgensons into the boards and was not suspended for that play.
I don’t believe that we will see anything like that in the near future. Heck, we haven’t seen anything like that since the Red Wings and Avalanche in the mid-1990s. Also after Friday night’s game I don’t think we believed it could get any worse, but then Saturday happened.
I hope when November 18th hits and these two square off in the regular season that the skill takes over the game and the two teams can get back to hockey. However, I do believe a message was sent on Friday and Saturday nights, and that message was we’re not gonna take it anymore!
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