With their second consecutive Stanley Cup championship, the Florida Panthers have cemented themselves as a team that history should remember. Coverage of the Stanley Cup Final was equally memorable, with TNT and truTV providing terrific angles and analysis.
Perhaps the true test of a broadcast team is how they perform in historic moments. Game 6 of these finals was not epic in terms of the score, with Florida taking home a dominant 5-1 victory over Edmonton to clinch the Cup.
What was notable, however, is the performance that the entire TNT broadcast crew delivered—from the on-air personalities to the expert production team providing color, action, and amazing visuals. As the clinching game ended, TNT captured the pure joy in the Panthers’ faces as they anticipated lifting Lord Stanley’s mug.
Play-by-play announcer Kenny Albert was an absolute booth maestro. Picking up the action with two minutes left in Game 6, Albert fully understood the magnitude of the moment with his voice, inflection, and tone. As Florida inched closer to the championship, Albert provided a neat recap of the Panthers’ playoff run, detailing how they got to this point. These teams battled right to the end, as evidenced by Edmonton’s Evander Kane delivering a couple of slashes to Florida’s Matthew Tkachuk. TNT’s cameras subsequently caught Tkachuk and Brad Marchand joking about the play on the Florida bench, as if to say, “Slash away, bro, we are taking home the Cup.”
Primetime Players Shine in the Big Moments
This series and game truly ensconced TNT as a hockey network. The production crew provided awesome crowd shots and audible audio of Panther fans singing “Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye” to the Oilers. Albert, ever the timing ace, offered individual statistics on several Panthers’ players as the clock wound down to under one minute. This is a skill—the ability to dole out information while recognizing the fact that a championship is about to be won.
Albert also took the time to read the names of the entire TNT production crew, thanking them for a job well done throughout the season. This was Albert in his fullest form. His voice rose as the game clicked off its final seconds and he bellowed, “The fans rise here in Sunrise, Florida!”
With eight seconds remaining on the clock, bedlam broke loose as the Panthers emptied their bench and skated toward goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky. TNT’s skilled videographers captured the pure joy of the players with helmets off, gloves off, and equipment strewn all over the ice—just a bunch of guys who had battled together for months reaching their ultimate goal. It was breathtaking television.
Broadcast teams often screw up these moments by talking too much or missing key shots and angles. TNT did no such thing. “The Florida Panthers win their second consecutive Stanley Cup,” Albert yelled as the final horn sounded. He then kept silent as TNT captured shots of the Panthers’ coaching staff group hugging on the bench, fans going absolutely wild, and players forming a jubilant rugby scrum huddled together celebrating the moment.
One of the last players to join the scrum was Brad Marchand, acquired from the Bruins late in the season. The 37-year-old, heretofore hated Panthers’ rival, had become one of the most popular guys in South Florida with six goals in the Finals. As a graphic showed that Florida was indeed the 2025 Stanley Cup Champions, TNT’s cameras provided a panoramic swoosh from the ice into the crowd and a wide shot of the Panther fandom almost completely decked out in red.
Albert gave the moment what it needed—nothing. He let the video speak as we got a close-up shot of Edmonton’s Connor McDavid, once again stymied in his elusive quest for a Stanley Cup. That shot of McDavid, longingly staring at the celebrating Panthers, captured the flipside of a Stanley Cup clincher—just a wonderful piece of camera work. The wide shot of the ceremonial post-series handshake has become a staple of NHL championship coverage, and TNT did not fail here either. From that wide shot, cameras cut to close-ups of opposing players meeting at center ice and Panthers’ players and coaches embracing.
Capturing the Emotions of a Championship
The postgame broadcast was elevated by the presence of Jackie Redmond, TNT’s outstanding on-ice reporter. Redmond has branched out in her career, attaining multimedia stardom with WWE, but her roots remain in hockey. She understands the game, the moment, and the emotion. Her first question to Marchand quoted him as saying that you must live in the moment. She then said that this was a pretty big moment and asked Marchand how it felt living in it—great phrasing of a question.
Redmond followed up by saying that she could feel the emotion radiating from Marchand as he spoke. She alluded to the fact that Marchand was a Panthers’ rival and now was about to “drink beer out of the Stanley Cup with them.” Redmond doesn’t ask stock questions. She delves deeper and wants the player to do the same. In a subsequent interview, she asked Bobrovsky what it feels like to have thousands of fans chanting his name—just excellent.
TNT showed Commissioner Gary Bettman presenting the Conn Smythe playoff MVP trophy to Florida’s Sam Bennett and then cut to all of the pageantry with the presentation of the Stanley Cup. Florida captain Aleksander Barkov took the Cup right to his teammates, and another rugby scrum ensued with everyone’s hands touching part of the championship chalice. TNT’s on-ice crew was right in the middle of it all.
As individual Panthers skated around the rink with the Cup, TNT wisely put studio analyst Wayne Gretzky in a double box. Who better to talk about winning consecutive Stanley Cups than Gretzky, who did it with Edmonton in 1984 and 1985, and again in 1987 and 1988? Gretzky not only reflected on what it means to be a champion but also commented on how the Panthers put this team together, and specifically, how they marched through the playoffs, played as a team, never quit, and maintained a killer instinct.
Albert never stopped working, providing background information on each player as he hoisted the Cup. As Marchand took his turn, Gretzky talked about what he brought to the team in his short tenure in Florida. Gretzky stated, “The guys you hate the most, those are the guys you love and want on your team.”
Analysis That Brings Fans Closer to the Game
TNT was right there for the traditional team picture surrounding the Stanley Cup, one of the most iconic moments in sports. From all the excitement at ice level, TNT then cut to their outstanding anchor desk crew of Gretzky, Paul Bissonnette, Liam McHugh, Anson Carter, and Henrik Lundqvist. This eclectic team provided a really nice wrap-up with a double box so viewers could continue to watch the action on the ice.
TNT’s Cup cavalcade climaxed with a visual and musical package featuring clips and comments from past Stanley Cup champions—kind of a rustic, ice-melting version of CBS’s March Madness One Shining Moment. The studio team ended the broadcast saying how much they loved each other and the experience of working together—a fittingly personal touch to a truly emotional viewing experience.
Barrett Media produces daily content on the music, news, and sports media industries. To stay updated, sign up for our newsletters and get the latest information delivered straight to your inbox.
John Molori is a weekly columnist for Barrett Sports Media. He has previously contributed to ESPNW, Patriots Football Weekly, Golf Content Network, Methuen Life Magazine, and wrote a syndicated Media Blitz column in the New England region, which was published by numerous outlets including The Boston Metro, Providence Journal, Lowell Sun, and the Eagle-Tribune. His career also includes fourteen years in television as a News and Sports Reporter, Host, Producer working for Continental Cablevision, MediaOne, and AT&T. He can be reached on Twitter @MoloriMedia.
