1993/94: A year after the NHL first skated into the Sunshine state; a team is added to the Miami area known as the Florida Panthers. With NHL limiting teams to protecting 1 goalie the Panthers were guaranteed some good players, and they were able to land John Vanbiesbrouck a former Vezina Winner. On October 6th the Panthers play their first game skating to a 4-4 tie with the Blackhawks in Chicago. Three days later they would win their first game beating the cross state Lightning 2-0 before a record crowd of 27,227 in Tamp Bay. However the Panthers would lose their home coming at the Miami Arena 2-1 to the Pittsburgh Penguins on October 12th. The expansion Panthers would competitive hockey all season just missing the playoffs by 1 point with a solid 33-34-17 record, the most successful season by a first-year NHL team.

1995/96: After just missing the playoffs in their first 2 seasons the Panthers jump out of the gate quickly posting the best record in the East before the All-Star Break as first year Coach Dou MacLean is chosen to coach the Eastern Conference All-Stars. The Panthers would cool off a bit in the 2nd half as they finished in 3rd place with a solid 41-31-10 that earned them their first playoff berth. Along the way fans began throwing rubber rats on the ice after a story came out about a rat being smacked with a hockey stick in the team's locker room at the Miami Arena. In the playoffs the Panther would get off to a fast start grabbing the first 3 games against the Boston Bruins before winning the series in 5 games on a dramatic 3rd period goal by Bill Lindsay. In the 2nd round the Panthers would rally from a 2-1 deficit with 2 straight overtime wins on goals by Dave Lowry and Mike Hough to beat the Philadelphia Flyers in 6 games to reach the Eastern Conference Finals. In the Eastern Conference Finals the Panthers would have to rally again winning Game 6 at home 4-3 to force a 7th game against the Pittsburgh Penguins. In Game 7 at Pittsburgh John Vanbiesbrouk had another solid game limiting the highflying Penguins to 1 goal as the Panthers moved on to the Stanley Cup Finals with a 3-1 victory. Facing the Colorado Avalanche in the Finals the Panthers were put themselves in an early hole dropping the first 2 games on the road. They would not do much better at home losing Game 3, by a score of 3-2. Down 3-0 the Panthers would not go down without a fight as Vanbiesbrouk blanked the Avalanche in Game 4 stopping 29 shots. However the Panthers could not get anything past Avalanche goalie Patrick Roy as the game went deep into overtime. Vanbiesbrouk would stop 55 shots as the game went to a 3rd overtime. However he would not be able to stop the 56th shot a screaming slap shot from Uwe Krupp that completed the sweep for the Avalanche.