TNT eager to put imprint on 1st season televising Stanley Cup Final

There is a charm behind the 2023 Stanley Cup Final between the Vegas Golden Knights and Florida Panthers that has the "NHL on TNT" eager to amplify its coverage of the best-of-7 series, beginning with Game 1 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Saturday (8 p.m. ET; TNT, TBS, truTV, CBC, SN, TVAS).

Of course, the Stanley Cup is at stake, but that's only the beginning. One team will win the Cup for the first time. Each was an NHL expansion team, the Panthers in 1993-94 and the Golden Knights in 2017-18. Each had one prior chance at the Cup. Florida was swept by the Colorado Avalanche in 1996, and Vegas completed its inaugural season with a five-game loss to the Washington Capitals.

Playing in nontraditional markets -- the Panthers in South Florida's Broward County, the Golden Knights in Nevada's Mojave Desert region -- has helped create a fresh strategy to grow hockey in the United States because the teams are willing to try new things and offer more access.

"That's the part that I think has the most potential for us," studio analyst Anson Carter said.

Carter, host Liam McHugh, Hockey Hall of Famer Wayne Gretzky, Henrik Lundqvist and Paul Bissonnette will be on site throughout the Final. For Bissonnette, who played six seasons as a forward for the Pittsburgh Penguins and Phoenix Coyotes, there are many factors behind what earned the Golden Knights and Panthers a shot at the title: bold decisions to change coaches from Peter DeBoer to Bruce Cassidy (Vegas) and from Andrew Brunette to Paul Maurice (Florida), the "Golden Misfits" of the 2018 Western Conference champions blending seamlessly with the new blood, and the Panthers acquiring Matthew Tkachuk in a trade with the Calgary Flames for Jonathan Huberdeau and MacKenzie Weegar on July 22, 2022.

Covering the final leg of the race for the first time is Turner Sports after reaching a seven-year multimedia rights agreement with the NHL in 2021.

"It's going to be a blast," Bissonnette said. "And not only that, but the full team that Turner's put together, all the people that help out you don't see on camera, which makes our job easier. And when you see two nontraditional markets, that really helps. You don't need to fabricate any drama or these storylines going in. There's plenty of them to have at it, so I just truly think that we're blessed to get this matchup and I think that even from a ratings perspective, it's going to be great because people are not only invested in the teams but the individuals at hand."

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Carter can speak from experience. The retired NHL forward was on location for the Final while working for NBC Sports. ESPN had the 2022 Final and is alternating with Turner until 2027. That left Carter home last June with what he said was a serious case of FOMO (fear of missing out).

"I was watching those guys, the other network, do their thing, and after being a part of it for over 10 years, I missed it," Carter said. "So this is a great opportunity for our crew to continue what we do best, and that's providing great analysis and entertaining people while having some fun, but at the same time putting the game up on the pedestal that it deserves to be on."

Lundqvist is also enjoying a successful transition from the NHL to television. A heart issue and subsequent valve replacement surgery in January 2021 forced the goalie to retire that August at age 39 after 15 seasons with the New York Rangers. He's also a Rangers studio analyst on MSG Network and put in more time at Turner's studios in Atlanta to develop chemistry with the TNT panel.

"I keep telling people this is fun to talk about hockey," Lundqvist said. "For me, it's been a lot of fun."

The experience in South Florida has been enhanced by cross-promotion of the Panthers and the Miami Heat's unexpected run to the NBA Finals after they had to win two play-in games to make the playoffs. Tkachuk joined the "NBA on TNT" pregame show before Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals against the Boston Celtics in downtown Miami on May 27. The two No. 8 seeds, and Tkachuk and Heat forward Jimmy Butler, all bonded doing what nobody expected them to do, and the rest of the sports landscape has caught on.

The Panthers and Golden Knights are being revealed to new audiences. Turner Sports intends to make their own first impression.

"Maybe people in South Florida and Miami that probably weren't paying attention to hockey and the Panthers up in Fort Lauderdale," Carter said, "I think they're paying attention now."