Aleksander Barkov hoisted the Stanley Cup, skated with it for a few moments and then handed it to a grinning Nate Schmidt, in his first year with the Florida Panthers and raising hockey’s hallowed trophy for the first time. Before any repeat winner touched it, every Panther who never had before got the chance.

The best team in hockey, again, was a team that did things totally its own way. Call them whatever you want. But you have to call them back-to-back Stanley Cup champions, an absolutely absurd development for a franchise that spent most of its first three decades unable to win anything but now simply cannot lose.