SUNRISE, Fla. — The most weirdly glorious tradition in all of sports told you all you needed to know late Tuesday night as hundreds of plastic and rubber toy black rats rained down as if heaven sent and peppered the sheet of ice — the perfect visual counterpart to the merry bedlam of sonic noise in the building.

The Stanley Cup trophy was in the Sunrise rink for this Stanley Cup Final Game 6.

And it wasn’t going anywhere.

It’s staying right where it belongs.

The Florida Panthers retained the Cup with decisive domination in a 5-1 triumph over the Edmonton Oilers for a 4-2 series win and a second consecutive NHL championship to cap a third straight year in hockey’s Final. Sam Reinhart’s four goals led the way.

That the once-downtrodden Panthers are a budding NHL dynasty sounded less and less like hyperbole and more like hockey’s new reality long before the rubber rats started flying.

“Exactly where you want to be and dream about since you’re a little kid,” captain Aleksander Barkov had said of what this night meant. “We’re living the dream.”

And of course it was the second straight Final won over Edmonton and superstar Connor McDavid, widely said to be the greatest player in the sport but once again denied his long-elusive first Stanley Cup.

I have written and said for two years that McDavid should not be called “McJesus” or the next-Gretzky or given G.O.A.T. status because he is a king without a crown. The Panthers again have verified my claim, and served to underline my admittedly harsh nickname for McDavid.

McOverrated.

He may be the best player in hockey, but he was not best player in this series, or good enough to elevate his team to be the best, either.

“No secret, the Cup’s in the building,” Matthew Tkachuck said before the game. “We know the desperation they’ll come out with with their backs to the wall. We have to match that desperation. McDavid is desperate to in win a Cup. But so are we!”

Florida’s double dream-come-true at McDavid’s expense has lifted the Panthers to the rarest of echelons in the history of major South Florida sports:

The Miami Dolphins in 1972-73. The Miami Heat in 2012-13. And now the 2024-25 Panthers, newly minted and crowned.

That’s it. The only three times in Greater Miami’s history we have celebrated back to back champions.

Don Shula, then Erik Spoelstra and now Paul Maurice are the only coaches to have overseen it.

The Panthers were nothing special at home this postseason, only 5-4 in Sunrise entering Tuesday compared to 10-3 on the road.

But they were fabulous on home ice exactly when they needed to be. When everything mattered. When a loss would have forced a Game 7 in Edmonton.

Florida led for the fifth straight game this series when Reinhart single-handedly made it 1-0 Tuesday on the Cats’ first shot on goal 4:36 into the game. He won the puck from Evan Bouchard and had a quick skate to the Oilers goal and a snap shot high into it as he lost his balance.

Tkachuck made it 2-0 just 46 seconds before the first period ended as his left-handed wrist shot finished passes from Eetu Luostarinen and Anton Lundell. (The Panthers scored at least twice in every first period this series.)

The lead held early in the second when a Sergei Bobrovsky stop on a Corey Perry shot brought out the “Bob-by” chants.

The chant would bloom again a few minutes later.

Florida made it 3-0 with 2:29 left in the second period to further uncork the celebrating. Reinhart’s second goal of the night and ninth of the playoffs did it on assists from Barkov and Carter Verhaeghe.

The “We want the Cup!” chants were ringing down before the third period was half done.

Reinhart’s hat-trick goal made it 4-0 with 6:34 to play, and his fourth came on a late empty-netter.

The Panthers are the league’s first back-to-back champs since Tampa Bay in 2020-21 and only the third since 1997-98. No hockey team has reached more than three consecutive Finals since the New York Islanders’ five straight in 1980-84.

Recall the Panthers led Edmonton 3-0 in the Final last year but the Oilers clawed with three straight wins to force a Game 7 that the Cats won, 2-1

Maurice was asked after Tuesday’s morning skate how it feels to wake up knowing he could win the Stanley Cup?

“You asked me that four times last year!” he kidded.

They needed only one elimination game to end this year’s Final.

The Panthers must re-sign three major free agents this coming offseason in Sam Bennett, Brad Marchand and Aaron Ekblad as attention turns to a three-peat.

But that’s for later.

Celebrate this now.

The Florida Panthers, budding dynasty, have blossomed into South Florida’s major-sport flagship franchise for excellence right now, for memories freshly made.

Are the Cats now our biggest team or hockey the biggest game in town? No.

But the Panthers are the state of the art now for relentless winning, a title the Miami Heat had claimed for years.

Bennett, Florida’s leading goal-scorer this postseason, had said after Tuesday’s morning skate, “Honestly this feels like just another day this morning.”

It didn’t feel just just another night.

It felt like history had been made.

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