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Dave Hyde: Dagger! Florida Panthers crush Tampa Bay to take dominating 3-0 lead

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Dave Hyde: Dagger! Florida Panthers crush Tampa Bay to take dominating 3-0 lead


Sure, just as everyone said before the playoffs began, this is one great, in-state hockey rivalry.

In South Florida.

In Tampa, they’re booing now. In St. Pete, they’re livid. On west coast of Florida, they can’t believe their big weapon, Nikola Kucherov, hasn’t scored or how their top-rated power play was harmless in four chances Thursday in the Panthers’ 5-3 win in Game 3.

It’s 3-0 in the series now, meaning the remnants of Tampa Bay’s proud Stanley Cup dynasty is being ground to dust like the Ming Dynasty by the Florida Panthers.

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“I thought the big story would be the penalty-killing,’’ Panthers coach Paul Maurice said about Game 3.

This series’ big story is bigger. It’s better. It’s Panth-ier. The story is that Vegas’s co-favorites to win it all have entered the playoffs in just the manner you’d want a team with championship aspirations to do.

They’ve come out and taken the lead every game. Their goalie, Sergei Bobrovsky, hasn’t been asked to do too much but has made big moments when asked. Their specialty teams like, yes, the penalty kill, have flexed their muscle.

The Panthers’ big guns have come out gunning in these opening games, too. Sam Reinhart scored his second goal of the series on Thursday minutes after Tampa Bay had its first lead of the series, 2-1. Brandon Montour then made it 3-2 from just inside the blue line.

This series has been so one-sided that Panthers star Matthew Tkachuk has been able to hone his shooting at empty nets. He got his second such goal to end Game 3. Can someone call Elias for the record on empty-net goals in a series sweep?

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“The depth of this lineup is a joke, right?” said Steven Lorentz after the game on Bally Sports.

Knock, knock.

Who’s there?

Lorentz scoring on the fourth line. That’s who.

No joking, these Panthers made a run to the Stanley Cup Final last spring and are better this spring. That doesn’t mean they make it back. It just means it’s going to take a special team or hot goalie to knock them off and Tampa Bay isn’t it.

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The most impressive stretch for the Panthers of this series was the third period Thursday when they entered with a goal lead and Tampa Bay knew its season was effectively on the line.

The Panthers gave up seven shots in that period to the league’s fifth-ranked offense. Seven. Sure, Tampa Bay scored with five minutes left to cut it 4-3, but the Panthers weren’t releasing their vise grip on this series.

Tampa Bay’s big offense has taken 19, 23 and 29 shots this series. That’s nothing.

“We’re in a position right now that we would have dreamed about at the beginning of the series,” Tkachuk said. “We’re in a great position. To stand here now and say we’re up 3-0, I’ll gladly take it.

“But there have been stretches where they’ve played really, really well. think it’s been a close series so far in the first three games.”

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That’s just the defense-first, grind-like-a-banshee style of this team.

“We never dominate games that’s not really who we are,’’ Maurice said. “Most of are games we are in the grinder. That’s how our games are played. And battled.”

Some things beyond taking too many penalties Thursday will have to be cleared up as the playoffs run. They’re not all hockey-centric, either. Montour, for instance, wore an odd T-shirt after the game that seemed to be decorated with pictures of veteran teammate Nick Cousins.

Quirky? Well, this team has the quirk gene in it.

More than that, it has a playoff gene. A contending gene. It can close out this series Saturday in Tampa Bay with a win. Tampa Bay has won enough series through the years to know the trouble it’s facing.

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Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said, “You want the believers to show up to the rink (Friday). And if you’re not going to believe, then you don’t have to come. We’ll see how many guys show up.”

That’s what the Panthers have done to a former champion. This big state rivalry only feels big in one part of the state.

 



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Florida

South Florida officers sue Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, claiming details in ‘The Rip’ are too real

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South Florida officers sue Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, claiming details in ‘The Rip’ are too real


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“The Rip” features Affleck and Damon as South Florida police officers who find millions of dollars inside a house. Parts of the movie were inspired by a real 2016 case.

FILE – Matt Damon and Ben Affleck attend the world premiere of “The Rip” at Alice Tully Hall, on Jan. 13, 2026, in New York. Photo by CJ Rivera/Invision/AP, File

MIAMI (AP) — Two South Florida police officers claim Ben Affleck and Matt Damon’s recent action thriller “The Rip” used too many real-life details in its fictionalized narrative, causing harm to the officers’ personal and professional reputations, according to a defamation lawsuit.

Jason Smith and Jonathan Santana, sergeants in the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office, filed the lawsuit in Miami federal court earlier this month against Artists Equity, a film production company owned by Affleck and Damon. Court filings don’t say how much the officers are suing for, but the civil complaint says they’re seeking compensatory damages, punitive damages and attorney fees, as well as a public retraction and correction.

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“The Rip” features Affleck and Damon as South Florida police officers who find millions of dollars inside a house. Parts of the movie were inspired by a real 2016 case, where police found over $21 million linked to a suspected marijuana trafficker in a Miami Lakes home.

An attorney for Artists Equity declined to comment when reached Monday by The Associated Press. But in a March 19 response to the plaintiffs’ demand letter, Leita Walker, an attorney for Artists Equity, wrote that the film does not purport to tell the true story of that incident or portray real people, which had been stated by a disclaimer in the film’s credits.

Although Smith and Santana aren’t named in the film, the lawsuit claims that Santana was serving as the lead detective assigned to the real case, and Smith was the sergeant who supervised the investigative team. The film’s inclusion of real details about the case gives the impression that the characters are based on the plaintiffs, the suit said.

And this, the lawsuit claims, has given friends, family members and colleagues the impression that the plaintiffs committed the criminal acts that appear in the film, which include (SPOILER ALERT) conspiring to steal seized drug money, murdering a supervising officer, communicating with cartel members, committing arson in a residential neighborhood, endangering the lives of civilians, repeatedly violating core law-enforcement protocols and executing a federal agent rather than making an arrest.

Walker wrote in March that the plaintiffs haven’t even identified which particular character is supposed to be based on Smith or Santana, so even if “The Rip” was actually about a real-life narcotics team, there’s no way to connect any of the characters to the plaintiffs.

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“The Rip,” directed by Joe Carnahan, debuted in January on Netflix. It’s currently rated 78% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.

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South Florida and Miami news today

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South Florida and Miami news today


You’re watching the NBC6 South Florida News streaming channel, which plays local South Florida news 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You can find the “NBC6 South Florida News” streaming channel on your phone or computer, and on Peacock, Samsung, Roku, Xumo or on our app, so you can watch our local news on your schedule.



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Palm Bay, Florida parents of premature twins held NICU wedding

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Palm Bay, Florida parents of premature twins held NICU wedding


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  • A Florida couple, both with prior health issues, welcomed miracle twin boys nine weeks prematurely.
  • The couple’s planned wedding was interrupted by the early birth of their sons, Joshua and Rhett.

Ben and Danielle Cassidy were told they likely wouldn’t be able to have children.

But this year they will celebrate Mother’s Day just months after having an impromptu wedding in the AdventHealth for Children hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit shortly after Danielle gave birth to twins prematurely — a week before the Palm Bay couple was scheduled to get married.

Both babies, Joshua and Rhett, are doing well despite arriving nine weeks ahead of schedule on Jan. 19, 2026, just one day after their scheduled baby shower. With a proper wedding out of the question with two premature babies in the NICU, a nurse took action.

Issabel Kenkel, the nurse behind the ceremony, said she was already in wedding planning mode for her own upcoming nuptials when she found out the Cassidy family’s ceremony would be interrupted.

“I couldn’t just let them do something small. They needed decorations and something fun, so I spoke to the music therapist and the chaplain,” Kenkel said. In short order, a wedding was being planned for their hospital room and the couple was saying their vows in the company of their safely delivered newborns.

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“When we found out we could request staff members to be on our team, that’s when we requested Issabel and having that kind of consistency from someone who has such a big heart and is so kind,” Danielle said.

The hospital ceremony was all the more special because of the Cassidy family’s own health struggles.

“I have five autoimmune diseases and didn’t really think I would have kids. It’s been a rough journey. When Ben and I met, we were floored at how much a miracle it was to have kids,” Danielle said.

Ben, who battled and beat cancer, said he was worried that his prior treatment would result in negative health outcomes for his future children. Having twins for him was an unexpected blessing.

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“When we found out we were pregnant, we found it so shocking. We said, wouldn’t it be great if it was twins? It filled out our hopes and dreams list,” Ben said. “They’ve been miracles for sure.”

The Cassidy couple said there was so much fear and uncertainty when their twins were born nine weeks early. Being able to get married right away just made them feel all the better about the future.

“It was nice getting married because we didn’t have to wait any longer to make it official. It made it that much harder for her to get rid of me,” Ben said.

“The unknown made it scary,” Danielle added. “We had no idea how long we would be in the hospital. Our wedding was going to be at the beach with immediate family and parents. Having NICU babies, we realized we’d never be able to get to the beach. It was really special having the people who care for our babies be part of the ceremony.”

The couple hadn’t even planned to have a band at their wedding ceremony and now the hospital’s music therapist was performing live for them and the chaplain was conducting the ceremony, something nurse Kenkel said was just part of her job.

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“The babies are going to have the best outcomes if the families are taken care of and going home happy,” she said. “Being in the NICU is already so stressful. This is just one more thing I could do to take care of my patients.”

Tyler Vazquez is the Growth and Development Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Vazquez at 321-480-0854 or tvazquez@floridatoday.com. X: @tyler_vazquez.



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