Florida
Florida Panthers one win from advancing to Stanley Cup conference final after beating Maple Leafs
Can the Florida Panthers really go back-to-back?
With a dominant roster and playoff experience, the Panthers are poised to make a strong run at back-to-back Stanley Cup titles.
Sports Pulse
The Florida Panthers shut the Toronto Maple Leafs down – again – and are one win away from returning to the Stanley Cup conference finals.
Sergei Bobrovsky came within 1:06 of securing back-to-back shutouts to lead the Panthers to a 6-1 Game 5 victory over the Maple Leafs in Toronto on May 14. Florida will take a 3-2 lead back to Sunrise with a chance to close the series on May 16.
Bobrovsky went 143:25 without giving up a goal — starting late in the third period of Game 3 — before his skid was snapped. But that was not before another dominant 32-save performance.
“We’re definitely happy with where we’re at, but we’re also humbled and focused,” Bobrovsky said. “We just have to focus on the next shift, the next moment, and get ready.”
Aaron Ekblad opened the scoring with 5:22 to go in the first period. He fired a wrist shot off a feed from Sam Reinhart.
Dmitry Kulikov extended Florida’s lead to two goals 6:08 into the second period. His slap shot from the point deflected off the stick of Toronto forward Scott Laughton and past Joseph Woll.
Jesper Boqvist made it 3-0 by tapping home a feed from Reinhart off the rush with 9:55 to go in the second period. Niko Mikkola extended that lead to four goals with a slap shot off the rush with 5:59 to go in the middle frame.
A.J. Greer tacked on a fifth Panthers goal 6:23 into the third period, tapping home a rebound after a Jonah Gadjovich shot hit Jake McCabe in the face. Sam Bennett added a sixth goal 9:10 into the third period with a quick wrist shot on a power play.
”At the end of the day, the job’s not done,” Ekblad said. “There’s still a lot of work to do — to go home, recover and have our best game at home in Game 6.”
Here are three takeaways from Florida’s Game 5 victory:
Jesper Boqvist steps up in Evan Rodrigues’ absence
With Evan Rodrigues out of the lineup after taking a high hit from Oliver Ekman-Larsson in Game 4, the Panthers opted to go with Jesper Boqvist over rookie Mackie Samoskevich on the first line next to Sam Reinhart and Aleksander Barkov.
Boqvist stepped up and notched a goal and an assist despite going 25 games without a point and 39 games without a goal to finish the regular season and in the first seven games of the postseason.
Florida coach Paul Maurice trusted Boqvist with the assignment because of his defensive acumen and his versatility and he delivered. He helped set up Florida’s first goal by staying aggressive on the forecheck and keeping the puck in the offensive zone before Ekblad eventually fired the shot that gave the Panthers the lead. He flashed his speed off the rush to notch his first goal since Jan. 25.
”He’s just got so much speed and he battles out there,” Reinhart said. “Any time you can get those legs, especially in a tight-checking series like this, it’s going to be a positive. He stepped in, was very comfortable and he made some big plays to help us tonight.”
Panthers depth continues to shine in big ways
Through the first 10 games of the postseason, the Panthers have already broken a franchise record with 17 different players scoring in this postseason run — and their Game 5 performance was a big sign of that.
Florida was able to beat Toronto without its usual suspects completely taking over the game. Four players — Kulikov, Boqvist, Mikkola and Greer — all scored their first goals of the postseason. The Panthers got three of their goals from defensemen and had all four forward lines on the ice for at least one of the goals.
“They don’t get on the magazines,” Maurice said. “It’s special when those guys score.”
The Panthers have enough talent to where not one player has to take over the game on a day-to-day basis, and in Game 5, it was the entire roster that pitched in to steal a game in Toronto.
Florida continues to slow down Toronto’s rush attack
Ever since the midway point of Game 3, the Panthers have started to play their game and it has flipped the series on its head. Florida has gotten to its forecheck, stabilized its gap game on transition and has found the answer to slowing down the speedy Maple Leafs.
Game 5 was a perfect example of that. The Panthers held the Maple Leafs to just eight high-danger shots and one shot off the rush. Florida held onto the puck for the majority of the game and continued to hem Toronto in its own end and it led to an onslaught.
”I think they did a great job,” Bobrovsky said. “They played a hard gap game. Very simple, struck hard as a unit — all five guys. So, this was a good one.”
Donald Trump Jr., the president’s oldest son, married socialite Bettina Anderson on Thursday in West Palm Beach, Florida, according to Palm Beach County records.
A private wedding celebration is expected to take place Saturday in the Bahamas, Page Six reported. President Donald Trump indicated Thursday that he will not be in attendance, saying the date “was not good timing for me,” citing the ongoing war in Iran and other presidential matters. The president was initially scheduled to be in Bedminster, New Jersey, this weekend but is now expected to be at the White House.
Still, he offered his congratulations to the couple in a post on Truth Social Friday.
“While I very much wanted to be with my son, Don Jr., and the newest member of the Trump Family, his soon to be wife, Bettina, circumstances pertaining to Government, and my love for the United States of America, do not allow me to do so,” Trump wrote, adding that he felt it was important for him to remain in Washington, D.C., “during this important time.”
On Thursday, President Trump said that he had known Anderson “for a very long time, and hopefully they are going to have a great marriage.”
Anderson comes from a prominent Palm Beach family. Her father is Harry Loy Anderson Jr., a banker and philanthropist.
Trump Jr. announced his engagement to Anderson in December during a White House holiday party.
This is the second marriage for Trump Jr., 48, who has five children with his first wife, Vanessa Trump. The pair were married at Mar-a-Lago in 2005 and divorced in 2018. He was later engaged to Kimberly Guilfoyle, a former Fox News host who is now U.S. ambassador to Greece.
Trump Jr. operates the Trump Organization with his brother, Eric Trump, and has been a fixture alongside his father at political events. Anderson is a committee member at the Project Paradise Film Fund, which is focused on protecting Florida’s environment.
TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — Military service members can get free admission to The Florida Aquarium over Memorial Day weekend.
Active-duty military, veterans, retired military personnel, drilling reservists, National Guardsmen, and honorably or medically discharged service members will receive free general admission from Saturday, May 23, to Monday, May 25.
Military service members will need to show a valid U.S. Military ID or DD Form 214 to get a free ticket at the ticket window.
“In honor of the courage, commitment, and sacrifice of our nation’s military service members, The Florida Aquarium will once again offer complimentary general admission during Memorial Day weekend as a heartfelt thank-you to those who serve and have served our country,” the aquarium said.
The aquarium said it will offer extended hours from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. throughout the three-day weekend.
To learn more about the aquarium, visit its website.
Florida
Florida officials to pay $485,000 settlement to fired FWC biologist over Charlie Kirk post after his death
Florida officials will pay nearly half a million dollars to a biologist who was fired by a state agency for criticizing conservative activist Charlie Kirk on social media after his death.
The state’s Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission fired biologist Brittney Brown in September after she reposted a meme on her personal Instagram account that claimed Kirk wouldn’t care about children being shot in their classrooms. She filed a lawsuit seeking reinstatement, saying she struggled to find other work because the state agency is the regulatory body for her research specialization in bird conservation.
Brown on Thursday signed a $485,000 settlement agreement with agency directors that covers back pay, damages and attorney costs. She agreed as part of the deal to not seek future employment at the agency.
Fish and Wildlife officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Other workers also filed pending lawsuits over being fired over comments about Kirk’s assassination
Brown was among a wave of workers in both the public and private sector who lost their jobs over comments about Kirk’s assassination on a Utah university campus. Lawsuits are pending over many of those firings.
Before his death, Kirk and the organization he founded, Turning Point USA, galvanized the conservative youth vote to help President Donald Trump win a second term.
Kirk’s supporters combed social media after the Sept. 10 shooting for posts they viewed as celebrating his death. Influencers like Laura Loomer pledged to ruin the careers of people who made light of the killing, and the conservative social media account Libs of TikTok shared the identities and workplaces of many who posted with its audience of millions.
Libs of TikTok posted about Brown, and she was fired the next day, according to her lawsuit. Brown said someone then alerted Libs of TikTok about her termination only about 10 minutes after it happened and before it was made public.
In a rare instance in Tennessee, a retired police officer was jailed for 37 days over a Facebook post joking about Kirk’s assassination. Tennessee officials agreed Wednesday to pay $835,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by the man, Larry Bushart. While behind bars, Bushart lost his postretirement job and missed the birth of his granddaughter before authorities eventually dropped a felony charge against him, he said in the lawsuit.
Before her termination, Brown worked for Florida’s Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission for about seven years and studied shorebirds and seabirds on the panhandle, according to court documents.
Carrie McNamara, an attorney with the ACLU of Florida, called Brown’s settlement deal “a hard-won vindication” that sends a message to Florida officials that they cannot punish speech they dislike.
“The First Amendment does not disappear when someone accepts a government job,” McNamara said.
Brown’s former supervisor at the agency, Habitat and Species Conservation Director Melissa Tucker, had claimed that Brown’s post generated hundreds of formal complaints and caused significant disruption. Discovery in the case later revealed that the agency only received about 50 complaints.
U.S. District Judge Mark Walker imposed sanctions against Tucker last week for exaggerating the amount and then not correcting the record.
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