[a] The new Panthers team immediately drew ire from Lightning fans, who objected to the Miami-based franchise claiming the geographical designation of Florida.

[5] To make matters worse, the "Florida Panthers" name had originally been used for a failed Tampa-based expansion bid, before Huizenga bought the rights and used it for his NHL team.

[6] Lightning founder and general manager Phil Esposito saw the Panthers as an opportunity to drive ticket sales.

[7] Esposito, along with Tampa Bay coach Terry Crisp, began to make disparaging remarks about the Panthers organization, referring to them as "pussycats."

All of this upset Florida general manager Bobby Clarke, who in his playing days was a former teammate of Crisp's (and rival of Esposito's).

Shortly afterwards, Esposito jokingly gave Clarke a kiss on the cheek on a live television interview, incensing the Florida GM.

[5] Though Crisp later played the episode off as merely part of the entertainment aspect of the sport, Esposito would continue to refer to "the stinking Panthers" for years to come.

[9] In the first of four preseason meetings at the Lakeland Civic Center, 3,876 fans watched Tampa Bay defeat Florida, 4–3 on September 16, 1993.

Tampa Bay's success was clouded by an inattentive, scandal-ridden ownership group that led to the team being investigated by the Internal Revenue Service.

During his tenure as Panthers head coach, Roger Neilson downplayed the importance of the rivalry while using crude language to refer to Lightning fans.

Under a new ownership group, the Lightning acquired a core of young talent, including future Hall of Famer Martin St. Louis.

Although they'd been in the same division every season for more than two decades, and faced one another more than any other opponent, players and coaches alike acknowledged that a true ice hockey rivalry— in the spirit of classics like the Blackhawks–Red Wings, or even contemporaries like the Kings–Sharks—failed to materialize.

At the very least, the rivalry went dormant from a lack of playoff meetings, compounded by Tampa Bay's dominance and Florida's irrelevance in the latter half of the 2010s.

The Panthers finally returned to the playoffs in the 2020, but lost in the qualifying round, while the Lightning would go on to win their second Stanley Cup in team history.

That same game saw the two teams combine for 90 penalty minutes, with four Panthers, including head coach Andrew Brunette, ejected.

Presented by the Sunshine Network (the cable broadcast partner for both clubs), it was the first—and to date, only—NHL trophy to be contested by two specific teams, a phenomenon more associated with regional college football rivalries.