Soak it in: Florida Panthers and Miami Heat have never had this kind of simultaneous success

For the first time, the Panthers and Heat are in the conference finals during the same season

South Florida sports fans are currently being spoiled.

Both the NBA and NHL are down to their final four teams, and the Miami Heat and Florida Panthers are still in the mix for a title.

The Heat have been there before, many times.

The Panthers…well, we know how things have gone since they made an improbable run to the 1996 Stanley Cup Final as a third-year franchise.

But here we are, May of 2023, and for the first time ever, both teams are still very much in the hunt for simultaneous championships.

It's so much more than that, though.

The Panthers and Heat both squeaked into their respective postseason tournaments as the eight-seed.

They each had to upset the top team in their league to escape the first round; for the Heat, that was the 58-24 Milwaukee Bucks. For the Panthers, it was the historically good Boston Bruins.

"Kind of similar, yeah," said Panthers forward Nick Cousins. "It's cool. What they've done has been awesome for Florida, and then we're kind of right there with them.”

South Florida sports fans surely agree.

Not only have both of the local arena teams reached the Final Four of the NBA and NHL, but they're doing it in a completely unexpected way.

Neither team was viewed as anything special heading into the playoffs.

The Panthers gradually got their game together over the second half of their season while the Heat started out stronger than Florida did but faltered as the season progressed, struggling to find any sense of consistency.

They're both on top of things now, though.

"It just shows, it doesn't matter what your team has done in years past, and it doesn't matter what they've done in the season leading up to it," said Panthers All-Star forward Matthew Tkachuk. "If you get going at the right time, that's always the team you want to be."

Interestingly enough, a spring filled this kind of postseason success has never been seen in South Florida.

The Heat have made plenty of playoff runs. They've won three NBA Championships, been to the NBA Finals six times and reached the conference finals nine times, including in three of the past four years.

Before this season, the Panthers had won only one playoff series since their epic run to the Stanley Cup Final in 1996.

There was no Heat postseason success that season. They were swept out of the first round of the NBA Playoffs in 1996 by Michael Jordan and his Chicago Bulls dynasty.

So yes, this is the first spring ever that the Heat and Panthers have done something like this concurrently.

It's especially enjoyable for Panthers captain Sasha Barkov, who has been to several Heat games and isn't shy about discussing how much he enjoys following the team.

"It's amazing. The Heat is doing really well, and I've been a huge fan of them since I got here," said Barkov. "I try to follow them as much as possible. I know every year they have a good group that can go all the way. I'm really happy for them, and I really hope they're going to make the finals, too."

The crosstown sports love goes both ways.

Tim Reynolds of the Associated Press mentioned that Heat star forward Bam Adebayo said his favorite Panthers player was none other than Barkov himself.

"I'm Bam's favorite player? Wow,” he said with a smile.

Naturally the next question to Barkov was how he thinks Adebayo would do on the ice.

"He's like Chara," Barkov said, referencing Zdeno Chara, the retired 6-foot-9 future Hall of Fame defenseman and former Bruins captain. "Good defensive player, and probably has a bomb too."

Fortunately for Barkov, Adebayo and anyone else who is a fan of both teams, the schedule-makers did us all a favor.

The Heat open their Eastern Conference Finals series with the Boston Celtics on Wednesday night. The Panthers begin their conference final matchup with Carolina on Thursday.

From then on, each series will play on opposite days until they are over. No conflicts.

The next couple weeks should be quite the ride for South Florida sports fans.

“It's an exciting time,” said Cousins. “Best time of the year, for sure."