"People in Florida are idiots" "4 Nations loss still hurts": NHL fans split as ‘USA’ chants break out after Panthers' Game 4 win against Leafs

During Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Playoff series against the Toronto Maple Leafs, Florida Panthers fans broke out into chants of "USA!" to support their American-based team against a Canadian one.

The sport has players from all sorts of places, including America and Canada. Despite that, the fans in Amerant Bank Arena took the chance to support their country, which seemed off-key to some online.

The irony of the situation, as pointed out by Daily Faceoff's Matt Larkin, is that the Panthers only scored two goals, both of which were scored by Canadian players: Sam Bennett and Carter Verhaeghe.

Sergei Bobrovsky, the goaltender who held the Leafs off the scoreboard, is not from America, either. NHL fans remarked on what the spectators in the arena did, with some thinking it's foolish and others defending the team:

"People in Florida are idiots. Shocker," one fan said.

"The team is U.S. based. The Leafs are Canadian based. Is this really that hard?" one asked.

"And the Leafs had 6 US born players in their lineup including the captain and the goaltender," another added.

"That 4 Nations loss still hurting," another said.

"Unlike the Toronto fans who boo the U.S. national anthem but their captain is from the United States," one pointed out.

"What do you expect from classless fans?," another questioned.

The Panthers evened the series with the Maple Leafs at two games apiece with the shutout win.

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Sam Bennett discusses Panthers' win

Florida is the defending Stanley Cup champion. They know what it takes to get huge wins in the playoffs, though they were in danger of falling in a difficult 3-1 hole had they not come through on Sunday.

Sam Bennett scored one goal (Imagn)

Florida forward Sam Bennett, who scored one of the two goals in the entire contest, said via NHL:

“That was more like the Panthers playoff hockey that we’re used to. Tighter game, less opportunities. We didn’t give up many odd-mans at all. Did a pretty good job of limiting their chances. And 'Bobby' obviously stood on his head. So, it was a pretty good game all around.”

The team had given up goals in quick time to the Maple Leafs, usually being scored on within the first minute. This time, they kept the Leafs from getting off to a hot start and prevented them from scoring the entire time.