FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Staying out of the penalty box is a good place to start for all the players involved in the Stanley Cup Final.
After talking all week about being more disciplined, the Edmonton Oilers were whistled for high-sticking a couple of times and tripping once in the first 16 minutes of Game 4 on Thursday night. Naturally, Matthew Tkachuk scored twice for Florida Panthers, and then a slashing call put the Oilers on the power play and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins' goal sparked their comeback that tied the series.
“It’s a good series,” Tkachuk said. “Special teams, both teams' power play seemed to be clicking.”
Florida is clicking at a higher rate at 33%, going 7 of 21 with the man advantage, compared with 20% on 4 of 20 for Edmonton. In a final knotted 2-2 that has often been as tight as it can be with three games already decided in overtime, the Panthers' power play production has the potential to be a difference-maker.
Until Tkachuk broke through, it had been the second unit of Brad Marchand, Sam Bennett, Carter Verhaeghe, Evan Rodrigues and Nate Schmidt doing most of the damage.
“We’re building a lot of chemistry playing together,” Verhaeghe said. “We have so many great players on the unit. Both units have been pretty good. I mean, we just want to move the puck right and get pucks to the net.”
The Panthers have five power play goals over the past two games and have scored at least one every night in the final. The Oilers have also cracked Sergei Bobrovsky at least once on the power play each game. Nugent-Hopkins scoring Thursday night could be a sign Connor McDavid and Co. are revving up against what has been a fairly effective Florida penalty kill.
Coach Paul Maurice believes that task has gone “reasonably well.”
"I think they’re still going to generate some action," Maurice said Friday before flying across North America. "I think the even strength chances are pretty tight through four games.”
Tkachuk almost completed a hat trick in Game 4, and it could have changed the course of the entire series. With the score tied at 3-all late in the second period, he had the puck with a wide-open net to shoot at.
Edmonton defenseman Mattias Ekholm got his right skate and leg in front of Tkachuk's shot just in time.
“I didn’t even know that the net was empty or anything — I was just in the moment trying to get as big as possible,” Ekholm said. "It ended up hitting me. It was obviously a big block at the time. I haven’t thought too much more about it. It was a block, and sometimes you need those.”
Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov picked up his first two points of the series in Game 4 with assists on Tkachuk's power-play goals. He has none at even strength.
Some of that could be connected to how much energy Barkov — a three-time Selke Trophy winner as the NHL's best defensive forward — is expending trying to keep McDavid's line and also Leon Draisaitl from scoring. He does not want to use that as an excuse.
“It’s tough to say,” Barkov said. "You need to know, those two guys, where they are on the ice. Of course you’re trying to have your head on a swivel, but I think I could be better, for sure.”
AP NHL playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://apnews.com/hub/nhl
Florida Panthers' Matthew Tkachuk (19) scores against Edmonton Oilers goalie Stuart Skinner, left, as Oilers'. Kasperi Kapanen (42) defends during the first period in Game 4 of the NHL hockey Stanley Cup Final in Sunrise, Fla., Thursday, June 12, 2025. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press via AP)
Florida Panthers left wing Matthew Tkachuk (19) scores a goal against Edmonton Oilers goaltender Stuart Skinner (74) during the first period of Game 4 of the NHL hockey Stanley Cup Final Friday, June 13, 2025, in Sunrise, Fla. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
Florida Panthers' Matthew Tkachuk (19) celebrates with teammates after his goal against the Edmonton Oilers during the first period in Game 4 of the NHL hockey Stanley Cup Final in Sunrise, Fla., Thursday, June 12, 2025. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press via AP)
NEW YORK (AP) — Reviving a campaign pledge, President Donald Trump wants a one-year, 10% cap on credit card interest rates, a move that could save Americans tens of billions of dollars but drew immediate opposition from an industry that has been in his corner.
Trump was not clear in his social media post Friday night whether a cap might take effect through executive action or legislation, though one Republican senator said he had spoken with the president and would work on a bill with his “full support.” Trump said he hoped it would be in place Jan. 20, one year after he took office.
Strong opposition is certain from Wall Street in addition to the credit card companies, which donated heavily to his 2024 campaign and have supported Trump's second-term agenda. Banks are making the argument that such a plan would most hurt poor people, at a time of economic concern, by curtailing or eliminating credit lines, driving them to high-cost alternatives like payday loans or pawnshops.
“We will no longer let the American Public be ripped off by Credit Card Companies that are charging Interest Rates of 20 to 30%,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
Researchers who studied Trump’s campaign pledge after it was first announced found that Americans would save roughly $100 billion in interest a year if credit card rates were capped at 10%. The same researchers found that while the credit card industry would take a major hit, it would still be profitable, although credit card rewards and other perks might be scaled back.
About 195 million people in the United States had credit cards in 2024 and were assessed $160 billion in interest charges, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau says. Americans are now carrying more credit card debt than ever, to the tune of about $1.23 trillion, according to figures from the New York Federal Reserve for the third quarter last year.
Further, Americans are paying, on average, between 19.65% and 21.5% in interest on credit cards according to the Federal Reserve and other industry tracking sources. That has come down in the past year as the central bank lowered benchmark rates, but is near the highs since federal regulators started tracking credit card rates in the mid-1990s. That’s significantly higher than a decade ago, when the average credit card interest rate was roughly 12%.
The Republican administration has proved particularly friendly until now to the credit card industry.
Capital One got little resistance from the White House when it finalized its purchase and merger with Discover Financial in early 2025, a deal that created the nation’s largest credit card company. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which is largely tasked with going after credit card companies for alleged wrongdoing, has been largely nonfunctional since Trump took office.
In a joint statement, the banking industry was opposed to Trump's proposal.
“If enacted, this cap would only drive consumers toward less regulated, more costly alternatives," the American Bankers Association and allied groups said.
Bank lobbyists have long argued that lowering interest rates on their credit card products would require the banks to lend less to high-risk borrowers. When Congress enacted a cap on the fee that stores pay large banks when customers use a debit card, banks responded by removing all rewards and perks from those cards. Debit card rewards only recently have trickled back into consumers' hands. For example, United Airlines now has a debit card that gives miles with purchases.
The U.S. already places interest rate caps on some financial products and for some demographics. The Military Lending Act makes it illegal to charge active-duty service members more than 36% for any financial product. The national regulator for credit unions has capped interest rates on credit union credit cards at 18%.
Credit card companies earn three streams of revenue from their products: fees charged to merchants, fees charged to customers and the interest charged on balances. The argument from some researchers and left-leaning policymakers is that the banks earn enough revenue from merchants to keep them profitable if interest rates were capped.
"A 10% credit card interest cap would save Americans $100 billion a year without causing massive account closures, as banks claim. That’s because the few large banks that dominate the credit card market are making absolutely massive profits on customers at all income levels," said Brian Shearer, director of competition and regulatory policy at the Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator, who wrote the research on the industry's impact of Trump's proposal last year.
There are some historic examples that interest rate caps do cut off the less creditworthy to financial products because banks are not able to price risk correctly. Arkansas has a strictly enforced interest rate cap of 17% and evidence points to the poor and less creditworthy being cut out of consumer credit markets in the state. Shearer's research showed that an interest rate cap of 10% would likely result in banks lending less to those with credit scores below 600.
The White House did not respond to questions about how the president seeks to cap the rate or whether he has spoken with credit card companies about the idea.
Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., who said he talked with Trump on Friday night, said the effort is meant to “lower costs for American families and to reign in greedy credit card companies who have been ripping off hardworking Americans for too long."
Legislation in both the House and the Senate would do what Trump is seeking.
Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Josh Hawley, R-Mo., released a plan in February that would immediately cap interest rates at 10% for five years, hoping to use Trump’s campaign promise to build momentum for their measure.
Hours before Trump's post, Sanders said that the president, rather than working to cap interest rates, had taken steps to deregulate big banks that allowed them to charge much higher credit card fees.
Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., have proposed similar legislation. Ocasio-Cortez is a frequent political target of Trump, while Luna is a close ally of the president.
Seung Min Kim reported from West Palm Beach, Fla.
President Donald Trump arrives on Air Force One at Palm Beach International Airport, Friday, Jan. 9, 2025, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
FILE - Visa and Mastercard credit cards are shown in Buffalo Grove, Ill., Feb. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)
