Wet from the rain that fell on Fort Lauderdale Beach the day of their celebration, they walked to the stage. The Florida Panthers, however, were determined to celebrate their first Stanley Cup in team history despite a little rain.
After waited this long for this moment, the fans were determined not to let it stand in their way. Paul Maurice, the coach of the Panthers, would later say on stage, “Thirty [expletive] years.” “I never would have imagined that I could see this, even in my wildest fantasies.” Although Maurice was speaking to himself, everyone who braved the rain to see this celebration could relate to what he had to say.
With their victory over the Edmonton Oilers in Game 7, on Monday, the fan base ultimately brought home their first Cup after 30 seasons of waiting.
Thus, the celebration continued on Sunday until the Panthers’ march crossed A1A.
The Panthers threw beer at street supporters from the Stanley Cup while they waited for the buses to go. Anton Lundell and Aleksander Barkov drank from shoes. Dmitry Kulikov took a selfie after snagging a fan’s phone. As the parade caravan approached its destination, Matthew Tkachuk unexpectedly stopped at the Elbo Room because, well, he did. As the rain began to fall heavily, thousands of fans were waiting in anticipation at the beach near the stage. The beachgoers began chanting “[expletive] the Lightning” when lightning struck the late-morning sky, a reference to the weather as well as the rival team they defeated in the opening round of this year’s playoffs to start their Cup run.
At last, they made it. When the rest of his teammates showed up, a shirtless Nick Cousins chugged a drink, slid back and forth on the shiny stage, and joined the front row. Roberto Luongo, Aaron Ekblad, and Anton Lundell pounded the drum. “You have to let these men go,” stated Vincent Viola, the owner of the Panthers. “To what extent will you go insane?”
As Viola built up a shirtless Ryan Lomberg—who was also sporting a championship belt—the crowd erupted in cheers. By the end of the rally, Lomberg was crowd surfing. From Viola to players Aaron Ekblad, Tkachuk, Aleksander Barkov, and Sergei Bobrovsky to general manager Bill Zito, assistant to general manager (and Hall of Famer) Roberto Luongo, Maurice, and everyone in between, they chanted for everyone who spoke.
“This is fantastic. Examine your surroundings. Zito said, “This is amazing,” to the assembly. “I often refer to this group as a ‘team,’ which is actually just family, when people question us about what makes them unique. And to be honest, every soldier back here thinks of you guys as family. You helped us out by staying outside in the rain.
Tkachuk, who smoked a cigar while performing, made fun of Edmonton by joking, “I know it’s 70 degrees and sunny in Edmonton, but they ain’t got no Cup.” After being selected in 2013, Barkov maintained his modest demeanor, stating that he “would’ve never believed this day would come.” However, he thanked Bobrovsky and his teammates, as well as the ownership and management, for being “in front of you, all together, on a rainy day, during hurricane season, on the beach celebrating us winning the Cup!” Then Bobrovsky became sentimental for a second. It will be his fifth anniversary of joining with the Panthers on Monday. Before turning things around the past two seasons, he had a difficult start to his career. “They asked me why I came to Florida in my first interview [after signing],” Bobrovsky recalled. “Because I want to win the Cup and win it here,” was my response. And here we are, five years later, commemorating this franchise’s biggest triumph. And this is only going to be the first of many celebrations if the Panthers get their way. “This is the Cup,” Viola declared. “Let’s retrieve it once more.”
