Matthew Tkachuk was soaked. Such is life when you’re out in an absolute downpour for a few hours. He did not seem to be bothered by this whatsoever.
And as the star Florida forward looked out at the crowd of people, tens of thousands of them, packed onto Fort Lauderdale Beach on Sunday afternoon for the Panthers’ parade and celebration for winning the Stanley Cup, Tkachuk decided to offer a quick weather update.
Reaction to Panthers Stanley Cup Victory
Panthers owner Vincent Viola danced on the stage as his wife, Theresa, captured the scenes on her phone. Tkachuk hopped off the route at one point to visit his favourite bar, Elbo Room, which just happened to be adjacent to the buses’ path.
Players, one by one, all got their moment to hoist the Cup on stage. There was a campaign T-shirt some players wore — Maurice Zito 2024, a nod to Maurice and president of hockey operations Bill Zito, who masterminded the Cup run.
Other fans had a similar shirt — Barkov Tkachuk 2024, a nod to Florida’s stars.
And as if the crowd needed more encouragement, a shirtless Panthers forward Nick Cousins ran over to the fans at one point, chugged a beer in celebration and punched the air.
“This is awesome,” Zito said.
Defenseman Aaron Ekblad got a moment of revenge on golfer Brooks Koepka, who showed up at a Panthers game last season and compared Ekblad to a traffic cone.
Ekblad grabbed such a cone on Sunday and let Koepka know — rather colourfully — that he was getting the last laugh.
“It feels like a culmination of your life’s effort, everything you’ve ever worked for,” Ekblad said.
“When you get that trophy over your head, it’s a beautiful feeling. And it’s the pinnacle of hockey. It’s everything you could possibly imagine.”
© 2024 The Associated Press
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