Aleksander Barkov finished last season by lifting the Stanley Cup, bringing joy to Florida Panthers fans. This season began in a similar way.
Barkov, the Panthers’ captain, brought the Cup onto the ice Tuesday night just before Florida raised its first championship banner to the rafters. The players stood together, admiring the new addition to the arena. After the banner was lifted, they posed with the Cup one last time before kicking off the new season against the Boston Bruins.
“Now we get to try to chase it again,” Barkov said.
During warmups, the giant video screens showed Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final, and fans cheered when Sam Reinhart scored the go-ahead goal, getting even louder when the final seconds played.
The biggest cheer came during the final part of the Cup celebration when the banner was officially placed in the rafters. Florida delighted the fans by scoring four goals in the first period and defeating the Bruins 6-4.
“I kind of felt like that was the closing to last season,” said Florida forward Evan Rodrigues. “It was cool to see that go up. And then we kind of flipped the page immediately and we got to our game.”
The pregame ceremony wrapped up three and a half months of celebrating the franchise’s first title. On Monday, players, coaches, and some staff received their championship rings in a private ceremony.
On Tuesday, they looked up as the banner was raised. Additionally, 158 season-ticket holders, called “legacy members,” who have held tickets since the franchise’s start, also received replica rings.
“The fans will really enjoy the banner,” said Panthers forward Carter Verhaeghe, who scored the first goal in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final to help Florida beat Edmonton 2-1 for the title on June 24. “Looking up there, I guess if you need a little inspiration, you just look up there and see what we accomplished.”
For the championship banner, the Panthers chose a design with a white background, featuring the words “Stanley Cup Champions” in red at the top and “2024” in red at the bottom, with an image of the Cup in the center above the team’s logo.
It was raised over the end of the ice where Florida kept the puck pinned along the boards as the final seconds of Game 7 ticked away, leading to a championship celebration 30 years in the making.
The other banners from last season, which celebrate the Atlantic Division and Eastern Conference titles, were already hanging in the rafters. These were alongside two other conference title banners, three for division championships, and one for winning the Presidents’ Trophy as the best regular-season team in 2021-22.
It was a joyful summer for Florida as the Cup toured the homes of many players, allowing them to share it with friends and family.
This celebration began with a parade that drew around 300,000 people who braved thunderstorms and heavy rain. The Cup made many appearances in South Florida and other areas in the weeks that followed.
While it was a fun time, Panthers general manager and hockey operations president Bill Zito believes it’s time to shift focus to a new season. He thinks the players started doing this weeks ago, even before training camp began.
“I think, at least for me, I’m already there,” Zito said. “I’m just so excited for an NHL game tonight. I can tell you, I thought that yesterday before the rings.
And then when I opened the box, it was one of those surreal moments. We used the word ‘speechless.’ I was speechless. And it was pretty neat to have that happen.”
Before the banner was raised, a highlight video showed the key moments from last season’s journey to the championship. Then, the first game of the new season went exactly as Florida hoped.
“There was great energy in the building tonight,” said Panthers coach Paul Maurice.
