FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Seth Jones had waited most of his life to get a Stanley Cup ring. After which, he needed to wait even longer earlier than he might see it.
The Florida Panthers handed out the rings from their second consecutive title Monday, and Jones was the primary particular person on the lengthy record of gamers, coaches and employees who acquired the prized items of bijou through the ceremony.
However the Panthers have a rule: No person opens the field till all people can open the field collectively. So, Jones — who joined the staff halfway via final season — needed to wait … and wait … and wait … earlier than he and everybody else acquired to see the brand new shiny bauble.
“Superior,” Jones mentioned. “It’s a set piece for the remainder of my life.”
Among the many highlights of the ring: a play on the speeches that Matthew Tkachuk and Sam Bennett gave on the Stanley Cup parade, the place they gleefully identified that they apologize to nobody for the Panthers being the Panthers. That phrasing is etched on the within of the ring, which has greater than 250 diamonds and rubies and is created out of white and yellow gold.
On the edges of the gamers’ rings: their title and quantity on one aspect, together with the staff emblem and “again to again champions” on the opposite.
The Panthers did the ceremony in non-public, with the gamers all in darkish fits and pink ties. The celebration for followers comes Tuesday, when the staff will elevate the banner earlier than its opener at residence in opposition to the Chicago Blackhawks.
The possession group — Vincent and Teresa Viola and their households — offered their rings to at least one one other, after which the phrase lastly got here to open the bins.
“I by no means believed that proudly owning a sports activities staff could possibly be as invigorating, as heart-touching, that you simply’d care concerning the gamers once they get damage,” mentioned Teresa Viola, the spouse of staff proprietor Vincent Viola. “You wish to run down there like a mother and simply go, ‘My goodness, are you OK?’ This staff has proven me the spirit of togetherness, household, the whole lot that I hoped it might be.”
All of the trophies from final season had been on a desk close to the stage. There have been the 2 gained by captain Aleksander Barkov — the Selke Trophy because the NHL’s greatest defensive ahead and the King Clancy in recognition of his management and humanitarian work on and off the ice. There was the Conn Smythe Trophy, the one Bennett acquired as MVP of the playoffs. There was the Prince of Wales Trophy, which the Panthers have gained in every of the previous three seasons as Japanese Convention champions.
And, after all, there was the Stanley Cup. The Panthers have taken it in all places for the higher a part of the previous 3½ months — hospitals, fireplace homes, fishing journeys, even eaten meatballs out of the factor — and now begin the search towards attempting to win it once more.
The rings have been handed out. The banner goes up Tuesday. There will probably be reminders alongside the best way, akin to taking a hoop to the Hockey Corridor of Fame, the Stanley Cup Ultimate rematches with Edmonton and rematches of playoff matchups. However the Panthers realize it’s time to show the web page to what awaits.
“Coping with that and never dwelling previously is essential,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice mentioned. “But in addition, we wish to make it possible for we’re not mandating that. It’s OK to get pleasure from tonight. And it’s OK when we have now to do different issues that convey us again. We’re simply not having a reunion every single day that we come to the rink.”
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