Panthers’ raucous Stanley Cup party begins with a dip in the ocean
NY Post
The Panthers have earned themselves a beach day.
The morning after winning the first Stanley Cup in franchise history with a 2-1 Game 7 win over the Oilers, Florida players began their celebrations with the trophy.
On Tuesday morning, players took the Cup to the Elbo Room Beach Bar in Fort Lauderdale, parading it through the establishment before bringing it out to the beach — with star forward Matthew Tkachuk taking the historic trophy for a swim in the Atlantic Ocean.
Throngs of fans in Panthers gear packed the bar for a glimpse of the NHL’s newest champions — who obliged the “We are the Champions”– crooning crowd’s chants for beer by pouring it from Cup on the second floor balcony to eager mouths below.
The party, which began on the ice and in the locker room at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, Florida, shows no signs of slowing down.
“I come here a lot,” Tkachuk told the Sun-Sentinel. “I have not necessarily gone to bed yet, but it’s all good. I’m a little tired, but I got my second wind, so I’m ready to go.”
On one level, it’s hard to shake this part of it from your mind. Think about how many times you and your best friends from college talked at the tail ends of after-hours parties about putting enough scratch together a few years after graduation to maybe, someday soon, rent a house down the Jersey shore or out in the Hamptons for a week.