FORT LAUDERDALE — While the Florida Panthers ’ championship ring ceremony on Monday was canceled due to the looming threat of Hurricane Milton , their home opener and banner ceremony is still set to go on as planned on Tuesday night.
Rain or shine, the Panthers are ready to defend their first Stanley Cup title .
“I think that takes care of itself,” new defenseman Adam Boqvist said of the incoming weather. “The only thing we can do is focus on tomorrow and stay safe. I’m not used to this weather change and stuff, but I guess I’ll have to get used to it a little bit. You saw what Hurricane Helene did. It’s scary.”
The Panthers canceled their public ring ceremony at Amerant Bank Arena in part because it would take resources from first responders and service providers who would otherwise be helping South Florida prepare for the hurricane.
Sunrise, Fort Lauderdale and the rest of South Florida is not expected to get the worst of it, with models suggesting the storm will make impact on Florida’s Gulf Coast before shifting north. However, tropical storm force winds and flooding is still expected in the area.
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“It’s never a good thing with hurricanes coming in, and especially the second one in such a short period of time,” Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov said, referring to Hurricane Helene that hit Florida's Big Bend less than two weeks ago. “So, I hope that everyone stays safe here. It’s a serious thing so you have to be prepared as good as possible. And obviously, luckily, we get to go on the road right away (four-game road trip), but everyone lives here and decides to stay here, I hope they stay safe.”
The Panthers are expected to receive their championship rings privately on Monday night before raising their championship banner in front of their fans ahead of Tuesday’s home opener against the Boston Bruins .
After a torrential downpour fell on their Stanley Cup parade in June, yet another one of their celebrations was affected by the weather.
“You get to a point where there’s no more celebrations of something that happened in the past and you need that mental closure to move forward,” coach Paul Maurice said. “It’s unfortunate with the safety concerns and the weather, but seemingly for us, rain on a celebration is kind of what we do here. So it’s fitting, I guess. I’m thankful that we’re able to get the rings done and that we can enjoy it tonight and then we can leave them at home tomorrow.”
Panthers' banner raising expected to be special
While disappointed that they cannot share the ring ceremony with their fans as originally intended, it is going to make the Stanley Cup banner raising on Tuesday that much more special.
”The original idea with the ring ceremony, I thought it was brilliant,” Maurice said. “Have it in front of your fans. That’s where you could share it. So, we won’t have that and understandably so, so that makes the banner raising more important. There should be a starting that happens with the players and the fans, so we get that.
“It will be special and you will remember what it feels like because I have experience in standing behind the bench and having all the right banners go up. You’re not missing a banner, you’re not short one, so that’s going to be great. But I look forward to the hockey, really.”
And the Panthers will be playing that hockey against a team they are very familiar with — the Bruins, the one team they knocked out in each of their two consecutive runs to the Stanley Cup Final.
”It’s great that it’s Boston because we’ve played this team 21 times in the past two years and they’ve been 21 amazing games in terms of intensity and physicality,” Maurice said. “The series last year was as heavy of a series as I’ve ever coached and it was a hard, physically demanding series. So, it’s fitting that they’re there. We played so hard to get there. It should be here because they’re the team that probably plays as hard as anybody, so it’s a fitting start.”
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Florida Panthers set to begin defense of Stanley Cup title despite Hurricane Milton threat
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