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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — It took Florida coach Paul Maurice 30 years to win a Stanley Cup championship ring. And after he was handed the box holding his new piece of jewelry Monday, he had to wait about another half-hour before he could actually look at the prize.
The reason: The Panthers wanted the whole organization to see the rings together.
The Panthers handed out dozens of rings Monday at a private ceremony commemorating last season’s Stanley Cup title to players, coaches, team executives, members of the athletic training and medical staff, and more. But owners Vincent and Teresa Viola had one rule: Since, in their view, it took everyone in the organization banding together to win the Cup, everyone had to open the boxes at the same time.
“No peeking,” Vincent Viola said as he and his wife handed out the rings that their family designed. The rings had the image of a rat etched on the inside of the band, a nod to the plastic toys that fans throw onto the home ice after wins.
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Executives and staff got their rings first in small groups, followed by the players. The Violas wanted the players brought up individually, so they could express thanks to each one. And Vincent Viola dropped the hint to team captain Aleksander Barkov that he’d like to have another ring ceremony a year from now.
“We gotta go for No. 2, right?” he told Barkov.
The messages of thanks and congratulations continued throughout the ceremony while a spotlight shone on the Stanley Cup — on a table a few feet from where the red boxes that held the rings were lined up.
To Matthew Tkachuk, Viola said, “God bless you.” To Sam Reinhart, who had 57 regular-season goals and the game-winning goal in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final, he said, “You chose us, we’re blessed, and we’re humbled.” And to potential free-agent-in-waiting Carter Verhaeghe, Viola promised that he would always remain a Panther — a clear hint that Florida hopes to keep him.
Viola even shared a story about how Sam…
Source link : https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/41668422/panthers-receive-stanley-cup-championship-rings-ceremony
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Publish date : 2024-10-07 23:42:44
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