Matt's Top Five best Stanley Cup celebration moments
A hopefully definitive list
To a man, the Florida Panthers say that winning the Cup this year was much harder than winning it in 2024. If so, then they are taking “work hard, party harder” to another level with the non stop party they’ve had since Tuesday night. There are so many memorable, and memeable, moments to choose from over the last five days that it’s impossible to go over all of them, and there’s sure to be more to come all summer long, but here is a list of my favorite moments from a Cup celebration that will go down in hockey folklore.
Some highlights that didn’t make the list including Matthew Tkachuk going for a dip in the Ocean without the real Cup this time (because they were told they couldn’t, about the only thing they can’t do), and his uh… singing skills, Sam Reinhart’s Raising Cane’s day with a deadpan delivery on maybe the line of the celebrations, and amazingly, Paul Maurice not making an appearance in spite of wearing not just one shirt with his cats Poppy and Penny on it, but two! Apparently no one could hear him speak at the parade, which he probably doesn’t mind all that much, even though he sure had fun with his swearing last year. But without further ado, here is the actual top five:
Sasha Barkov as we’ve never seen him before
Jameson Olive, the great Panthers content guru, once put out a post about Aleksander Barkov that summarizes the Panthers captain perfectly. I can’t find it all these years later, but he basically says that if Barkov speaks, it’s either important or funny. A man of action, not words. After winning another Stanley Cup, he’s found a way for not just more action, but plenty more words too. His celebrations have included waking up his Boca neighbor with the Cup at 5 AM because he didn’t do it last year and was asked to, getting as drunk as anyone can possibly get, leaving even Matthew Tkachuk impressed, and thanks to some of that liquid courage, becoming more loquacious than almost anyone has ever seen him.
No one on the Panthers works harder than Sasha Barkov, and apparently no one parties harder than him either. It’s nice to see another side of an incredible player, no matter what’s on his mind after an incredible accomplishment, even if all he has left to say is just one word after everything else he said earlier in the night.
And then there’s this video too. Celebrations are better when they’re all captured on video.
Sam Bennett and Aaron Ekblad’s agents are having a tough week
Both Sam Bennett and Aaron Ekblad could absolutely cash in in free agency if they wanted to. They have a Cup pedigree, play roles everyone in the league lusts after, and are the best free agents in a very shallow pool. This is a recipe for these two men to make life changing cash on top of the life changing money they’ve already made.
And yet, during all the celebrations, neither seems all that interested in maintaining that leverage. Sam Bennett will tell anyone who is listening that he’s coming back for eight more years, whether at E11EVEN in whatever state he was in, the Elbo Room and then at the parade:
Not to be outdone is Aaron Ekblad, whose agent is definitely aware of what’s going on and tried to desperately get his client the message. How many panicked texts can one man send in a few days? A ton, evidently.
Both men clearly want to stay in Florida and it’s an open question whether they can or not. If they have to degrade all of their leverage to stay with the Panthers and make slightly less life changing money, it seems that they don’t mind at all. Their agents on the other hand…
Having to wear an Oilers sweater to the victory parade because you lost in Fantasy Football
When I was into fantasy football a long time ago, there weren’t many “loser punishments” so to speak, other than the simple ignominy of just finishing last with your friends making fun of you as the worst of it. Now, plenty of websites can rack up clicks with lists of the worst punishments last place finishers can be subjected to, with the Waffle House challenge registering as particularly nasty. There are some Reddit threads out there with some incredibly creative ones too, at least ones that will make you chuckle rather than cringe.
Why bring all this up? Because one unlucky soul had to go to the Panthers Fort Lauderdale victory parade, a lifetime moment for any sports fan, in an Oilers jersey because he finished last in his league. Having to go to the parade in an Oilers jersey is bad enough, but it’s made way worse by having to hold up the sign and explain to people that he’s not actually an Oilers fan and a sadist, but that he’s just bad at fantasy football. Maybe he drafted Christian McCaffrey last year, or was out of the room at one point and the computer auto drafted terribly, but here he is, immortalized on social media for the rest of his life in an Oilers jersey at a Panthers victory parade, maybe the last one he’ll ever get the chance to go to.
There’s an old political maxim that says when you’re explaining, you’re losing. I think they were onto something.
Brad Marchand’s… everything
When Brad Marchand won the Cup in 2011 with the Bruins, he was a young man without a care in the world thinking more of them would come and come easy. It took another 14 years for him to put his hands on Lord Stanley and boy is he enjoying the moment. I could do a top five Brad Marchand celebration moments on their own, but a few of the highlights include:
Sasha Barkov, who was plenty drunk himself, helping Marchand out of E11EVEN because he was more in control of his faculties than Brad somehow was.
Using his IG stories to thank almost every one of his teammate’s previous employers, including AHL and ECHL teams, for giving up on them so they could become Panthers and win the Cup with him (though the Maple Leafs were conspicuously absent). Mr. Waivers is the winner.
After being presumably blackout drunk at E11even the night before, he gets to serve his special Dairy Queen treat to thousands of Panthers fans while including this legendary exchange:
How about a blast from the past, coming minutes later?
And capping it off at the victory parade by carrying Sam Reinhart on his shoulders and leaving the world with a universal message of truth.
Is he going to stay a Florida Panther after July 1st? Who knows. He could get a pay raise at age 37 because of a legendary postseason run, especially in the Final. It sounds like he wants to stay, because why would anyone want to leave all of this? But if he does leave, he leaves as a Panthers legend as much for his celebrations as his two OT goals and anything else he did on the ice. And even as I’m trying to write the story out, he’s still finding new ways to add to this incredible list. Thanks for all the content, Brad!
Officer Bob is on the Case
The Panthers party at E11EVEN will go down in hockey folklore for many of the reasons you’ve already seen, and many more that I haven’t mentioned because this piece can’t be too long. But the most memorable moment for me is not Sasha Barkov’s incredible IG Live when he might not have known he was live, or Sam Bennett’s speech, or Nate Schmidt and Brad Marchand crowdsurfing: it’s Sergei Bobrovsky, standing in the corner, watching the entire spectacle like a concerned yet hopeful dad that everyone will make it home safe.
Every group has to have someone like this, and Bob fits the role so perfectly it’s almost scary. When his teammates get into a scrum on the ice because they want to protect him, he skates off to the corner, in his own world as goalies often are. He just seems bemused by everything around him, trying to process it all but not quite understanding it. When the celebrations are more his speed, he’s right on his game.
His night at E11EVEN and his celebrations are a perfect analogue for his style of goaltending: sharp when called upon, but when the action is elsewhere and he can’t participate, he’s always in the zone, ready when the circumstances call for it.
There’s very little in the modern NHL like this Panthers run, and there’s certainly little in the modern NHL that can match or exceed these incredible celebrations. If you have more favorite moments, feel free to share them because I almost certainly missed a bunch. And there is no better way to leave you all then with a message of unity and togetherness from Sam Bennett. Or alternatively, how the kids among us seem to really get it:
Bob was right in front of me, off the stage and signing a couple autographs and selfies. My phone was too wet with sweat and water for the camera to operate! This all happened within 30 seconds! My only disappointment of the day!