Florida Panthers forced to cancel ceremony for Stanley Cup rings due to hurricane weather
The Florida Panthers made a disappointing announcement today, revealing that they have cancelled their Stanley Cup championship ring ceremony.
The announcement comes as Hurricane Milton remains on track to hit Florida on Monday. Currently, the storm is projected to be a category two event with sustained winds north of 100 miles per hour and gusts that are much worse. As such, much of the state has been put on a state of emergency, including the Miami-Sunrise area. Panthers president Matt Caldwell had this to say about the event and the start of the upcoming season.
«As this event would take resources from first responders and service providers, we have made the tough decision to cancel our Champions Ring Ceremony out of an abundance of caution for the safety of all involved. We will instead distribute our championship rings privately. Along with state and local authorities, we are closely monitoring the situation. As of now, Opening Night vs. Boston is scheduled to proceed as intended and we will continue preparing our arena and surrounding areas to safely welcome guests for Opening Night.»
Panthers fans are understandably disappointed by this decision, but it appears as though the team had very little choice in this matter. After all, extreme weather must be respected as it can be very dangerous. The Panthers are correct to not put their players and fans alike in harms way by going through with the ceremony. Furthermore, this is not the first NHL event to be cancelled in anticipation of Hurricane Milton. The Tampa Bay Lightning and Nashville Predators cancelled their final pre-season game of the year which was scheduled for tomorrow after it was previously delayed due to Hurricane Helene.
In the meantime, Panthers fans will just have to reminisce their championship team from last year at home. Luckily, they still have lots of fresh memories to look back on, including the final seconds of game seven that secured the team's first ever Stanley Cup.
After two straight seasons of reaching the Stanley Cup finals, the Florida Panthers appear to be set to make another run at it. Could they possibly make the finals three years in a row? In the hard cap era that feat is virtually unheard of, but it could be a chance for the team to one-up their cross state rivals in the Tampa Bay Lightning.
| POLL | ||
2 HOURS AGO | 8 ANSWERS Florida Panthers forced to cancel ceremony for Stanley Cup rings due to hurricane weather How far do you think the Florida Panthers will go in the playoffs this season? | ||
Top 10 latest hockey stories
