Seconds after the Florida Panthers won their first-ever Stanley Cup championship, with rats still falling on the ice at Amerant Bank Arena on Monday night, Matthew Tkachuk’s first emotion was gratitude, telling an ESPN reporter: “It’s the best place, the best guys. It’s something really special here.”
Hours later, accompanied by the gleaming trophy, Tkachuk and his teammates embarked on a magical mystery tour of their favorite hangouts, creating a buzz across South Florida that still lingers as the Cats prepare for their victory parade in Fort Lauderdale on Sunday.
From early Tuesday morning, which included a well-publicized Elbo Room beer bash and a dunking of the Cup in the Atlantic Ocean, until Thursday, when the trophy departed South Florida for NHL Draft ceremonies in Las Vegas, Panthers players and executives made a series of unannounced stops with the Cup at local spots that had personal meaning to them.
Sure, they made a late-night splash into the wee hours Thursday morning at flashy Miami nightclub E11even — can’t begrudge the champs that moment — but the goal of the trophy’s Fort Lauderdale journey from Las Olas Boulevard to Galt Ocean Mile and Flagler Village seemed less about celebrity and more about sharing the Cup, letting fans touch it, drink out of it, be part of it, and to simply say thanks.
When Tkachuk, teammate Sam Bennett and others carried the Cup into Caffé Europa on Las Olas Boulevard at lunchtime on Tuesday, they slammed it onto the bar, filled it with Peroni and took turns gulping it down. Then they turned to the customers with an invitation.
“They came up to the table and said, ‘Get up here! You’re next!’” said Whitney Dutton, a local real-estate agent who grew up playing hockey in Ohio. Dutton got his share of beer. “It was hilarious, man. It was one of the coolest things I’ve ever done in my life.”
Dutton said he spoke with the Panthers stars about why they were taking the Cup to places like Caffé Europa.
“Matt said, ‘We wanted to come to our favorite places. We want to share this with everybody that supported us through all the ups and downs,’” Dutton said. “That just said so much about their character, about the town and the support they received.”
The Stanley Cup win, network coverage and the social-media wildfire that followed the Cup tour this week has changed the conversation about the city, Dutton said.
“Fort Lauderdale is now a hockey town,” he said. “Nationwide, it puts Fort Lauderdale’s name and branding on the map. We’ve obviously seen extreme increases in migration [since the pandemic], but it continues to brand us as a great place to live.”
Tuesday surprise
Taylor Fuentes, owner of Ann’s Florist & Coffee Bar, was as surprised as anyone to see Aleksander Barkov, Anton Lundell, Tkachuk, friends and family, and the Stanley Cup, roll up on golf carts in front of her intimate cafe on Las Olas Boulevard when it opened at 8 a.m. Tuesday.
Tkachuk lives nearby and is a regular customer (extra-caffeinated Nitro Brew is a go-to), Barkov has been in frequently, and Carter Verhaeghe stops in to buy flowers (he just got engaged and Ann’s did flowers for the bridal shower). Still, Fuentes and staff were shocked to see them and the Cup.
“I didn’t think that they would think of us in that moment, and that’s really cool,” she said. “I think it says a lot about them, because we’re not a big business.”
The stay was brief, and the coffee to-go — the Panthers were on their way to the Elbo Room. But they paused to allow people to take pictures with the Cup.
“There weren’t a lot of people here. I don’t think they came in here to show it off, they came in to show us. Which is awesome,” Fuentes said.
Next stop: Elbo Room
The Panthers’ morning at the legendary Elbo Room produced national headlines and viral videos of the venerable trophy being used as a giant Solo cup and an awkward flotation device after Tkachuk, Bennett and Aaron Ekblad carried the Stanley Cup across A1A and into the ocean.
The Fort Lauderdale beach dive bar is one of Tkachuk’s favorite watering holes. “I come here a lot,” he said, smiling.
Hollywood resident Jay Freeman ended up with more beer on his face and shirt than in his mouth when Panthers players poured suds from the Elbo Room’s second-floor balcony onto a crowd so large that police closed the intersection.
“Everything about it was awesome, except not being able to get up there to party with them,” Freeman said. “They were being regular guys. … They’re regular dudes. With the Stanley Cup.”
Lunch at Caffé Europa
Panthers players are not strangers at Caffé Europa, said Daniel Gatto, a bartender there for two decades. Groups of teammates have been coming to the Las Olas Boulevard restaurant for years, he said.
Like Dutton, Gatto was invited to sip from the Cup at lunch on Tuesday.
“Listen, they’re super cool kids. They’re simple. Like, sometimes we have football players or movie stars or whatever in here and it’s … ,” Gatto said, shaking his head. “These guys are very simple. They sit outside, let people take pictures when they recognize them. If they don’t recognize them, they don’t say one word.”
When the Panthers’ star goaltender, Sergei Bobrovsky, arrived at Caffé Europa to have lunch on Tuesday with his wife, Las Olas traffic came to a standstill, Dutton said.
“There were people stopping in the middle of the road, leaving their cars in park on Las Olas, getting out. There was traffic blocked for probably 30 minutes while he got up from his lunch at his table and signed autographs and took pictures,” Dutton said.
Dinner at Greek Islands Taverna
Barkov, Bobrovsky, Tkachuk, Niko Mikkola and Sam Reinhart were among the players who had their first dinner as Stanley Cup champions Tuesday night at Greek Islands Taverna, a family-run restaurant on Galt Ocean Mile.
Barkov carried the Stanley Cup over his head as he entered the dining room to applause. It soon was filled with festive liquid that was consumed by the players and their families.
Fort Lauderdale resident Thomas Swick, an author and former South Florida Sun Sentinel travel editor, was among the onlookers seated outside. In a blog post at ThomasSwick.com, he captured the atmosphere that trails the Cup.
“I had always heard about the powerful pull that the Stanley Cup has, and here it was visible, and also explainable. Because it’s generously shared with the public, the public gets not only to rejoice in the victory (over and over) but to feel a small part of it — to have a moment with the glittering prize that will not be forgotten. And the team’s choice of locales for the Cup — the Elbo Room, Ann’s Florist & Coffee Bar, Greek Islands Taverna — is making that feeling of connection even more real. And the Panthers even more loved.”
After-party at AmSo
Fort Lauderdale fan Joshua Fuhrman started his day on Tuesday at the Elbo Room as part of the 50 or so people who walked across A1A with Tkachuk, Bennett and Ekblad as they baptized the Stanley Cup in the ocean. He ended his day with the Cup at American Social, the popular restaurant-lounge on Las Olas Boulevard.
Following rumors on the street that the Panthers would be at AmSo that night (Fuhrman overheard a bartender talking about it at El Camino up the block), he arrived to find the sporty bar “very packed” with fans in Cats gear.
A group of Panthers (including Tkachuk, Bennett, Ekblad, Gustav Forsling and Brandon Montour) arrived at around 9:45 p.m., walking in as an NHL Network replay of their historic Game 7 win over the Edmonton Oilers was coming to its nail-biting conclusion, Fuhrman said.
While they were gathered in a private room on the west side of the bar, the players would come out to the opening between the two rooms to let people touch the Cup and take pictures.
Fuhrman said Barkov and a couple of teammates, unaware of the side entrance to the private room, walked into American Social through the front door and quickly found themselves surrounded by excited fans.
“So they had to go through the whole crowd. But they were so humble, so chill, high-fiving everyone as they went. They’re one of us, just having a great time,” Fuhrman said.
Wednesday in Flagler Village
One of the most memorable social-media moments of the local Stanley Cup tour came Wednesday night at Heritage, chef Rino Cerbone’s impossibly popular 60-seat restaurant in Flagler Village. Cerbone went viral while shaving an avalanche of parmesan cheese onto the Cup, which was filled with his house Bucatini Bolognese.
Seated in front of his favorite pasta dish was Cerbone’s brother-in-law, Panthers executive and Hockey Hall of Famer Roberto Luongo, who had brought the Cup to Heritage with Panthers general manager Bill Zito and their families.
“Everybody drinks out of it, so we wanted to do something a little different. You’ve gotta have fun with it, man,” Cerbone said.
The restaurant, as always, was packed with customers. Once video of the Cup being used as a pasta bowl hit social media, crowds started forming outside the glass garage doors on the side of the restaurant. Cerbone went around to each table to apologize for the commotion.
‘They were saying to me, ‘Are you kidding? This is the greatest night ever,’” Cerbone said. “The energy was amazing.”
Before Luongo married his sister, Cerbone grew up surrounded by hockey players. For 30 years, beginning in 1977, his parents owned the restaurant Pizza Time, which was near the Panthers’ longtime practice facility in Coral Springs.
Every practice day, Cerbone’s father would close off one side of the restaurant for the players to dine. Regulars included Scott Mellanby, Brian Skrudland and Gord Murphy.
John McCall/South Florida Sun Sentinel
Chef Rino Cerbone’s parents owned restaurant Pizza Time near the Panthers’ former practice facility in Coral Springs. Now his restaurant, Heritage, is virtually across the street from the team’s new practice ice at Baptist Health IcePlex in Fort Lauderdale. (John McCall/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Coincidentally, Heritage is just a stone’s throw from Holiday Park, home to the Panthers’ new Baptist Health IcePlex practice facility. Heritage regulars include Tkachuk, Reinhart, Bennett, Ekblad and Forsling.
“Hockey players are a different breed,” Cerbone said. “They are the most kind and patient with fans. There’s no, ‘No, I don’t have time for a picture.’ They stop, they take a picture, they sign every autograph, they spend time talking to people. It’s really awesome. They’re really different from other athletes, for sure.”
Cerbone said the influence of the Stanley Cup is palpable in the community.
“Right now, the city’s electric. It’s really bringing people together,” he said. “We hope it happens a few more times, and we become a dynasty. But it may not happen again, so you better enjoy the s— out of it.”
Staff writer Ben Crandell can be reached at bcrandell@sunsentinel.com. Follow on Instagram @BenCrandell and Twitter @BenCrandell.