The Stanley Cup wave is not close to cresting yet, and the Florida Panthers players and their fans are riding that wave to Fort Lauderdale beach for Sunday’s championship parade.
Workers are setting up a stage at Fort Lauderdale Beach Park for the rally to be held at the end of the parade. Meanwhile, Panthers’ players have been partying with the Cup, literally. They took it the Elbo Room bar Tuesday morning, dunked it in the ocean, and Tuesday night, Lord Stanley created a bit of pandemonium at American Social on Las Olas Boulevard.
Shawn Hawkins was there to revel in that championship energy.
“I can’t even believe to say that we’re Stanley Cup champions, it’s awesome,” Hawkins said.
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As Panthers fans go, you can’t get more hardcore than this guy. Hawkins has had season tickets for decades, he suffered through the many bad seasons, and now he’s basking in the afterglow of being in the arena for Game 7 and enjoying the Cup tour.
“Crying, happiness, screaming, enjoying adult beverages, hung over, crying, screaming, happiness, rinse and repeat,” Hawkins said. “Even now, unreal, absolutely unreal.”
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Hawkins sits behind the goal in the lower level. His seat was extremely valuable if he had wanted to cash in.
“I waited 30 years for this, no, I’m enjoying this in my seat,” Hawkins said. “I turned down $11,000.”
Yes, he turned down a small fortune to stay inside the arena and experience his team winning it all. Was it worth it?
“It was absolutely worth it, that’s a memory that can never be taken away from me and I’m gonna cherish it for the rest of my life,” Hawkins said.
Sylvio Tomanelli was also at Game 7. NBC6 ran into him at the beach Wednesday, where he said he rented a nearby hotel room for Saturday night so he’d have no problems attending the parade on Sunday.
“Yeah, I live here and I know it’s gonna be pretty crazy coming to the parade," said Tomanelli, who is originally from Montreal. "I was actually at that Game 7, (it) was a wild one and we’re expecting a lot of people here for this parade so I just want to make sure my wife and I are gonna be here for that and celebrate it."
Canadians have a deep understanding of the value of the Stanley Cup.
“I’m sending some videos I had of this back home to some friends up in Canada, they can’t believe it, they’re not used to seeing things like that, people in shorts and bringing the Stanley Cup at the ocean,” he said, laughing about the spectacle he witnessed the day before.
