Aleksander Barkov had just arrived, 18 years old and speaking halting English. Too young to lease a car, he had to borrow one from fellow Finnish player Olli Jokinen, a former Florida Panther.
Just now, Barkov had gone through six coaches in his first eight seasons, but he never won a playoff series with any of them, and as usual, he continued to suffer in silence.
Now the captain has become the first Panther to skate around the rink, hoisting the Stanley Cup aloft and yelling “Yeeeaah!” and “Yeeeaah!” as his teammates cheered and fans rose to their feet.
Barkov's long journey has now become this franchise's long journey. Those years filled with so many losses and meaningless seasons, so many mistakes and dumb moves, provided the perfect backdrop for those smiles.
“It's a dream come true,” Barkov said minutes after handing the Cup to goalkeeper Sergei Bobrovsky, who himself smiled as he recounted the story.
The scores, the individual plays and even the nerves before Game 7 will fade with time, but remember the smiles on your faces when you held the Cup after the game.
Remember what it took to get there. Remember Bobrovsky, who was benched in the playoffs two years ago and didn't play until the third game of last year's postseason. His smile spoke volumes about that night, holding Edmonton to one point and the years of games that led up to that deciding game.
“I always thought that one day I'd be able to skate with the Stanley Cup in my hands, just like I watch other people do it every year,” Bobrovsky said.
Now he had it.
“That was it,” he said.
Now, let's follow the Cup. Watch it pass from player to player, journey to journey. Bobrovsky handed it to Kyle Okposo, who tried to hide in celebration. With a late-season acquisition and a small roster, he didn't feel like he deserved to be the third player to receive the Cup.
There is a pecking order in hockey for who carries the Cup. But that also reflects the success of this team. The least is the best and the best is the least. Okposo played more than 1,000 games in Buffalo but didn't win many games. The 35-year-old opted out of his contract this winter so the Panthers could acquire him.
“It couldn't have turned out any better,” he said.
The Panthers have changed a lot in recent years. Players want to come here. Take Matthew Tkachuk. He redefined what the Panthers are. He held up the Cup and honored his family, including his father Keith and brother Brady, past and present NHL stars, who were crying in the stands.
Sam Reinhart held it in his hand and said he wanted to drink from the cup because he hadn't had a drink in months.
“It's the coolest thing I've ever done in my life,” Sam Bennett said of skating with the Cup in hand. “That's the only way I can describe it.”
Paul Maurice began his interview with Emily Kaplan on ESPN live broadcast, where Kaplan asked, “Paul, you've had a 30-year career and you're a Stanley Cup champion. How does that feel?”
“good …”
Tkachuk tapped Morris on the shoulder and pointed behind his coach.
“Wait a minute,” said Maurice. “We have a visitor.”
“Here you go,” backup goaltender Spencer Knight said as he handed Maurice the Stanley Cup.
Maurice's long struggles mirrored those of this team. This was his 1,985th game as an NHL coach — regular season and playoffs combined — and he was hired in 1996 at age 28 as the league's youngest coach. Now 57, he is the fourth-winningest coach in the league's history.
He leaned down and spoke to the cup, later saying it was about “how much I'd chased her,” then he raised the cup above his head and bowed his head in contemplation. Hockey Atlas seemed to breathe in a moment he'd dreamed of for years.
When he saw the players around him laughing at him, he “started yelling dirty words at them” to amuse them.
It was held by Roberto Luongo, who is now in the front office but was for many years a symbol of the frustration of this franchise, a great player turned dysfunctional.
General manager Bill Zito was crying as he held it in his hands. Does a general manager ever have such a Midas hand? He put all but four of the players on this roster.
He replaced his coach and hired Morris after a rare season of success, the league's best regular-season record and a playoff series win. He wanted more, and he thought change was the only way.
“I'm thrilled about it,” he said. “This is an achievement for the players. I'm really grateful for what they've done.”
By the time the Stanley Cup reached owner Vinnie Viola, it had been kissed, cursed, thanked and hoisted over the heads of dozens of Stanley players, coaches and staff members.
“You've got to lift it,” Zito told him.
Viola bought the team in 2013 after the team had missed the playoffs in 12 of the previous 13 years and six of the next seven years, but his idea paid off and he was successful in hiring Zito.
On the afternoon of Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final, Viola was studying medieval literature, a passion of his.
“It helped me pass the time,” he said.
Now, as he watches the Cup pass from player to player, photo to photo, he offers up some things to remember on the journey to this championship.
“Look at that smile,” he said.
