Opening Night of the 2025-26 NHL season began Tuesday in South Florida.
That’s where the league’s back-to-back defending champions reside, and where a celebration of sorts was held prior to the start of the new season.
Tuesday at Amerant Bank Arena, the Florida Panthers, for the second time in as many years, raised a Stanley Cup Champions banner to the rafters.
The ceremony was not anything particularly special, which is perfectly fine.
Florida’s players skated onto the ice, followed by alternate captain Aaron Ekblad, who was carrying the Stanley Cup.
With the players lined up along the blue line, the 2025 Stanley Cup Champions banner went up.
For the night, it’ll hang right above Sergei Bobrovsky’s goal crease.
By Thursday night, when Florida hosts the Philadelphia Flyers, it should be in its new permanent location, a couple parking spots down from the team’s 2024 Stanley Cup Champions banner.
Below you can see a video of the ceremony:
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