Game 7 Open Thread: give the trophy to the damn players edition
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For those who would like to discuss the game or other non-political things.
The NBA, like the other two biggest North American sports leagues, presents its championship trophy to the fuckin’ owner(s) instead of the players. The NHL remains the exception, and it’s infinitely preferable. But what the Panthers did this year was particularly cool:
All you need to know about what makes the Florida Panthers special was revealed in the moments immediately after captain Aleksander Barkov got his hands back on the Stanley Cup on Tuesday.
Rather than taking a customary solo lap around the ice at Amerant Bank Arena, Barkov skated directly into a red swarm of his teammates after NHL commissioner Gary Bettman presented him with the shiny silver trophy for the second straight spring.
Barkov wasn’t done there.
The Panthers captain orchestrated a Cup pass line that saw every first-time winner get their hands on it before the team’s stars took a twirl. That started with Nate Schmidt and Seth Jones, two veteran NHLers who joined the Panthers after last year’s victory over the Edmonton Oilers, but also included multiple players who didn’t see a minute of game action during the entire playoffs.
BARKOV HANDS THE #STANLEYCUP TO FIRST-TIME WINNER NATE SCHMIDT pic.twitter.com/FURiyFT0Mu— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) June 18, 2025
To bring our threads together, the second Panther to get to skate with the Cup was Seth Jones, son of former Pacers assistant and assistant coach of the 2023 champion Nuggets Popeye Jones.
It’s too bad that basically nobody in Florida watches hockey, because this team has a case as being the best of the cap era, repeat champions who beat 4 of the best 5 or 6 other teams in the NHL starting on the road and often made them look foolish. “Team culture” isn’t the primary reason — Zito and his analytic and scouting teams are exceptional talent evaluators — but it does help to explain why players like Reinhart and Bennett who don’t attain their potential with bad organizations like Buffalo and Calgary thrive there.
I have no pick for tonight’s game but if it’s Indiana’s owner who gets the trophy that would be nice.