Thursday night, the Florida Panthers delayed the start of their game against the Washington Capitals to honor the victims of the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting. On Valentine’s Day, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz burst into the school and killed 17 people with an AR-15 style rifle.
The game marked the first time the team had been back at BB&T Center since the tragedy. The Panthers’ 15-minute salute was beautiful and tear-inducing.
Before the game, the Panthers took down the normal advertisements on their dasherboards and surrounded the rink with the Stoneman Douglas logo and the hashtag MSDSTRONG. The Panthers also super imposed the school’s logo on the ice and on the jumbotron.
#MSDstrong dasherboards and the Marjory Stoneman Douglas school logo on @thebbtcenter ice tonight before the #FlaPanthers host the Capitals.
Coverage starts at 7 pm on @FOXPanthers. pic.twitter.com/GIaLkLjuk2
— FOX Sports Florida (@FOXSportsFL) February 22, 2018
Photos: @cotsonika
All players from both teams wore Stoneman Douglas hats during warmups.
Both teams will be wearing these hats during warmups tonight. Panthers will have a pre-game ceremony in remembrance for the nearby Parkland school shooting victims. pic.twitter.com/KZuI2er4I4
— Isabelle Khurshudyan (@ikhurshudyan) February 22, 2018
Andre Burakovsky wears a Stoneman Douglas High School hat during intermission interview pic.twitter.com/i1rn9UiPn6
— Ian Oland (@ianoland) February 23, 2018
The Panthers also wore special patches during the game.
The @FlaPanthers — wearing MSD patches on their jerseys and MSD caps during warmups — are prepared for an emotional night tonight in Sunrise for their first home game since the tragic shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School last Wednesday. #MSDStrong #FlaPanthers pic.twitter.com/7wKrNzxxpR
— FOX Sports Florida (@FOXSportsFL) February 23, 2018
The Panthers goaltenders also rocked stickers on their masks.
Alyssa Alhadeff. Scott Beigel. Martin Duque. Nicholas Dworet. Aaron Feis. Jaime Guttenberg. Chris Hixon. Luke Hoyer. Cara Loughran. Gina Montalto. Joaquin Oliver. Alaina Petty. Meadow Pollack. Helena Ramsay. Alex Schachter. Carmen Schentrup. Peter Wang.
17 names. Never forget. pic.twitter.com/xaY5GGbimn
— NHL (@NHL) February 23, 2018
When the ceremony began, the Panthers played an emotional tribute video focused on the people who were tragically killed. The Panthers wrote on Twitter: “Alyssa Alhadeff. Scott Beigel. Martin Duque. Nicholas Dworet. Aaron Feis. Jaime Guttenberg. Chris Hixon. Luke Hoyer. Cara Loughran. Gina Montalto. Joaquin Oliver. Alaina Petty. Meadow Pollack. Helena Ramsay. Alex Schachter. Carmen Schentrup. Peter Wang. 17 names. Never forget.”
"We will find strength in each other." FOX Sports Florida's Randy Moller addresses the crowd before the game between the Florida Panthers and the Washington Capitals. #FlaPanthers #MSDStrong #NHL #OneTerritory pic.twitter.com/3rkwX2LOAw
— FOX Sports Florida (@FOXSportsFL) February 23, 2018
The FOX Sports Florida’s television analyst spoke to the crowd and honored the victims that were lost.
“All of us are sharing a grief we all understand, yet find difficult to comprehend,” Moller said. “We are broken hearted that 17 children and teachers were robbed of their lives and hundreds of family members and friends have had their worlds shattered as well. None of us will ever see these hopeful children blossom into the contributors to the community that we could so vividly envision. As these innocent souls rest in peace, it is we that feel the anguish, the burden, and the responsibility to take positive action to ensure such brutal, senseless, violent destruction hurts no more families and steals the lives of no more children.
“As our community and nation comes to the grips with this vexing dilemma, let us please vow to work together in love, in harmony, in unity for the sake of humanity, the sake of our country, and the sake of our children both living and lost. We will remember the heroes and we will remember the bright lights gone dark. We will find strength in each other for only together can we bring change to our community that we all so desperately seek. Won’t you join together now in silent devotion as we remember those whom we lost and as we commit to unite to ensure that such tragedy befalls us no more.”
The Panthers shined a spotlight on all 17 victims’ names on the ice before slowly dimming each during a moment of silence.
God Bless America was sang slowly by a young boy wearing a shirt that had Parkland imposed over a heart.
The Cardinal Gibbons High School Choir sings the National Anthem prior to tonight's game between the @FlaPanthers and the Washington Capitals. #FlaPanthers #MSDStrong #NHL #OneTerritory pic.twitter.com/REetwDMSg4
— FOX Sports Florida (@FOXSportsFL) February 23, 2018
The Cardinal Gibbons High School Choir sang the National Anthem.
An emotional Roberto Luongo addresses the home crowd prior to tonight's game, saying he is inspired by how the students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas have responded after the school shooting last Wednesday. #MSDStrong #NHL #FlaPanthers #OneTerritory pic.twitter.com/KV1ERJvr7l
— FOX Sports Florida (@FOXSportsFL) February 23, 2018
The full text of his speech can be read here.
Russian Machine Never Breaks is not associated with the Washington Capitals; Monumental Sports, the NHL, or its properties. Not even a little bit.
All original content on russianmachineneverbreaks.com is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0)– unless otherwise stated or superseded by another license. You are free to share, copy, and remix this content so long as it is attributed, done for noncommercial purposes, and done so under a license similar to this one.
Share On