MIAMI — The story, as it unfolded, was hard to process.

Two strangers in their late 20s, bonded by the Florida Panthers and travel plans that had gone awry, somehow found themselves on a last-ditch effort to salvage their travel from South Florida to Western Canada for Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final and to potentially see hockey history unfold. A 10-hour travel day turned into 22 — including four hours in Ubers and adding two more airports to our itinerary.

We can laugh about it now. It has been more than a week since everything happened. And the Florida Panthers ultimately won that elusive first Stanley Cup, although not on that trip, so it made the excursion and the aftermath that much more memorable.

But looking back, little did either know how this trip would bond two complete strangers.

How it started

The conversation began innocently enough.

As I waited for my delayed flight from Fort Lauderdale to Toronto — the first step to get to Edmonton for Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final — I saw a Panthers fan named Jake Levine wearing a Gustav Forsling sweater and talking with a couple other travelers in Panthers garb.

Different circumstances brought us to this moment — Levine and his family are season-ticket holders, I’m wrapping up my first full season covering the team for the Miami Herald — but we were both on our way to hopefully see history.

The Panthers, leading the best-of-7 series 3-2, needed just one more win against the Edmonton Oilers to hoist the Stanley Cup for the first time in franchise history.

About an hour into our three-hour flight, Levine and I both got the notification: Our connecting flight to Edmonton got canceled.

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