Dave Hyde: Panthers get their rings of honor -- and a new season to chase a second

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — One by one, the Florida Panthers players were called Monday night to the front of the War Memorial Auditorium by team owner Vincent Viola to get a box holding their championship ring, get a hug and a personal message as last season celebrated its final night.

“This guy’s very special to me and my family” Viola said in calling up team captain Aleksander Barkov.

Carter Verhaeghe, the owner called, “Iceman,” for his calm demeanor, and defenseman Gustav Forsling was, a, “gentleman of unparalleled character” on and off the ice.

The plan was to share this ceremony with their fans on the eve of their season opener, but the early signs of Hurricane Milton canceled that idea. So, the Panthers met as an organization on the eve of Tuesday’s season opener in the redone auditorium, a venue so new this was its first event.

The coaches, front-office personnel and support staff received their boxes first with instructions not to open. Viola had messages for them all right through players like Sam Bennett, who met the owner in his suite early last season.

“Sam looked at (me) and said, ‘We’re going to win the Stanley Cup,’ ” Viola said. “I thought, ‘Oh, man, he’s got some spice.’ ”

Now the Stanley Cup sat on a table as a countdown began to open the boxes. Inside, a highlight video ran of their playoffs with the hood ornament of a ring that didn’t just have diamonds and a Stanley Cup, but a rat, two palm trees and a map of Florida with a red ruby at Broward.

“It was the best-kept secret around — no one knew what it would look like,” forward Matthew Tkachuk said.

So, there’s just one more event to celebrate from last year’s title: The banner-raising at Tuesday’s opener. The Panthers open with a roster that reflects some of the cost of winning.

The Panthers signed Sam Reinhart, last year’s top goal scorer, for $8.5 million a year. But defensemen Brandon Montour and Oliver Ekman-Larsson left in free agency and the fourth line had to be reconfigured with the loss of Ryan Lomberg and Kevin Stenlund.

Coach Paul Maurice is waiting to read the personality of this team that changed from loose and funny two years ago during its run to the Final to the so-serious team that won it all last season. His early read is a good one: The team reported in even better shape than a year ago for a camp that always begins hard.

“Our first four days (of practice), we exceeded last year,” Maurice said.

Now starts the long march to say what that means. Wayne Gretzky, who had plenty of practice navigating long seasons, broke his year into three appreciable chapters: the regular season; the playoffs; and the Stanley Cup Final.

Game 1 comes with a backstory, too, considering the Panthers play the Boston team they’ve shoved into the offseason the past two playoffs. It was in a raucous Game 2 last spring that Tkachuk and Boston scorer David Pastrnak fought in the manner two stars rarely do in the NHL to define these teams series.

So, while Maurice knows the banner raising will be fun for everyone …

“I’m looking forward to the hockey,” he said. “Really, it’s great it’s Boston. We’ve played them 21 times the past two years, and they’ve been 21 amazing games. In terms of intensity and physicality, the series last year was as heavy a series as I’ve coached.

“It was as hard, as physically demanding a series, as we played in the entire playoffs. So it’s fitting that there here, respectfully. It’s the right way. We played so hard to get there, it should be Boston here, because they probably played us as hard as anyone.”

Here they are again. Game 1. The champs are back. With their new rings. And against a top rival.

“A fitting start,” Maurice said.