Who should the captain pass the Stanley Cup to first?
It’s an age-old question whenever sports’ most iconic trophy is awarded, knowing the first hand-off is the most sentimental. So, what happens when the majority of your core has been in this exact position, just one year ago?
“We decided together that the guys who haven’t won yet, they’re going to go first,” Barkov told Sportsnet’s Gene Principe after hoisting the Cup. “Because, it’s amazing. We know how nice it feels to lift the Cup, so they get to go first, and then everyone else.”
Barkov’s first handoff was to defenceman Nate Schmidt, an NHL veteran who signed with the Panthers on a one-year contract worth $800,000 after he was bought out by the Winnipeg Jets. The undrafted native of St. Cloud, Minn. has spent 12 years in the NHL but had previously never won — as a member of the Vegas Golden Knights, he fell to the Washington Capitals in the 2018 Stanley Cup Final.
“No,” Schmidt laughed when Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman asked if he knew Barkov would hand him the Cup first. “A couple of guys said, ‘Hey Schmitty, keep a heads up.’ Then (Barkov) looked right at me and I kind of froze, I didn’t think he was coming to me! But he said, ‘Schmitty, it’s your turn. Take your time with it, enjoy the moment.’ Man, that’s the best lap I’ve ever done in hockey.”
Schmidt then passed the Cup along to fellow first-time winner Seth Jones, who joined the Panthers ahead of the trade deadline. Jones, also a 12-year NHL veteran, played just 37 playoff games prior to this run with Florida, spending the bulk of his career with the Columbus Blue Jackets before joining a rebuilding Chicago Blackhawks team.
“This is… (expletive) the best day of my life,” Jones told Principe post-game. “Every day you go to work, try to get better. This is the ultimate goal. This is what you do. You think about it as a kid every single day, playing in the driveway.”
The Panthers were so committed to giving first-timers their laps, it took several minutes for players like Matthew Tkachuk, Brad Marchand, Conn Smythe winner Sam Bennett and Sam Reinhart to take their laps around Amerant Bank Arena.
“It doesn’t really register right away. Like, you can’t really feel it till the Cup comes out on the ice. You don’t really know until you see it, feel it. It’s got its own heartbeat, right? It breathes all the players that have ever touched it.”
