Before they hit the ice, the Florida Panthers hit the ice cream stand.
A post on the NHL’s social media shows the team in front of the Dairy Queen in Wilton Manors, posing for pics with their Reece’s Pieces Cookie Dough Blizzards.
“They were really nice guys,” franchise owner Lynn Lawrence said.
The Panthers and ice cream quickly became something of an urban legend during this playoff run. People thought they spotted future Hall of Famer Brad Marchand eating ice cream during a game. He insists it was a spoon of honey. But it was too late, and the story took on a life of its own.
Hockey players are notoriously superstitious, so before game six of the finals — the game that would clinch the Stanley Cup for the second year in a row — the team stopped by the iconic DQ.
“I had no idea who they were,” Lawrence said. “I saw them taking pictures and I didn’t realize it until the next day.”
The NHL’s now-viral post is captioned: “It was over the moment the Florida Panthers went to Dairy Queen the night before Game 6.” The Panthers’ practice facility is in Holiday Park, just a couple of miles away, so it makes sense that the little DQ is a big hit with the team.
Fans were all in as well.
“We had a 40 customer streak of Reece’s Pieces Cookie Dough. They were all ordering [that] since that was Marchand’s favorite ice cream. They said it was gonna be good luck.”
Hopefully a player will stop by with the Stanley Cup and have it filled with the Marchand Blizzard.
