Panthers pay tribute to Parkland school shooting victims in emotional Florida re

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SUNRISE, Fla. The sport of hockey was originally created as a diversion for the winter months, but in recent years, the game and current events have sometimes become irrevocably intertwined, with the game left just trying to play a small role in helping people forget for a while about some of the tragedies surrounding them. From the Colorado Avalanche wearing CHS patches and rescheduling playoff games in the wake of the Columbine shooting in 1999, to Mark Me sier wearing one of the 9/11 victims helmets at Madison Square Garden in the first sporting event in Manhattan following the World Trade Centers collapse in 2001, to this past October with the emotional regular season debut of the Vegas Golden Knights in the wake of another ma sshooting in that city, hockey has tried to help heal what it could during its season. Game No. 936 between Florida and Washington in this years NHL schedule broke out of the normal course of a season and took its place with those other sad, yet memorable events with thePanthers returning home following a long western road trip during which tragedy befell Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., located just 15 minutes from Mark Bavaro Jersey BB&T Center and a few minutes from the Panthers’ practice facility. MORE: Parkland iswhere several the teams players call home and send their kids to school. The Panthers were acro s the continent in Vancouver when the shooting that killed 17 took placeFeb. 14, and they slowly wound their way eastward, arriving back to South Florida following Tuesdays game in Toronto. Players wore black Stoneman Douglas hats as they conducted media interviews at the morning skate, and both the Panthers and Capitals wore them during pregame warmups. The ads at BB&T Center normally hawking insurance, upcoming concerts and cars were stripped off the dasher boards during the afternoon, replaced with red and grey MSDSTRONG logos, and the NHL logo in the corner replaced with the schools wordmark. Tonights post-game honors go to Stoneman Douglas. Florida Panthers (@FlaPanthers) The Panthers sleeves were fastened with a freshly stitched MSD patch, while their helmets also had the schools logo on a sticker affixed to the back. Both will remain there for the rest of the season. As the teams returned to the bench for the games scheduled start,the lights of the arena went out and a montage of mourning residents and the 17 victims of the Valentines Day shooting was shownon the BB&T Centers scoreboard. Aly sa 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. NHL (@NHL) MORE: Panthers radio voice Randy Moeller then walked to a podium placed at center ice to addre s the crowd, asking for change,surrounded by 17 white spotlights projected onto the ice, each one containing a name of a victim of the shooting. The crowd was silent as God Ble s America was sung, and after that, Parkland resident and Panthers goaltender Roberto Luongo skated off the bench, grabbed a microphone under the spotlight and addre sed the crowd at BB&T Center, his voice shaking with emotion and grief during a speech that lasted just under three minutes. An emotional Roberto Luongo addre ses the home crowd prior to tonight’s game, saying he is inspired by how the students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas have responded Greg Stroman Jr. Jersey after the school shooting last Wednesday. FOX Sports Florida (@FOXSportsFL) I just want to start off by saying I live in Parkland, Ive been there the last 12 years, my wife was born and raised in that area, my kids go to school in Parkland, and when Im done playing hockey, I want to spend the rest of my life in Parkland I love that city, he told the crowd Aaron Stinnie Jersey . Last week, Valentines Day, I was in Vancouver, you all know what happened, and it was hard for me to be on the West Coast and not be able to get back home and protect my family. No child should ever have to go through that. Its terrible. Its time for us as a community, to take action. Its enough. TRADE TRACKER: Following Luongos impa sioned addre s, the Star-Spangled Banner was played, and the two teams left the bench to briefly warm up, and then got underway to take care of busine s at hand. But it certainly wasnt a normal day at the rink, and the players knew it. Even despite a dramatic 3-2 win where the Panthers scored twice in the final 3:42 to grab two important points, the players couldnt help thinking about the events of the past week and the outpouring of emotion before the game. An emotional night in Florida ends with bringing the entire state to its feet. NHL (@NHL) Obvoiusly, we knew going in it was going to be an emotional night for us and the entire city, so we did a good job with the service, and obviously its a very tough situation, Nick Bjugstad said afterward. For us to go out and win, its fun, but its just a game and what happened in the past week was really tough for us, and I cant imagine how tough it is for the families and people attending that school. Luongo said the speech was one of the toughest things hes ever had to do in his NHL career. I’ve been thinking about it the last two days, he said. Its mostly on my mind, and tough to focus on the game, because I wanted to make sure I got my me sage acro s, and Im glad it worked out well. MORE: The first minutes of the game were very difficult to be honest with you I was not in the zone is a good way of putting it, the emotion was running high from the ceremony. I was able to settle down and play my game. We had a little help from above We had little angels helping us tonight, I think, to pull out a big win. With the Panthers on the cuspof the wild-card race of the Eastern Conference, coach Bob Boughner acknowledged a Stanley Cup playoff berth paled in comparison to the local events. I know at the end of the day, theyre profe sional, and they have a job to do, and how important this home stretch is important for us, Boughner told the media in the morning. When you look at the other side of things, it doesnt seem very important when youre dealing with something like this. Its not easy to sort of separate the two, but our Wayne Gallman Jersey guys know how important this situation is to the community, and how important going through this situation as a team, and well do our best with that. We’re back for the second. Florida Panthers (@FlaPanthers) The minds of the Panthers have been on their adopted home since the shooting occurred while the team was getting ready to play the Canucks, over 2,800 miles from what was going on just a short distance from Floridas practice rink in Coral Springs. It was tough, captain Derek MacKenzie said of the trip. It was real tough. I live in Parkland, the kids go to the school up the street. I think things have changed when I got the news the kids were safe, I kind of switched gears and hoped for the best for the rest of the community I said before it was tougher on the wives and families who had kids in lockdown. It was long 10, 11 days for us, I would have loved to come back and hugged some people before we did, but were back today. MORE: Even visiting Capitals coach Barry Trotz knew the game carried a greater meaning. Obviously with the tragedy here, weve got to stop that, he said. And obviously this effects this area because this is home base. I think theres going to be solidarity and everybody thinks what should happen going forward. MacKenzie also hoped his club could draw some inspiration from the community it represents, as they settled back home after their road trip. I think you look back at the Vancouver game, we went a lot on emotion and I think you find ways to control it and you use it,” he said, “and certainly as a member of the Parkland community, and very proud how everyones come together. They stood up and tried to change things. If anything else, theyve been inspiring to myself and the rest of the team and hopefully thats something we can Aldrick Rosas Jersey use tonight. Boughner knew the teams perspective changed once they toucheddown home in the early hours Wednesday, and would do their best to honor their community. Its our first chance to sort of see the reality of it all,” he said. “Obviously, you hear that kind news from the road, you see from a distance what everyones dealing with in the community, and you follow it as best as you can. But until you get home and see it up close obviously, its going to be an emotional night. A lot of our guys seem to know somebody who was effected by the tragedy, and just being there We have a role to play in this for the community. Well get through this, and honor it appropriately and never forget what happened.

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