Stoneman Douglas Players Get To Raise Stanley Cup

Last week I wrote about the Stoneman Douglas High School Hockey team winning the state championship in Florida 11 days after one of the deadliest mass shootings in American history took place at their school. This week, the Stoneman Douglas players are preparing for the National Championship tournament that will take place in Minnesota later this month. They’re doing so at the Florida Panthers facilities while the Panthers are on the road.

Along with helping Stoneman Douglas pay for the trip to Minnesota, the Panthers had another surprise in store for the Eagles. The Stanley Cup. Every hockey players dream is to raise the Stanley cup on the ice with all the guys you grew up playing with, and Parkland’s Stoneman Douglas High School Hockey team got to experience that dream on Monday when they raised they cup at center ice at the Panthers arena.

The entire country will be rooting for the Eagles when they head to Minnesota to take on some of the best high school hockey teams in the country. I’m sure the reception Parkland’s team will get will be something else. They’ll even have Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere rooting for them.

Gostisbehere, a former student at Stoneman Douglas, surprised the team Sunday after their game against the Panthers. Meeting the team and taking pictures with them. “It was definitely special”, Ghost told the Sun-Sentinel. “Just to get their minds off all the bad stuff that’s happened in the past couple weeks and put some fun in their lives and just shoot the stuff. Obviously, them winning brings the community together.”

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