SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — There were 19,151 people in the seats at Amerant Bank Arena to watch the Florida Panthers rally from three goals down and beat the Detroit Red Wings.
About a dozen of those people might have been a bit prouder than the rest.
The Panthers' annual Dads' Trip — just like it sounds, the road trip where fathers of players come along for the ride — is this weekend, with the team flying to St. Louis on Friday, playing the Blues there on Saturday,
then heading to Dallas for a game on Sunday.
Some of the fathers got a head start on the weekend and were in town for Thursday's 5-4 comeback win over the Wings, getting cheered when they were shown on the scoreboard video screen. They raised their beverages, acknowledging the fans.
“It’s going to be a lot of fun," Panthers defenseman Gustav Forsling said of the trip. "I know my dad, he's very excited. He flew all the way from Sweden, came in (Thursday) night. He's very pumped.”
The Panthers have been doing these trips since 2017 and some teams have been making them since the late 1990s. There's usually a meal for the players and their dads, suites for the dads to watch the road games and a whole lot of bonding. When last year's trip took the Panthers to Nashville, the dads fit into the country music capital of the world by donning matching vests, jeans and cowboy hats.
Panthers forward Carter Verhaeghe's dad is meeting the group in St. Louis and missed his son's three-assist night that played a huge role in the Florida comeback on Thursday. Verhaeghe said that anytime the dads are around, there's an extra impetus on playing well.
“It’s pretty cool," Verhaeghe said. "I think once we get on the road, it will be pretty cool to get everyone together for dinner and everything like that. Dads' Trip is always fun. Great tradition every year. It’s a lot of fun seeing all the dads and how much fun they have traveling as an NHL player.”
Panthers coach Paul Maurice suggested that, by now, the trip should be renamed. Florida has one of the older rosters in the league, with many of its players now married and starting their own families.
Maurice looks forward to the trip, if for no other reason than he gets some unpaid assistant coaches out on the road for a couple of games — since the dads have been watching their sons play for their entire lives.
“These guys have coached them a lot longer than I have in all aspects of life," Maurice said. "But what’s great this year, I think this is probably our first grandfather’s trip, basically. I mean, almost every guy in our room has had a baby. When we started here, half of them weren’t even married. So, it’s a grandpa trip.”
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