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Panthers' Brad Marchand's eventful run with Stanley Cup

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Panthers GM tells McAfee how the team was built (1:34)

Panthers GM Bill Zito tells Pat McAfee about Florida's path to back-to-back Stanley Cups. (1:34)

It's been 14 years since Brad Marchand last had the chance to party with the Stanley Cup. He's older and wiser -- in the sense that he won't be getting a misspelled tattoo such as the "champians" one he had inked with the Boston Bruins in 2011.

But the man still knows how to celebrate a championship -- in the most Brad Marchand of ways.

Here is how Marchand has enjoyed his victory tour so far.

Wednesday, Elbo Room, Fort Lauderdale

The Florida Panthers won the Stanley Cup in Game 6 on Tuesday night, and needless to say, the celebration didn't end on the ice. It continued in the locker room and in the luxury suites at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, Florida. The Cup would occasionally make an appearance back on the ice early Wednesday morning for photos with friends and family.

But eventually the party broke out of the arena and into the rest of South Florida -- similar to when captain Aleksander Barkov rang the doorbells of his neighbors around 5 a.m. to present them with the Cup.

Later on Wednesday morning, the Panthers continued the tradition they started last season in bringing the Cup to Elbo Room, a two-story dive bar near the beach in Fort Lauderdale.

With news helicopters flying overhead, they loaded beer into the top of the Cup and poured it on the fans below. When Marchand appeared on the balcony, fans chanted "Thank You, Boston!" in honor of the deadline trade that sent him to the Panthers.

Marchand was in his element as the players rolled through the town on golf carts.

He held a coffee and a vodka-based iced tea drink in one hand, a cigar in another, a bottle of beer under his arm with the Stanley Cup nuzzled by his knee.


Thursday, Maple & Ash, Miami

Marchand and the Panthers are known for their taunting, trolling and agitation on the ice. Just because the season's over doesn't mean Marchand isn't going to continue to find new wounds to shovel salt.

While the Panthers were celebrating their championship with a team dinner at Maple & Ash in Miami, Marchand added photos to his Instagram story that thanked all the teams who traded, released or allowed their players to leave to sign with Florida.

Marchand said the team was sitting at dinner and reminiscing about how they all ended up as Panthers.

"We all have our own story about maybe not being the happiest about the situation at the time, but we all got here, whether by choice or not by choice," he said. "It's so cliché, but everything happens for a reason. All those teams making bad decisions to get rid of guys and our team making incredible decisions to bring them all in, it all played a part in us winning the Cup."

Marchand posted a photo of every teammate and mentioned the Instagram handle of their former teams. The Calgary Flames were thanked three times -- for forward Matthew Tkachuk, AJ Greer and "Thanks for the MVP" for Conn Smythe winner Sam Bennett. He thanked the Winnipeg Jets for coach Paul Maurice and the Columbus Blue Jackets for GM Bill Zito. He thanked former Panthers GM Dale Tallon for the team's homegrown stars such as Barkov.

Some of Marchand's teammates then posted their own photos of the winger, thanking the Bruins.


Friday (very early) morning, E11EVEN, Miami

To say the Panthers' party at this Miami nightspot was eventful would be an understatement.

There was the moment Bennett revealed his intentions to remain with the Panthers on a new contract ahead of free agency. There were vulgar chants directed towards Edmonton Oilers star Connor McDavid, whose team lost to Florida in consecutive Stanley Cup Finals. The Panthers occupied the bar to pour drinks for fans.

As for Marchand, he once again managed to marry the euphoria of championship success with elite-level trolling: Crowd-surfing with the Stanley Cup while the DJ played a remix of "Pink Pony Club," the Chappell Roan song that served as Edmonton's victory celebration anthem during the postseason.

To cool Marchand off, it was time for ice cream.


Friday afternoon, Dairy Queen, Sunrise

The Panthers made field trips to Dairy Queen as part of their postseason routine, starting during the Eastern Conference final against the Carolina Hurricanes. It became as much about team bonding as it was hockey superstition.

Marchand became the face of their collective sweet tooth. During a postgame interview on Canadian television, his comments left fans confused about whether or not the spoonful of food he was seen eating between periods was, in fact, a Dairy Queen Blizzard. Instead, it was honey, something Marchand has enjoyed since he was a child, when he fed it to his stuffed Winnie the Pooh doll.

"It's what we do in Halifax. We feed teddy bears honey," he said.

But Marchand professed his love of Dairy Queen so often that they invited him to work the counter in Sunrise on Friday. He brought out a tray of Blizzards and even did the DQ spoon test for quality of thickness. Later, he went to the back and made a few of his own.

Dairy Queen created the one-day-only "Brad Blizzard" sold at the restaurant with cookie dough and chocolate chips.

"It's incredible, the moments that you look back on, and at the time you don't appreciate what they could mean at the end of the day," Marchand said. "The first time we went to Dairy Queen, we just wanted to walk off our dinner, and it became a huge organic moment. To the point where we met up before Game 6 because we needed the luck."

They had the luck. They have the Cup. And as Marchand showed more than anyone, they earned the party.