{"id":416013,"date":"2026-01-19T13:58:58","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T13:58:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/416013\/"},"modified":"2026-01-19T13:58:58","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T13:58:58","slug":"stanley-cup-champions-florida-panthers-honored-at-the-white-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/416013\/","title":{"rendered":"Stanley Cup champions Florida Panthers honored at the White House"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 2025 NHL Stanley Cup champions, the Florida Panthers, visited the White House<\/a> on Thursday, participating in the honorary custom of sports league champions \u2014 professional and college \u2014 getting a special ceremony with the president. The Florida<\/a> Panthers defeated the Edmonton Oilers for the second straight year. They won the seven-game series 4-2 in June 2025.<\/p>\n

It is the second year in a row that Florida has won the NHL<\/a> championship, and the second consecutive year that President Donald Trump has honored the organization with a ceremony at the White House.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an honor to welcome to the White House, the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions, the Florida Panthers,\u201d Trump said in his opening comments. \u201cUnbelievable team, unbelievable athletes, players. These men are responsible for the greatest feats in Panthers\u2019 franchise history.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd beyond that,\u201d Trump said, \u201cyou compare them to some of the greatest hockey teams ever.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump then mentioned the team\u2019s recent dominance in the hockey league, citing some of the accomplishments and awards they have won in recent years, mentioning the organization\u2019s \u201cfirst-ever President\u2019s trophy, three straight Finals appearances \u2026 and an incredible two straight Stanley Cup victories.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump joked with the Panthers about not winning all three Stanley Cup Finals the team has been in, playfully asking, \u201cAnd the one that you didn\u2019t make, what the hell happened to you? You should have won that game.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it was good to do the little comeback, right?\u201d Trump said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cComebacks are wonderful, actually,\u201d Trump said in what some have interpreted as a nod to his own political comeback. Those in attendance laughed at the line. He also praised the Panthers\u2019 owner, Vincent Viola.<\/p>\n

\u201cVinnie\u2019s a winner,\u201d Trump said. \u201c So, you learn from the owner, I guess.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump then acknowledged some of the team\u2019s star players and shook their hands.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Panthers presented Trump with a No. 47 Florida Panthers jersey, for being the 47th president, championship rings, and a golden hockey stick during the ceremony.<\/p>\n

Panthers owner Vincent Viola spoke at the ceremony, thanking the president and expressing humility about the team\u2019s success.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr. President, it really humbles me to be in your presence and the kindness you\u2019ve shown me, my organization, from a very long time ago, it\u2019s not lost on us,\u201d Viola said. \u201cBut the privilege to be at the White House, with you while you\u2019re president, is extra special. I\u2019m going to make it pretty clear that we are honored to be here, and we\u2019re honored to be here with you as the president.\u201d<\/p>\n

COMMANDERS UNVEIL RFK STADIUM RENDERINGS AS TRUMP PUSHES FOR CLASSICAL DESIGN<\/a><\/p>\n

Panthers star player, Matthew Tkachuk, also spoke at the ceremony and expressed his gratitude and pride to be in the White House.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn behalf of the whole organization and mainly the players,\u201d Tkachuk said. \u201cWe are so honored to be here. Being an American, I know I said it last year, but nothing beats this. I\u2019m so proud to be an American. I\u2019m so proud to be here with you and everybody else.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hope to be here next year,\u201d Tkachuk said. \u201cThat\u2019s the plan.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2025 NHL Stanley Cup champions, the Florida Panthers, visited the White House on Thursday, participating in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":416014,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5102],"tags":[23,62,57,5141,5,4,63,43,9595],"class_list":["post-416013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida-panthers","tag-donald-trump","tag-florida","tag-florida-panthers","tag-floridapanthers","tag-hockey","tag-nhl","tag-panthers","tag-sports","tag-white-house"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115922125662312698","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=416013"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416013\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/416014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=416013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=416013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=416013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}