President Trump: Well, thank you very much. Please sit down. We’ll enjoy this. This, we’re going to be here for a little while with great Champions today. We’re thrilled to welcome the, and and this is really some special because I watch those games and I was a little bit worried after I watched the three up while this is over because Vinnie’s a friend of mine and then they lost three and I said, oh, this is going to be a tough loss. That would not, I don’t know that would have been bad. But you that’s a real champions can pull it out. But the 2024 Stanley Cup champions, the Florida Panthers. And it was a tremendous championship and watched by all and uh the entire team, congratulations on your first ever Stanley Cup win. And you had a couple of really close calls and I watched the team get better and better and better and then they won. In particular, I want to congratulate your team owner Vinnie Biola, my friend. His sons, John Michael and Michael Thomas. Where are your sons? Where are where are they? Nice job. And head coach Paul Maurice. Really fantastic. That’s a nice ring. That’s a good coach too. General manager Bill Zito. Bill. And president and CEO Matthew Caldwell. We also please please to be joined by NHL commissioner Gary Bettman. Where’s Gary? Gary, come here. Gary, done a great job. I knew him a long while right when he was in another league. But uh this has been incredible the job you’ve done. Thank you very much. Senators Rick Scott and Ashley Moody. Rick. Rick. Ashley, congratulations to Ashley and representatives Byron Donalds. Byron, thank you very much. Gus Bilirakis, thank you very much. Guys. Michael Waltz, Michael. Good job, Michael. Anna Paulina Luna. Hi, sir. How are you? Congratulations. Jared Moskowitz. Jared. Very good. And Maria Salazar. Thank you, Maria. Thank you very much. We have a couple of others. I’m going to get myself in big trouble because I don’t know where you are. I know you’re here someplace. But we got to get on to ice hockey. The Panthers 2023 and 2024 season was one for the history books. It was really an exciting one. I everybody was watching it. You secured the Atlantic division title for the third time and after coming up just short of the Stanley Cup the year prior, you gave the fans one of the most riveting comebacks in NHL history, in any sport history. I

don’t know anything about a comeback but they tell me it’s very exciting. I never viewed mine as a comeback. I never said I, this was not a comeback. Team captain Alexander Sasha Barkov was crowned the League’s best defensive forward after winning his second Selke Trophy and that was a great honor. It’s a big deal to do that. Where where is he? So we lost him. And when facing off against your cross State rivals, the Tampa Bay Lightning, Matthew Tkachuk’s firepower was unmatched, contributing two goals and two assists. And he led the way to a glorious 9-2 victory. 9-2 victory. 9-2 victory in one game. How many times have people done that? That was, how the hell did they take you 9-2 victory and then you you go to seven games? How did that happen? You were surprised too. Setting a franchise record with the Panthers 11th consecutive win in the road. And then Anton Lundell also had a memorable season, racking up 35 points with 13 goals and 22 assists. He won 55% of his faceoffs, setting an all-time career high while just 22 years old. And congratulations to Anton. Where is he? A good looking young guy. That’s great. And don’t worry, you’ll get beat up in life a little bit. Your team’s many successes were the result of incredible performances across the board. And I’m sure you agree that your coach deserves a lot of credit. He’s a great coach. Nobody knows hockey like Paul. He’s the League’s second all-time leader in games coached and holds the record for the most wins in Florida’s Panthers history. And I assume he’s going to be around for a long time, right? He’s not going anywhere, coach. I want to be your agent, coach. Under Paul’s leadership, the Panthers have become a finely tuned machine with a rock solid defensive and offensive uh I mean your offense is great, your defense is great. The whole thing. It’s very tough to beat uh and I will tell you, I looked at your current record. You’re doing pretty well, right? You’re nicely positioned. Yeah, you know the expression, he’s nicely positioned. I love all these tires. This is so cute. These people, look at them. I walked in, I said, I think they like Trump. I like them. And you aren’t just great uh Protectors of the net, you’re also known as the biggest brawlers on. I, I was with a man named Wayne Gretzky the other day. Do you know W

ayne Gretzky? Did you ever hear of Wayne Gretzky, The Great One? And he was telling me uh about a gentleman that protected him named Marty McSorley. Do you know that? You ever hear of him? I don’t know if he was a good hockey player but they say he was very tough. And Wayne was saying he was great as far as he was concerned. Tough cookies. All of the team’s hard work led up to big showdowns last June where you defeated the Edmonton Oilers in an unforgettable, and it was seven game series. The Panthers, as I said, started strong with a three to nothing lead. It was over. It was over. In fact, I didn’t watch the last next two games because I said this is not going to be too exciting. And then I said, uhoh, this is not good. Then I really said, uhoh, right? We went to a game seven. But the Oilers made impressive recoveries and really amazing actually the way they played too. They even the score and forced a decisive game seven. The series was a battle from from start to finish. It made it actually much more interesting. Goalie Sergei Bobrovsky, and he was incredible. Oh, I got to see him. Where is he? How good is he? You were you were, I mean, Hall of Fame. And even how old are you, boy? I tell you, you were unbelievable. What a what an amazing job you did and there was a lot of pressure. And I mean it that that deal that game seven, you guys had to be like uh man. And you played great. That was great. Great job you did on behalf of everybody that watched. Thank you. Bob was nothing short of phenomenal during the finals. In the first 40 minutes of game one, Bob made an astounding 25 saves. He’s wow, he’s the first goalie to get a shutout in game one of the Stanley Cup in 13 years. And his 23 saves in game seven were absolutely crucial to securing a very very tight victory. And Bob started his career as an undrafted free agent and is now a Stanley Cup champion and will go down as one of the great goal Keepers uh in all time history. It’s really really a big a big honor For You especially what you were undrafted. So he made a good deal. In other words, it’s the best thing you’d like to find more like that, huh? So it’s a what a great achievement, Bob. Congrat, congratulations. But the title couldn’t have been won if you didn’t have a man named Carter Verhaeghe. Carter. For I heard, I sai

d a hair is right. I, I heard that name so much. Verhaeghe, a scoring champion. And he, the scoring and you really the opening goal of that game was very important, wasn’t it? That put you in a position where got you the the butterflies out a little bit. Way to go. Congratulations. That’s great job, everybody. Carter skillfully directed a shot past the Oilers goalie and gave the Panthers your first lead in the series since game three. And not to forget Sam Reinhart who had a legendary shot in game seven. That certainly was a legendary shot. Won the, that’s not going to be forgotten. After securing the puck from Carter, Sam carried it down the ice and flicked a wrist shot, very much like I would do it if I played right past the Oilers goalie, beating him. And uh and beat him on the glove side. Where are you? How did you feel after that shot? Like the greatest feeling or one of the greatest in life? You could say it. Five minutes. You had a long time left. It’s true. It’s true. You had a little bit to go. Sam cemented himself as uh in in Panthers history for shooting the team’s first ever Stanley Cup winning goal. That was a winning goal. Both teams showed tremendous willpower and athletic talent. Unbelievable talent. But in the end, the Panthers stood the ground and did what you have to do as a champion. You can’t be a champion unless you could go through something like that. And I can tell you it was hell for them that seventh game. Going to the seventh game had to be hell because uh you’re either going to win and really be praised because you came from such a horrible position to being life-threatening, right? I mean, that would have been just unbelievable. We’ve seen them. We’ve seen it happen. Happens a lot actually. But you didn’t let it happen to you. It’s an incredible achievement and I just want to tell you, you fought for every last point. And uh it was just something I watched. Mr Commissioner, I was watching that sucker for maybe the wrong reasons because of that guy. And I was hooked to because you you fell in love with that team. The guts and the courage they had. You really started to really like them. They’re great people and now I see them and in fact, I like them so much I said we’ll get rid of the fake news media very soon and we’re going to go t

o the Oval Office and we’re going to take some pictures in the Oval Office. Normally we don’t do that but we’re going to do it for this team and uh for you. And we’ll take, unless you don’t want to go, you can go home a little bit early. So today we honor the three and and these just really great athletes. These are amazing athletes. An amazing team and their outstanding achievements. They’re wonderful owner from underdogs to champions. They prove the dedication and hard work can transform dreams into reality. So congratulations once again to the Florida Panthers on just an unbelievable season and a a really an unbelievable run because you’ve been doing so well and now you continue to do well. We’ll be, we’ll try and get to one of those games. You know, it’s a little tough as president but I think we can work it out. We’ll have to we’ll need a lot of Secret Service. They’ll be happy. Well, we’re g- we’re going to get to do it. You’ve made your state and your fans very very proud. And now I’d like to introduce my friend Vinnie Viola, who’s a real champion himself. He’s a champion at everything he’s ever done. Loves the military. First thing he did, I see him, he said, you got to do this with the Army. You got to move them here. You got to, he’s given me all the instructions. You love the military. I would have liked him uh you know, we should have had you in Afghanistan instead of the characters we had. Would have would have turned out a little bit different, huh? Come here. Congratulations. Congratulations. Great, Vinnie, please.”

Vinnie Viola: “Well, first uh Mr. President, you look fantastic. Thank you. So whatever it is, you’re working so hard at, it’s agreeing with you and I like to see that. And thank you. So I we we brought, we brought a cohort to use a term, use the military of champions to visit a champion. And your kindness and the hospitality displayed by your staff is a simple reflection of the excellence that you demand of your people. And we were the beneficiaries of it today. So thank you. Thank you. Uh I want I want to I I really I’m going to keep this short because I really don’t enjoy this. Just a couple of points. South Florida, Florida more broadly has just been fantastic to us, Mr. President. We have uh with us two very special people. They know our team in and out.”

“I have to recognize them, Mark Began and Monica Shapiro from Broward County. They’re just two superstars. And uh it’s hard, you know, it’s hard to start really really, Gary, when we took the team it was it was a little tough and we needed, we really needed the help of the community and the political class and quite frankly, the private leadership. I could thank every uh member of the uh Panthers staff that were all here. The team. I’m going to bring up a guy that you would really like. He’s a just a tough, talented. His spirit just went right into the team. He’s helped to find that. His dad was a great player, uh Keith Tkachuk, if you remember him. Yeah, big strong guy. He’s like his dad. Before I do, I want to say one thing because my brain run runs all over the place. Jared Moskowitz, your dad, when I bought this team, spent countless hours with me driving me all over Fort Lauderdale. I mean, meeting with, right Monica? He was a great, great guy. I want you to know he was a great guy and I want you to know you carry him in your heart every day and he’d be so proud of you and the public service that’ll, Mr. President. I’m going to uh ask Matthew Tkachuk come up. We got a few things for you. Uh I really hope you like them, especially the, is it up there? We framed your we you’re you’re the only, listen, we had to go 45 and 47, right? And so uh uh I thought you’d like that. But instead of a Ranger Taps, because we we designed this like the Ranger battalion, your TAP says ‘Puss’ above the Florida. See that, Rick? That’s pretty cool, right? All right, Matthew, come on up here. Talk. You’re going to talk to the president about your team. Father around. Great. Thank you.”

Matthew Tkachuk: “Well, thank you, Mr. President, for having us today. We uh we greatly appreciate it and being one of the few Americans um you know, who loves this country so much. This is such an incredible day for myself and um you know, we wake up every day and really grateful to be an American. So thank you. But yeah, this this team and this group of guys is super special and uh everybody sees what we do on the ice, but I’ve built bonds with these guys that you know, I’ll have for the rest of my life. And I’m forever grateful for these guys. We’re forever Champs and I always remember these guys. True. Yeah. True. So with that said, we’ve got a few gifts for you now.

Source(s)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPBYcaOzuyg