On Monday night, the Stanley Cup Final shifts to Sunrise, Florida for Game 3. The series is tied 1-1 with each team picking up an overtime victory in Edmonton. The Edmonton Oilers won at home in Game 1 courtesy of Leon Draisatl, while the Florida Panthers evened the series two nights later off the stick of Brad Marchand.
Like most every team in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Panthers will be providing fans with rally towels to wave in support during Game 3. Fans will receive a towel with, what else, but a helmet-wearing, goalie stick-wielding rat as a ceremonial keepsake.
The rat also has a Panthers shield with the rally call of “Rats Rule.” If Florida wins we expect that a few fans who forgot to pack rubber rats will be throwing these on the ice instead.
It’s a cool design, but Florida went the extra mile with these. Hidden in the hockey playing rat design is the logo of all three teams the Panthers defeated en route to their third consecutive Stanley Cup final (thanks to Mark Masters of TSN for pointing them all out). First, they had to defeat their in-state rival the Tampa Bay Lightning in the first round in what has almost become a yearly occurrence of the “Battle of Florida”. On the rat’s knee, near his feet, you can spot a lightning bolt logo.
In the second round, the Panthers faced off against the Toronto Maple Leafs in what has also become a somewhat common matchup. Remember back in 2023 when Toronto fans were chanting “we want Florida” after the Panthers upset the Bruins in the first round? The second round continues to be kryptonite for Auston Matthews and company as the Panthers prevailed once again. Look at the rat’s ear and you’ll find the familiar maple leaf shape from their logo.
In another 2023 rematch the Panthers once against faced the Carolina Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference final. Unlike their last meeting that ended in a sweep Carolina actually ended up winning a game in their first Eastern Conference victory since 2006 (they had infamously been swept in their trips there in 2009, 2019 and 2023).
The Hurricanes hidden “Easter egg” is the only one that doesn’t use the team’s main logo. Look at the stick tape near the knob for the rat’s goalie stick and you’ll find Carolina’s alternate “double flag” logo.
The rally towels that make it out of Amerant Bank Arena are sure to be a great hockey collectable and keepsake from this year’s cup run. The Panthers clearly put in a lot of extra effort in what has become an almost “cookie cutter” type giveaway.
We have a question we’d love the Panthers to answer though. Yes, the Panthers have a rat mascot named “Victor E. Ratt”, but is it just us or does the one on the rally towel look a little more like Brad Marchand? Maybe we’re just seeing things.