The Florida Panthers honored a former goaltender and a longtime season ticket holder during Opening Night on Tuesday.
During the first TV timeout of the game, the Panthers honored current Chicago Blackhawks goalie Spencer Knight with a video going through some of the great times had during his tenue with the Cats.
Florida drafted Knight in the first round of the 2019 NHL Entry Draft.
He played the first 80 games of his career with the Panthers before being a key piece in a Trade Deadline deal that brought Seth Jones to South Florida.
Now, Knight is the goaltending backbone of the Blackhawks’ rebuild.
Later in the period during another TV timeout, Florida played a touching tribute video to fan Steve Elario.
A well-known yacht broker, Elario was extremely popular with Panthers fans for years.
Elario, with long silver hair and a big smile, resembled wrestling legend Ric Flair and every time the Panthers would put Elario on the jumbotron, it would elicit loud ‘WOOOs!’ from fans.
Sadly, Elario passed away in early September.
It was a touching moment inside Amerant Bank Arena as fans reacted to the tribute video with a chorus of ‘WOOs’ and cheers.
The Panthers also asked fans to come together for a collective ‘WOO’ after the tribute, and you can check out video of it in the X post below:
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