Panthers Fans Shouting 'F--- McDavid' Is About As Classless As It Gets
Panthers fans have every right to celebrate, but they could do a lot better.
The Florida Panthers have done something incredibly difficult: win back-to-back Stanley Cups. In today’s salary-cap era, that’s insanely hard to do, and they did so by beating a team - the Edmonton Oilers - that boasts the world’s two best players in Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl.
While they’ve figured out how to win hockey games in June, they have yet to do so with class.
The Panthers took their Stanley Cup celebration to a club on Friday night, and fake tough guy Matthew Tkachuck grabbed the mic from Gustav Forsling and screamed, "Connor McDavid who?"
Florida fans, ever in the mood to taunt and disrespect an opponent, escalated the cheer by saying "F–k McDavid!"
Now, if McDavid had taunted the Panthers before, during, or after the Cup Finals, I’d say that this cheer would be justified.
However, none of that happened, because that’s not in McDavid’s nature. He is the best player in the world who also knows how to conduct himself with character and class off the ice.
In an interview after losing his second-straight Stanley Cup, he applauded the Panthers as best as he could and did not once complain about them.
McDavid showed himself to not just be the best player in the world by a wide margin, but also a class act. Panthers fans were more eager to disrespect a player that could only be stopped if double-teamed, than McDavid was to congratulate them on winning.
Of course, it isn't too surprising given their history over the past three years. They threw debris on the Golden Knights when they lost Game 4 of the finals in 2023. With two minutes to go in Game 4 of this year’s Easter Conference Finals, they left with more than two minutes to go because they were down 2-0 instead of sticking it out with the team until the end.
Many of them - excluding OutKick’s Austin Perry - can’t take losing, and they don’t know how to win with any class. It’s to be expected when you win back-to-back titles and are finally relevant for the first time in their 30-plus year history, but it's gross nonetheless.
They might do better in the future, but I wouldn’t hold your breath.