Brad Marchand embraces Panthers' rat-throwing tradition, which goes back 30 years

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — There’s a giant, gold-outlined rat emblazoned on the hat that dangles in Brad Marchand’s locker.

The scrappy NHL veteran has been likened to the tiny rodent for much of his career, notoriously known as “The Rat” among hockey fans for his brash play.

So when Marchand was traded from Boston to Florida back in March, it didn't take long for him to embrace Panthers fans' longstanding tradition of tossing plastic rats onto the ice after wins.

“I hope we get some rats thrown at us,” Marchand quipped at his locker on Sunday, before Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final. “I just hope it’s on the ice and not outside."

Marchand got his wish. After the Panthers routed the Edmonton Oilers 6-1 on Monday, those unmistakable gray pests rained down on the ice in a tradition that has lasted three decades. As they've done after most games this postseason, Marchand's teammates fired the rats at his legs before exiting the ice.

For Marchand, getting the rats thrown at him is like a badge of honor — a tiny, symbolic moment that represents how the Panthers have been able to keep things lighthearted while going for their second straight championship.

“This group has a ton of fun," Marchand said. “It’s an incredible environment to be a part of. In the room, on the ice, even just in the city, there’s a lot of excitement around right now.”

Before their 1995-96 season opener, Panthers players were waiting to take the ice in a cramped, makeshift dressing room at the now-demolished Miami Arena when a large rat scampered in.

“Players were jumping on top of their stalls ... big, tough hockey players,” said Billy Lindsay, Panthers left wing from their expansion season in 1993 to 1999, “most of us were pretty scared of this big rat running around. We were ducking for cover everywhere.”

Right wing Scott Mellanby then grabbed his stick and one-timed the rat into the wall. The rodent went flying across the dressing room. It died as soon as it hit the wall. Players later memorialized it by circling the small dent in the blood-stained wall and placing a rat statue there for the year.

The Panthers went out and beat the Calgary Flames 4-3 that night. Mellanby scored a pair of goals with that same stick.

“Scott Mellanby didn’t even have time to really tape his stick,” Lindsay said. “So he’s got a little rat and blood there on his stick and went out there and scored a couple of goals.”

In his postgame news conference, goalie John Vanbiesbrouck noted that Mellanby had the NHL's first “rat trick.”

The incident was in the local paper the next day. About a week or so later, a toy rat hit the ice after a home game. The next game, there were a couple more. By the end of that season, which included Lindsay scoring the game-winning goal that clinched Florida's first ever playoff series win, the rat throwing had become such a phenomenon that the team earned a sponsorship from the pest control company Orkin.

“And funny enough, it’s still around today,” Lindsay said, “which is quite strange.”

Sports traditions are ubiquitous. Some are sacred. Many are quirky. And they can include just about anything. There's the Lambeau Leap at Green Bay Packers games. The “Gatorade Bath” after a win in the NFL. LeBron James' patented pregame chalk toss. Detroit Red Wings fans occasionally celebrate wins by throwing octopuses on the ice. The Nashville Predators have their catfish toss.

For the Panthers, who at the time were in just their third season as an NHL franchise, the rat throwing — buoyed by the fact that Florida made it all the way to the Stanley Cup Final that year — became the first real way they got the South Florida fans in a non-traditional hockey market to embrace their team.

Colin Fox, 32, a Panthers fan from Boca Raton, Florida, said it's “a thrill” to be a part of the rat throwing at the end of games.

“Even when they weren't very good, when they weren't on these hot streaks, there were still rats on the ice," said Fox, who wore a throwback Mellanby jersey to Game 3 of the final. "It's something that has persevered through the years."

For opposing teams, the rats are often a nuisance, Lindsay said, recalling how some goalies would hide in their net between goals to try and escape them. So many hit the ice after that initial season the NHL changed its rules to say such in-game celebrations could lead to penalties, though the league still allowed rats to be thrown after games.

There's plenty of rat-themed memorabilia for sale at Panthers games, and the plastic rodents themselves can be purchased all over Miami. At gas stations. Party stores. Some fans order them online.

The rats that Panthers fan JP Kirkpatrick, 23, tossed onto the ice after a game this season came from a fan sitting next to him who brought plenty of extras.

“It's a feeling you can't replicate,” said Kirkpatrick, an Orlando, Florida, native. “It's something you can't get (anywhere else). You've got to be there to get it. You can't watch it on TV. You can't get it in the parking lot. You've got to be out there, be in the seat. The fans, everybody there, it's electric.”

No one from that 1995 Panthers group thought they'd be a part of creating a lasting, iconic symbol for the team, but as they look back on that moment amid all the Panthers' recent success, they're proud of what it's become.

"There’s been enough people from back then to hang on to the tradition and pass it along," Lindsay said. "And now you get this unparalleled success where you get three Stanley Cup appearances in a row, you win a Stanley Cup championship, you’re looking for a second. And that rat is just (still) going.

“It just makes me proud of what we started.”

AP NHL playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

FILE - Plastic toy rats litter the ice after the Florida Panthers scored during the third period of Game 1 of the NHL hockey Stanley Cup Finals against the Edmonton Oilers, Saturday, June 8, 2024, in Sunrise, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee, File)

FILE - Toy rats litter the ice as the Edmonton Oilers and Florida Panthers scuffle at the end of the third period in Game 3 of the NHL hockey Stanley Cup Finals in Sunrise, Fla., Monday, June 9, 2025. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press via AP, File)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Bob Weir, the guitarist and singer who as an essential member of the Grateful Dead helped found the sound of the San Francisco counterculture of the 1960s and kept it alive through decades of endless tours and marathon jams, has died. He was 78.

Weir’s death was announced Saturday in a statement on his Instagram page.

“It is with profound sadness that we share the passing of Bobby Weir,” a statement on his Instagram posted Saturday said. “He transitioned peacefully, surrounded by loved ones, after courageously beating cancer as only Bobby could. Unfortunately, he succumbed to underlying lung issues.”

Weir joined the Grateful Dead — originally the Warlocks — in 1965 in San Francisco at just 17 years old. He would spend the next 30 years playing on endless tours with the Grateful Dead alongside fellow singer and guitarist Jerry Garcia, who died in 1995.

Weir wrote or co-wrote and sang lead vocals on Dead classics including “Sugar Magnolia,” “One More Saturday Night” and “Mexicali Blues.”

After Garcia’s death, he would be the Dead's most recognizable face. In the decades since, he kept playing with other projects that kept alive the band's music and legendary fan base, including Dead & Company.

“For over sixty years, Bobby took to the road,” the Instagram statement said. "A guitarist, vocalist, storyteller, and founding member of the Grateful Dead. Bobby will forever be a guiding force whose unique artistry reshaped American music.”

Weir’s death leaves drummer Bill Kreutzmann as the only surviving original member. Founding bassist Phil Lesh died in 2024. The band's other drummer, Mickey Hart, practically an original member since joining in 1967, is also alive at 82. The fifth founding member, Ron “Pigpen” McKernan, died in 1973.

Dead and Company played a series of concerts for the Grateful Dead’s 60th anniversary in July at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, drawing some 60,000 fans a day for three days.

Born in San Francisco and raised in nearby Atherton, Weir was the Dead's youngest member and looked like a fresh-faced high-schooler in its early years. He was generally less shaggy than the rest of the band, but he had a long beard like Garcia’s in later years.

The band would survive long past the hippie moment of its birth, with its ultra-devoted fans known as Deadheads often following them on the road in a virtually non-stop tour that persisted despite decades of music and culture shifting around them.

“Longevity was never a major concern of ours,” Weir said when the Dead got the Grammys’ MusiCares Person of the Year honor last year. “Spreading joy through the music was all we ever really had in mind, and we got plenty of that done.”

Ubiquitous bumper stickers and T-shirts showed the band's skull logo, the dancing, colored bears that served as their other symbol, and signature phrases like “ain't no time to hate” and “not all who wander are lost.”

The Dead won few actual Grammys during their career — they were always a little too esoteric — getting only a lifetime achievement award in 2007 and the best music film award in 2018.

Just as rare were hit pop singles. “Touch of Grey,” the 1987 song that brought a big surge in the aging band's popularity, was their only Billboard Top 10 hit.

But in 2024, they set a record for all artists with their 59th album in Billboard's Top 40. Forty-one of those came since 2012, thanks to the popularity of the series of archival albums compiled by David Lemieux.

Their music — called acid rock at its inception — would pull in blues, jazz, country, folk and psychedelia in long improvisational jams at their concerts.

“I venture to say they are the great American band,” TV personality and devoted Deadhead Andy Cohen said as host of the MusiCares event. “What a wonder they are.”

FILE - Bob Weir plays guitar with his band The Dead, formerly the Grateful Dead, at the Forum in the Inglewood section of Los Angeles, Calif. on Saturday May 9, 2009. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel,File)

FILE - This undated file photo shows members of the Grateful Dead band, from left to right, Mickey Hart, Phil Lesh, Jerry Garcia, Brent Mydland, Bill Kreutzmann, and Bob Weir. (AP Photo/File)

FILE - Kennedy Center Honors recipients from left; filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, the legendary American rock band the Grateful Dead band members Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann Bob Weir and blues rock singer-songwriter and guitarist Bonnie Raitt, applaud at at the 2024 Kennedy Center Honors reception in the East Room of the White House, Sunday, Dec. 8, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta,File)

FILE - Bob Weir arrives at Willie Nelson 90, celebrating the singer's 90th birthday on Saturday, April 29, 2023, at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. (Photo by Allison Dinner/Invision/AP,File)

FILE - Bob Weir of Dead & Company performs at Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival on Sunday, June 12, 2016, in Manchester, Tenn. (Photo by Amy Harris/Invision/AP,File)