For one day only: The Brad Blizzard, available at Dairy Queen.
The snack story of the Stanley Cup playoffs — did Brad Marchand eat a Blizzard between periods of a playoff game or not? — reached its celebratory peak Friday. A Dairy Queen in Sunrise, Florida, where the Panthers play their home games, renamed the treat for the day in honor of the now two-time Stanley Cup winner.
The Brad Blizzard was one of his favorites: the chocolate chip cookie dough flavor, though on Friday, the primary ingredient wasn't called chocolate chips but rather chocolate “chirps” — a nod to the verbal jabs that hockey players give one another on the ice.
“I love seeing the excitement from everyone,” Marchand said while “working” at the DQ for a little while, actually making the treats and handing them out to customers both inside the store and at the drive-thru window. “These are moments that you love to appreciate.”
Marchand was not having a Blizzard between periods of that game in the Eastern Conference final against Carolina — it was honey, but cameras captured Marchand enjoying something off a spoon and the story just took off from there — but Blizzardmania was born. Marchand and several of his teammates went to DQ on off days for the treats, including on the night before ending the Stanley Cup Final against Edmonton in Game 6.
Marchand said they went before Game 6 for good luck. The Panthers won 5-1 a day later to take the Cup.
“It’s incredible the moments that you look back on and at the time you don’t really appreciate what they could mean at the end of the day,” Marchand told reporters Friday. “The first time we kind of went as a group to Dairy Queen, we were just going for a walk. We wanted to walk off our dinner and have Dairy Queen for dessert and it became this huge organic moment in the playoffs. ... Those are the things you look back on and you have fun with.”
It has been a nonstop party for the Panthers since winning the Cup, with trips to the famed Elbo Room bar to interact with fans, a team dinner at a Miami restaurant on Thursday night — one where tennis great Martina Navratilova, who just happened to be having dinner in the same spot, got to sip from the Cup — and a slew of other appearances.
Marchand had 10 goals and 10 assists in the playoff run for the Panthers, who won the Cup for the second straight season. He was acquired at the trade deadline by Florida general manager and hockey operations president Bill Zito from rival Boston, and the tale of how Marchand — who was far from a fan favorite in Florida before the trade — became beloved by Panthers fans was one of the compelling stories of the postseason.
Marchand and the Panthers will have their championship parade on Fort Lauderdale Beach on Sunday, and then free agency starts July 1. Marchand is a free agent, though he has indicated a willingness to remain in Florida and had a message for the Panthers during his DQ shift.
“Give me a contract,” he said.
AP NHL playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://apnews.com/hub/nhl
Florida Panthers center Brad Marchand and captain Aleksander Barkov celebrate after defeating the Edmonton Oilers in Game 6 of the NHL hockey Stanley Cup Final Tuesday, June 17, 2025, in Sunrise, Fla. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
Florida Panthers' Brad Marchand (63) raises the Stanely Cup after defeating the Edmonton Oilers in Game 6 of the NHL hockey Stanley Cup Final in Sunrise, Fla., Tuesday, June 17, 2025. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press via AP)
ST. LOUIS (AP) — World champions Ilia Malinin and the ice dance duo of Madison Chock and Evan Bates will anchor one of the strongest U.S. Figure Skating teams in history when they head to Italy for the Milan Cortina Olympics in less than a month.
Malinin, fresh off his fourth straight national title, will be the prohibitive favorite to follow in the footsteps of Nathan Chen by delivering another men's gold medal for the American squad when he steps on the ice at the Milano Ice Skating Arena.
Chock and Bates, who won their record-setting seventh U.S. title Saturday night, also will be among the Olympic favorites, as will world champion Alysa Liu and women's teammate Amber Glenn, fresh off her third consecutive national title.
U.S. Figure Skating announced its full squad of 16 athletes for the Winter Games during a made-for-TV celebration Sunday.
"I'm just so excited for the Olympic spirit, the Olympic environment," Malinin said. “Hopefully go for that Olympic gold.”
Malinin will be joined on the men's side by Andrew Torgashev, the all-or-nothing 24-year-old from Coral Springs, Florida, and Maxim Naumov, the 24-year-old from Simsbury, Connecticut, who fulfilled the hopes of his late parents by making the Olympic team.
Vadim Naumov and Evgenia Shishkova were returning from a talent camp in Kansas when their American Airlines flight collided with a military helicopter and crashed into the icy Potomac River in January 2025. One of the last conversations they had with their son was about what it would take for him to follow in their footsteps by becoming an Olympian.
“We absolutely did it,” Naumov said. “Every day, year after year, we talked about the Olympics. It means so much in our family. It's what I've been thinking about since I was 5 years old, before I even know what to think. I can't put this into words.”
Chock and Bates helped the Americans win team gold at the Beijing Games four years ago, but they finished fourth — one spot out of the medals — in the ice dance competition. They have hardly finished anywhere but first in the years since, winning three consecutive world championships and the gold medal at three straight Grand Prix Finals.
U.S. silver medalists Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik also made the dance team, as did the Canadian-born Christina Carreira, who became eligible for the Olympics in November when her American citizenship came through, and Anthony Ponomarenko.
Liu was picked for her second Olympic team after briefly retiring following the Beijing Games. She had been burned out by years of practice and competing, but stepping away seemed to rejuvenate the 20-year-old from Clovis, California, and she returned to win the first world title by an American since Kimmie Meissner stood atop the podium two decades ago.
Now, the avant-garde Liu will be trying to help the U.S. win its first women's medal since Sasha Cohen in Turin in 2006, and perhaps the first gold medal since Sarah Hughes triumphed four years earlier at the Salt Lake City Games.
Her biggest competition, besides a powerful Japanese contingent, could come from her own teammates: Glenn, a first-time Olympian, has been nearly unbeatable the past two years, while 18-year-old Isabeau Levito is a former world silver medalist.
"This was my goal and my dream and it just feels so special that it came true,” said Levito, whose mother is originally from Milan.
The two pairs spots went to Ellie Kam and Danny O'Shea, the U.S. silver medalists, and the team of Emily Chan and Spencer Howe.
The top American pairs team, two-time reigning U.S. champions Alisa Efimova and Misha Mitrofanov, were hoping that the Finnish-born Efimova would get her citizenship approved in time to compete in Italy. But despite efforts by the Skating Club of Boston, where they train, and the help of their U.S. senators, she did not receive her passport by the selection deadline.
“The importance and magnitude of selecting an Olympic team is one of the most important milestones in an athlete's life,” U.S. Figure Skating CEO Matt Farrell said, "and it has such an impact, and while there are sometimes rules, there is also a human element to this that we really have to take into account as we make decisions and what's best going forward from a selection process.
“Sometimes these aren't easy," Farrell said, “and this is not the fun part.”
The fun is just beginning, though, for the 16 athletes picked for the powerful American team.
AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
Amber Glenn competes during the women's free skating competition at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
Alysa Liu skates during the "Making Team USA" performance at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
Maxim Naumov skates during the "Making Team USA" performance at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
Madison Chock and Evan Bates skate during the "Making the Team" performance at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
Gold medalist Ilia Malinin arrives for the metal ceremony after the men's free skate competition at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
