'This is amazing': Panthers celebrate 2nd consecutive Stanley Cup with another parade

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Champagne was swilled and spilled, cigars were smoked and the Stanley Cup was hoisted a few more times, all with about 400,000 people watching.

The Florida Panthers are getting pretty good at these parades.

The back-to-back Stanley Cup winners had their championship parade and rally on Fort Lauderdale Beach on Sunday, the same setup as last year — except this time, bright sunshine greeted the champs as opposed to downpours and lightning a year ago.

“It's a little better day today than it was last year, but still, this is amazing,” Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov said. “What a day we're having with you guys.”

Panthers coach Paul Maurice declared this “the summer of love” for fans of the team, doing so while wearing another shirt featured his beloved cats Poppy and Penny — a shirt made by his daughter. He wore a similar shirt to last year's parade, also made by his daughter.

There were cries of “Thank you, Boston!” when Brad Marchand — who came to Florida in a trade with the rival Bruins — was introduced. Marchand, a free agent, again indicated that he wants to be back with the Panthers, who won this season's Cup by topping the Edmonton Oilers in six games.

“I'm so happy that I don't have to play against these guys anymore,” Marchand said, pointing to his Florida teammates.

Forward Matthew Tkachuk drew loud roars when he told the crowd that he “would like to apologize to absolutely ... nobody because a double champ does whatever ... he wants," copying a line used by Conor McGregor when he became a double UFC champion.

“I could get used to this,” Tkachuk said as he looked out at the crowd — some of whom were in the water, with most others packed hundreds of yards deep down the sand. Tkachuk then thanked team owner Vincent Viola and general manager and hockey operations president Bill Zito for trading for him three years ago, saying it changed his life.

Defenseman Aaron Ekblad, just as he did last year, took a shot at golfer Brooks Koepka, who famously went to a Panthers game once to heckle the veteran defenseman.

Forward Sam Reinhart, who scored four goals in the clinching win over Edmonton, missed last year's parade because a close friend was getting married. He didn't miss Sunday.

“The only thing I've heard all day is how this is the best parade that's ever been had in South Florida," Reinhart said. “Thank God I missed last year and not this year.”

Goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky thanked the crowd, and said he hoped there was another parade next year. And Sam Bennett, the Conn Smythe Trophy winner, heard the crowd chanting their hopes of him getting a new contract with the Panthers.

So, he ended his speech with the same request.

“Eight more years, please,” Bennett said.

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

Florida Panthers' Nico Sturm celebrates with fans during the NHL hockey team's Stanley Cup championship celebration, Sunday, June 22, 2022, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (AP Photo/Michael Laughlin)

Florida Panthers' Matthew Tkachuk shows his championship ring during the NHL hockey team's Stanley Cup championship celebration, Sunday, June 22, 2022, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (AP Photo/Michael Laughlin)

Florida Panthers fans cheer during the NHL hockey team's Stanley Cup championship celebration, Sunday, June, 22, 2025, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (AP Photo/Michael Laughlin)

Florida Panthers' Matthew Tkachuk kisses the Stanley Cup during the NHL hockey team's Stanley Cup championship celebration, Sunday, June 22, 2025, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (AP Photo/Michael Laughlin)

Florida Panthers' Carter Verhaeghe carries the Stanley Cup during the NHL hockey team's Stanley Cup championship celebration, Sunday, June, 22, 2025, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (AP Photo/Michael Laughlin)

Florida Panthers fans attend the NHL hockey team's Stanley Cup championship celebration, Sunday, June 20, 2022, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (AP Photo/Michael Laughlin)

Florida Panthers fans attend the NHL hockey team's Stanley Cup championship celebration, Sunday, June 20, 2022, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (AP Photo/Michael Laughlin)

Florida Panthers Brad Marchand walks the parade route with the Stanley Cup trophy during the Panthers 2025 Championship Celebration, Sunday, June 20, 2022, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (AP Photo/Michael Laughlin)

WASHINGTON (AP) — A day after the audacious U.S. military operation in Venezuela, President Donald Trump on Sunday renewed his calls for an American takeover of the Danish territory of Greenland for the sake of U.S. security interests, while his top diplomat declared the communist government in Cuba is “in a lot of trouble.”

The comments from Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio after the ouster of Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro underscore that the U.S. administration is serious about taking a more expansive role in the Western Hemisphere.

With thinly veiled threats, Trump is rattling hemispheric friends and foes alike, spurring a pointed question around the globe: Who's next?

“It’s so strategic right now. Greenland is covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place," Trump told reporters as he flew back to Washington from his home in Florida. "We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it.”

Asked during an interview with The Atlantic earlier on Sunday what the U.S.-military action in Venezuela could portend for Greenland, Trump replied: “They are going to have to view it themselves. I really don’t know.”

Trump, in his administration's National Security Strategy published last month, laid out restoring “American preeminence in the Western Hemisphere” as a central guidepost for his second go-around in the White House.

Trump has also pointed to the 19th century Monroe Doctrine, which rejects European colonialism, as well as the Roosevelt Corollary — a justification invoked by the U.S. in supporting Panama’s secession from Colombia, which helped secure the Panama Canal Zone for the U.S. — as he's made his case for an assertive approach to American neighbors and beyond.

Trump has even quipped that some now refer to the fifth U.S. president's foundational document as the “Don-roe Doctrine.”

Saturday's dead-of-night operation by U.S. forces in Caracas and Trump’s comments on Sunday heightened concerns in Denmark, which has jurisdiction over the vast mineral-rich island of Greenland.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen in a statement that Trump has "no right to annex" the territory. She also reminded Trump that Denmark already provides the United States, a fellow member of NATO, broad access to Greenland through existing security agreements.

“I would therefore strongly urge the U.S. to stop threatening a historically close ally and another country and people who have made it very clear that they are not for sale,” Frederiksen said.

Denmark on Sunday also signed onto a European Union statement underscoring that “the right of the Venezuelan people to determine their future must be respected” as Trump has vowed to “run” Venezuela and pressed the acting president, Delcy Rodriguez, to get in line.

Trump on Sunday mocked Denmark’s efforts at boosting Greenland’s national security posture, saying the Danes have added “one more dog sled” to the Arctic territory’s arsenal.

Greenlanders and Danes were further rankled by a social media post following the raid by a former Trump administration official turned podcaster, Katie Miller. The post shows an illustrated map of Greenland in the colors of the Stars and Stripes accompanied by the caption: “SOON."

“And yes, we expect full respect for the territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Denmark,” Amb. Jesper Møller Sørensen, Denmark's chief envoy to Washington, said in a post responding to Miller, who is married to Trump's influential deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller.

During his presidential transition and in the early months of his return to the White House, Trump repeatedly called for U.S. jurisdiction over Greenland, and has pointedly not ruled out military force to take control of the mineral-rich, strategically located Arctic island that belongs to an ally.

The issue had largely drifted out of the headlines in recent months. Then Trump put the spotlight back on Greenland less than two weeks ago when he said he would appoint Republican Gov. Jeff Landry as his special envoy to Greenland.

The Louisiana governor said in his volunteer position he would help Trump “make Greenland a part of the U.S.”

Meanwhile, concern simmered in Cuba, one of Venezuela’s most important allies and trading partners, as Rubio issued a new stern warning to the Cuban government. U.S.-Cuba relations have been hostile since the 1959 Cuban revolution.

Rubio, in an appearance on NBC's “Meet the Press,” said Cuban officials were with Maduro in Venezuela ahead of his capture.

“It was Cubans that guarded Maduro,” Rubio said. “He was not guarded by Venezuelan bodyguards. He had Cuban bodyguards.” The secretary of state added that Cuban bodyguards were also in charge of “internal intelligence” in Maduro’s government, including “who spies on who inside, to make sure there are no traitors.”

Trump said that “a lot” of Cuban guards tasked with protecting Maduro were killed in the operation. The Cuban government said in a statement read on state television on Sunday evening that 32 officers were killed in the U.S. military operation.

Trump also said that the Cuban economy, battered by years of a U.S. embargo, is in tatters and will slide further now with the ouster of Maduro, who provided the Caribbean island subsidized oil.

“It's going down,” Trump said of Cuba. “It's going down for the count.”

Cuban authorities called a rally in support of Venezuela’s government and railed against the U.S. military operation, writing in a statement: “All the nations of the region must remain alert, because the threat hangs over all of us.”

Rubio, a former Florida senator and son of Cuban immigrants, has long maintained Cuba is a dictatorship repressing its people.

“This is the Western Hemisphere. This is where we live — and we’re not going to allow the Western Hemisphere to be a base of operation for adversaries, competitors, and rivals of the United States," Rubio said.

Cubans like 55-year-old biochemical laboratory worker Bárbara Rodríguez were following developments in Venezuela. She said she worried about what she described as an “aggression against a sovereign state.”

“It can happen in any country, it can happen right here. We have always been in the crosshairs,” Rodríguez said.

AP writers Andrea Rodriguez in Havana, Cuba, and Darlene Superville traveling aboard Air Force One contributed reporting.

In this photo released by the White House, President Donald Trump monitors U.S. military operations in Venezuela, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (Molly Riley/The White House via AP)