Florida Panthers Matthew Tkachuk and Aleksander Barkov spark NHL-wide backlash at the Winter Classic

I'm a Florida Panthers fan, and I wanted this event to be pure fun for everyone watching. The Winter Classic is already a weird concept for hockey people, then we leaned into the circus hard.

The arrivals in Ferraris and the fashion rollout felt like we were chasing a viral moment before chasing the puck. Hockey players are usually down to earth, team-first, and proud of that, so the contrast looked louder than it needed to.

Once the game started, it honestly felt like the commotion had taken more energy than it gave back. Florida looked a half-step late on reads, New York looked sharp, and the scoreboard started telling a different story early.

As a fan, I felt my stomach drop, because it stopped being about hockey and started being about us.

Then came the intermission spectacle, Barkov and Tkachuk, both unavailable to play, joining Role Model on stage to lift the Stanley Cup and dance while he performed «Sally.» That is a sentence I still can't believe I'm typing.

There is nothing wrong with having fun at a made-for-TV event, and the all-white look was actually cool. But hoisting the Cup in January, while you are losing, lands like showboating.

The injury optics made it worse, because those are two faces of your franchise, and they were not even dressed to play. When the stars aren't on the ice, a flex on stage feels backward.

The Rangers eventually won 5-1, and that score line made the whole thing look like instant karma. Sunglasses, dancing, a Cup lift, then a lopsided loss, that is the kind of clip that lives forever.

I still love this team, and I still love what last season meant, but this was awkward to the eyes of many. The next milestone should be simple, play clean, get healthy, and let the Panthers' hockey do the talking.