This year’s Stanley Cup playoffs haven’t only given us thrilling moments on the ice; they’ve also shown us all the BTS scenes that fans dream of. For instance, what exactly goes down in the Florida Panthers locker room? From Brad Marchand to Matthew Tkachuk, Seth Jones, and even coach Paul Maurice, most of Florida’s roster has high praise for the franchise’s locker room culture that they share whenever they get the chance, and it all seems to be for good reason, as the team certainly seems to have some interesting traditions and, with the addition of Marchand to the team, some RATher interesting crossovers.

As many know, Brad Marchand has long been known as the rat on the ice due to his in-your-face style of play and chirping tactics (remember Marchand was the one who licked Tampa Bay Lightning’s Ryan Callahan’s face during a scrum in 2018?). In addition, the whole rat thing has been symbolic in Florida for a while now, ever since Scott Mellanby killed a rat in the dressing room in the 1995-1996 season and went on to score a hat trick, i.e., the rat trick. Ever since then, whenever the Panthers won, the plastic rats poured down on the ice. Now, with Marchand on the team, the rats are all directed towards him en masse when he does well. Marchand himself joked of the tradition, saying, “Yeah, they just see all my family [plastic rats] out there on the ice and want us to be together.” Clearly the Florida Panthers’ eccentric traditions are part of what gives the team such incomparable chemistry and it turns out there is another tradition they have pregame.

According to a source, the Florida Panthers, led once again by Brad Marchand, who scored two goals, including the OT winner in game 2 against the Oilers, visited a local Dairy Queen in Edmonton prior to game 2. There’s no saying whether there is superstition involved behind this, but the fact the boys chowed down on some full fat before the stellar performance is itself impressive. It’s the little things, perhaps, that bring a team together and considering they weren’t reported to have visited the soft serve franchise prior to game 1 of the final series, maybe they should consider making it another recurring tradition. Just in case their locker room wasn’t interesting enough!

Brad Marchand has been vocal about the Florida Panthers’ locker room since Day 1

Brad Marchand, who was acquired from the Boston Bruins just a month before the playoffs began, had to accustom himself to a rapid transition into the new team and his involuntary exit from his old one. Though some of those early days were tough, emotionally and physically, with Marchand not immediately getting a lot of ice time, the center was quick to commend the locker room, saying, “The guys are just there to help every day. When you have a veteran group and guys that have been through big moments before, everyone just goes about their business. It’s very easy to fall into place and just do your role. It’s a special group.”

Similarly, Marchand’s Florida teammate Sam Bennett didn’t hold back on the ways that Marchand has contributed to the locker room culture, saying, “When he got on our team, he was chirping guys right away, and chirping me right away, which I just loved.” Paul Maurice hasn’t held back on his praise for Marchand either, not just his game but his personality, saying, “He’s at a point in his career where he doesn’t have to change his personality to fit in. Clearly, we don’t want him to.” So maybe it’s partly Marchand and his outgoing presence that is transforming the Floridian locker room culture; it certainly seems to be.

Who knows what happens behind closed doors, but a team that has fun together off the ice certainly seems to have a better time communicating on it, and if we are to go by Brad Marchand’s performance in game 2 as an indicator of what kind of communication the Florida Panthers has going on, then we certainly know it’s top-notch!