Why Panthers fans throw fake rats on ice after wins

LAS VEGAS Unless there is a sweep in the Stanley Cup final, Vegas Golden Knights fans will see one of the NHL’s most whimsical traditions. Rats.

After every Florida Panthers victory, fans throw toy rats onto the ice to celebrate, similar to the Knights’ victory flamingo.

But what does a fake version of a long-tailed rodent have to do with a panther or South Florida? It all started Oct. 8, 1995.

Before the Panthers’ home opener against the Calgary Flames, a rat scurried across the floor of the home locker room at Miami Arena. Florida forward Scott Mellanby used his stick to shoot the intruder into the wall, then scored two goals in a 4-3 victory.

Panthers goalie John Vanbiesbrouck quipped afterward his teammate scored a “rat trick.”

The next game, a fan tossed a plastic rat onto the ice after the Panthers scored. In the games that followed, hundreds of fake rodents littered the ice after each goal, and the “Year of the Rat” was born.

The Panthers sold fake rats at games and, in a brilliant advertising move, arena attendants wearing extermination uniforms from pest control company Orkin would rush onto the ice to clean up the mess.

Florida advanced to the 1996 Stanley Cup final in its third season of existence and faced the Colorado Avalanche. In Game 3 of the series, Rob Niedermayer’s goal in the first period put the Panthers ahead 2-1, and Avalanche goalie Patrick Roy stood in his crease defiantly as the rats rained down.

Roy famously promised his teammates during the intermission there would be “no more rats” and then blanked the Panthers the rest of the series, including a 1-0 tripleovertime win in Game 4 to clinch the sweep for Colorado.