Roberto Luongo spoke eloquently on the ice and then played brilliantly in net.

SUNRISE Womens Josh Bailey Jersey , Fla. (AP) Roberto Luongo spoke eloquently on the ice and then played brilliantly in net.On a night when the Florida Panthers honored the victims of last week’s shooting at nearby Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, their veteran goalie delivered a stirring speech to the crowd during a somber pregame tribute.Once the puck was dropped Thursday, he made 33 saves in his third game since returning from a groin injury to lead the Panthers to a 3-2 victory over the Washington Capitals.”The first 10 minutes of the game was very difficult. I was not in a zone, that’s a good way to put it. Emotions were still running high from the ceremony,” said Luongo, who lives in Parkland, where the shooting occurred.Vincent Trocheck scored the winning goal with 19.1 seconds left for Florida. With the score tied at 2, he redirected a shot by Jonathan Huberdeau past goaltender Braden Holtby during a power play.Nick Bjugstad scored the tying goal for the Panthers late in the third period, and Maxim Mamin got his first NHL goal.It was the first home game for the Panthers since the tragedy. They had been on a road trip in Canada for the past 11 days.”We had little angels helping us tonight to help us pull out a big win here,” Luongo said.Trocheck celebrated his go-ahead goal by encouraging fellow players to sign his stick. He plans on donating it to the students and faculty at Marjory Stoneman Douglas.”It was very emotional,” Trocheck said. ”It was a powerful game. Powerful speech before the game by Lou. Powerful meaning behind the game. Team played great in the third period, showed a lot of character and to be able to put that in the net at the end of the game, it was exciting.”Andre Burakovsky had a goal and an assist, and Lars Eller also scored for the Capitals. Holtby stopped 30 shots but lost his fifth straight.Before the game, the arena video screen showed the names and faces of each of the 17 students who were killed on Valentine’s Day in nearby Parkland. The darkened ice was then illuminated with 17 circles of light, with a student’s name inside each one.Players from both teams stood for the ceremony, some wiping tears from their eyes.Luongo followed with an emotional address about how he has lived in Parkland for 12 years with his wife and children, and how much he loves the town. He lauded the bravery of those who lost their lives trying to save others and spoke about how inspiring the students have been in coping with the tragedy.”Usually, sporting events start with a lot of fanfare and a lot of noise Mathew Barzal Jersey , and it wasn’t that,” Capitals coach Barry Trotz said. ”It had some meaning to the people in this region, it had some meaning to the players on the other side, and it had some meaning to us. After he (Luongo) got through the first period, it settled into a hockey game.”Florida players will wear Marjory Stoneman Douglas logos on their helmets and MSD uniform patches for the remainder of the season.”I thought Louie did a heck of a job with his speech and to get in net and to throw a performance out like that after, it was one of the most impressive things I’ve seen in a long time,” Panthers coach Bob Boughner said.Bjugstad tied the game at 2 when he took a pass from Aleksander Barkov in front and poked in the puck with 3:42 left.”The second goal they got a little fortunate on,” Holtby said. ”I think he misplaced his pass and it went off his back foot. You just move on from those.”Burakovsky’s power-play goal gave the Capitals a 2-1 lead at 9:56 of the second. Alex Ovechkin fed the puck to Burakovsky in the slot, where he lined it up and fired a shot past Luongo.Mamin gave the Panthers a 1-0 lead at 4:50 of the first period when he poked in the rebound of a shot by Ian McCoshen. Mamin’s goal was his first point in eight NHL games.The Capitals tied it on Eller’s goal. Burakovsky took a shot from the high slot that glanced off Eller’s stick and in with 1:05 left in the first.NOTES: Capitals defenseman Michal Kempny, acquired from Chicago late Monday night, made his Washington debut. … The Panthers acquired forward Frank Vatrano from Boston for a third-round pick in this year’s draft. … RW Radim Vrbata was a healthy scratch for the eighth time in 11 games.UP NEXTCapitals: Host the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday.Panthers: Host the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday.— LAS VEGAS (AP) — Shea Theodore and Alex Tuch had to have faith.When the Vegas Golden Knights decided to send them to the minors at the start of last season, Theodore and Tuch chose to believe what general manager George McPhee told them.“The message was that we were part of the future of this team and he definitely saw us in that long-term plan,” Theodore said.Within weeks, they were back in the NHL as part of the fastest-starting expansion team in history and played significant roles in the Golden Knights’ run to the Stanley Cup Final in their inaugural season. Each player got a long-term contract before he played his first game this season, and they weren’t alone as McPhee went about the process of turning Vegas from a one-year wonder into a perennial title contender.He locked up 75-point forward Jonathan Marchessault through 2024, signed face-of-the-franchise goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury to a three-year extension, inked defenseman Nate Schmidt to a six-year contract that begins next season, signed center Paul Stastny as a free agent and acquired big winger Max Pacioretty in a trade with Montreal. Those moves have paid off so far with Vegas five points back of first place in the Pacific Division and looking like its second act could rival its first.“We have a couple guys signed long term, and it’s fun because it means that we have a core and we’re building something http://www.islandersfanproshop.com/authentic-nick-leddy-jersey ,” Marchessault said. “You want to be part of a story as a hockey player, and it feels like we’re part of one here.”The Golden Knights’ story was a fairy tale: A team that looked on paper like it would be among the worst in the league won its division and steamrolled to the final before losing to McPhee’s former team, the Washington Capitals, in five games. Marchessault said he felt in June like this team could be a legitimate threat for years to come.McPhee’s job was to ensure that. The veteran executive who got to build the Golden Knights from scratch through a wildly successful expansion draft understood he had the benefit of not having to dig out from bad contracts. But he also shouldered the burden of drawing up a whole host of new ones after one season during which seemingly everyone overachieved.“We did have a lot of work to do because most of the guys that we acquired were either free agents or were on one-year deals and their deals had matured and it was time to negotiate again,” McPhee said. “And we just thought, we know what they are, we’re comfortable projecting what they will be in the future and we had the cap space, so why not use it now because cap space is like perishable inventory. If you don’t use it, it’s gone at the end of the year. We just wanted some cost certainty moving forward, so it would help us to plan for things better in the future.”Fleury got $7 million a year, Schmidt, $5.95 million, Theodore, $5.2 million, Marchessault, $5 million and Tuch, $4.75 million. Fleury leads the NHL with 26 wins, Schmidt has played over 23 minutes a game since returning from suspension, Theodore leads Vegas defensemen with 21 points and Tuch and Marchessault are 1-2 on the team in scoring.Beyond cost certainty Womens Wayne Simmonds Jersey , it was money smartly spent to keep morale up, raise expectations and get bang for owner Bill Foley’s buck.“When you have a guy believe in you like that, sign you to that kind of a term, you don’t want to make him look bad and I think every night you want to go out and you want to play your best,” said Theodore, who is under contract through 2025. “I think it’s been paying off for us and hopefully will in the future.”Even though only wingers James Neal and David Perron and defenseman Luca Sbisa aren’t back from the core group that went to the Cup final, McPhee couldn’t stand pat and think success would repeat itself. He consciously added Stastny, Pacioretty and Nick Holden to replace the lost production and provide an influx of talent.“When you’re a couple games away from winning, I think you’ve got to try and do whatever you can,” Schmidt said. “You have to add something in order to beat the best teams.”The way Pacioretty looks at it, McPhee wasn’t scanning the aisles. He was shopping off a specific list. They weren’t part of the playoff run — Stastny was on the Winnipeg Jets team that Vegas beat in the Western Conference final — but brought some more balance.“They wanted guys like me and Stas to come in and play a little bit of a two-way game,” Pacioretty said. “That’s how we want to help our team. We know that especially offensively that this team last year had guys who were relied upon every night to create. And we still want to be those guys coming in, but we also know that there’s areas on both sides of the puck that we can help this team.”Injuries have hampered Pacioretty and Stastny so far, but they and the Golden Knights will really be judged in the playoffs. After falling three victories short of a championship, players feel like they have what it takes to win this time and for years to come.“As our owner said at the beginning of the year, we just don’t want to be a winning team. We want to have a winning franchise,” Marchessault said. “Last year we really felt like we have something special, and we have some unfinished business.”