Thousands of fans celebrate Lightning's Stanley Cup win (including Fishhead)

[wilheim]

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) Office workers in button-down shirts and ties rubbed elbows with teenagers wearing championship jerseys as thousands of fans lined downtown streets at lunchtime Wednesday, celebrating the Tampa Bay Lightning's Stanley Cup victory.

Lightning players, coaches and staff paraded through city streets in a motorcade, joined by city and county officials. Team captain Dave Andreychuk was the last player in line, hoisting the Stanley Cup high in the air as the crowd roared. His car was surrounded by law enforcement officers and tailed closely by a tactical response team vehicle resembling a navy blue tank.

Brad Richards, who won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the playoffs' most valuable player, also held his award up high before the rally moved inside the team's home arena.

Tampa police Capt. Bob Guidara said there were an estimated 20,000 along the parade route, and 13,000 inside the forum.

Fishhead is the guy with the sideburns.

 

[Fishhead]

ps- That is not me, I look much more goofy than that, believe me.

I did however spend much of the day at the parade and the forum........and a few of the bars in the area.

The appreciation the players of the Lightning have for each other, their coaches, and the fans is really quite amazing.

Lots and lots of trully first class individuals on this team.

 

[sickgambler]

you TB people should be embarassed. Only 20,000 fans were there??????????? And fishhead, you say TB is hockey crazed?????????? That is the most embarassing thing I have ever heard in my life, that only 20,000 fans showed up..

Did you know that when the Habs were winning Stanley Cups back then, we would draw close to 1 million fans for the parade. That's right, 1 million... not 20,000.. How embarassing for the sport of hockey..

 

[wilheim]

However it should be pointed out that some hockey fans are a bit upset by what they percieve to be officiating mistakes on the part of the NHL. For example a frequent Rx. poster known as "Lander" is pictured below shortly after a penalty was called on Calgary's Andrew Ference late during game 7.

wil.

 

[SportSavant]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> Tampa police Capt. Bob Guidara said there were an estimated 20,000 along the parade route, and 13,000 inside the forum. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

OH MY GOD...I JUST SAW THIS THREAD....TAMPA HAS A WAY BIGGER POPULATION THAN CALGARY & THEY GOT 20K FANS...LMFAO....

CALGARY THE LOSERS...got 50K....

 

[wilheim]

Tampa may have had less fans but they had one more cup.

wil.

 

[TheGeneral+]

I would take the trophy

 

[PanchoSanza]

We had over a million in 92 after the world series win Over Atlanta.

 

[UncleMoneybags]

Puh-lease. Both Calgary and Montreal have larger populations than Tampa. I could look it up but I'm sure it's substantially more. You have to remember not everyone likes ice hockey and will support it just because their local team won the top prize.

 

[UncleMoneybags]

I did a quick google search and found this
this
and this

If you're including the entire metro area, that's another story. I think that would define a fan if you're willing to drive 25 miles through rush hour to watch an ice hockey game.

It's not as substantial as I thought but the mindset is totally different between Montreal or Calgary and Tampa.