There is going to be an adjustment period when the 2024-25 NHL season begins.
Seeing familiar Florida Panthers – men who just went the distance and gave their blood, sweat and tears so that they could win the Stanley Cup – wearing sweaters of other teams…is going to be a little weird.
Brandon Montour in a Kraken jersey? How about Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Anthony Stolarz in Maple Leafs’ blue, or Vladimir Tarasenko in Detroit or Kevin Stenlund in whatever the Utah jerseys look like?
How about when Ryan Lomberg suits up for the first time (again) in Calgary? That should feel as strange as it did when we first saw Jonathan Huberdeau and MacKenzie Weegar wearing the Flames’ red and yellow uniforms.
Lomberg spent four seasons with the Panthers, endearing himself to the fanbase with his high-energy, physical play on the ice and lovable, outgoing personality off the ice.
He signed a two-year, $4 million deal with Calgary on July 1, more than doubling his earnings on his previous contract, which was worth $1.6 million over two years.
Last week, Lomberg took a break from his offseason training regimen to catch up with NHL Network’s Jamie Hersch and Mike Rupp.
While sitting in a golf cart outside the Panthers practice facility in Fort Lauderdale, Lomberg gave an update on how his crazy, outstanding, amazing whirlwind of an offseason has been going.
“It’s been pretty crazy,” he said. “Obviously it was well documented, the first week was pretty fun. There were a lot of beers had and a lot of laughs and lifelong memories made, and things shifted fairly quickly going into free agency. I started training about a week and a half ago, and it’s time to go. So all the partying was done, we enjoyed it, we deserved it, we made the most of it and now it’s back to business as usual.”
One of the cooler things to come out of Game 7 was video showing Lomberg and his teammates before the game started.
Standing in the tunnel outside the Panthers locker room, as the team gathered before taking the ice, Lomberg is heard giving a few final words of encouragement.
“We live together forever after this one, boys,” Lomberg said. “Together forever after this one.”
The video has received plenty of play in the time since Game 7, and it was played for Lomberg during his NHL Network interview.
“We were ready for the moment, for sure,” Lomberg said after seeing the video. “We were prepared for it. Everybody knows how intense that moment was, how important it was, the gravity of the whole situation, being up three, so everybody understood it. It was kind of that thing hanging over top of us and I kind of took it personally to make sure that we understand that we still deserve to be in this moment, and we can still make our dreams come true, and you know once we do it we’ll be sewn together in the history of the NHL forever. Looking back, that’s the coolest part about it, that our names are on that thing side by side forever now. That, to me, is, so far, the thing that means the most to me.”
Lomberg also spoke about the challenges of playing his role and having to stay as sharp as possible despite not playing in every single game.
To no surprise, Lomberg said it was a message from Panthers Head Coach Paul Maurice that helped him find his groove.
“It was tough,” he said. “Obviously, you want to be in every game, especially when they mean that much. It’s tough to watch. You want to be in there and have an impact and help the team win anyway possible, but it was a mental grind for sure, coming in and out. When you’re in, you want to bring the energy and bring the physicality, but at the same point, you can’t put your team at a disadvantage and take an untimely penalty and put your team behind the eight ball. Paul (Maurice) would always tell me, ‘Just be yourself,’ and that helped me kind of ease into and understand that I don’t need to do anything crazy, I don’t need to do anything different, just be myself, be an amazing teammate, be upbeat, be energetic and the chips will fall where they will.”
Those chips fell directly into Lord Stanley’s Cup.
After spending the past four years living in South Florida, watching his career grow while getting married and starting a family, it makes sense that the Lomberg clan considers it home.
When the time comes for Lomberg to spend his 24 hours with Lord Stanley, he’ll be doing it in Broward County.
The total plan is not set it stone just yet, but it sounds like the Cup will have a very South Florida kind of day.
“As of right now, we’re going to take it to one of the local police departments and give them an opportunity to bring their families down, take some pictures with it and have some time with it, and then it’s kind of up in the air,” Lomberg admitted. “We’re leading towards a golf day, pool day-type vibe. It’s going to be down here (in South Florida) so it’s going to be pretty hot out, so we’ll have to make sure everybody’s properly hydrated and there’s pools and the ocean close by, so you can take a quick dip if you’re too sweaty.”
You can check out Lomberg’s full interview on NHL Network below:
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