as was reported earlier by my colleague Henri Hollis<\/a>, Huff was granted a day with the cup for the second year in a row and this time chose to spend it in Atlanta. The NHL confirmed to the AJC that, while the Stanley Cup has visited our fair city previously for promotional purposes, this was the first time a member of a championship team had elected to spend his or her day with the Stanley Cup here.<\/p>\nAs Huff shared his experiences of the day with The AJC, where he went and whom he shared the cup with, it made me think of a few things. How we\u2019re never sure where life will lead us. How heartwarming it is when good things happen to good people. How uplifting it is when those good people share those good things with others.<\/p>\n
To start, the list of the 2025 NHL champions inscribed on the cup includes one Mike Huff, who had been to one hockey game in his life before the Panthers hired him. <\/p>\n
Teams limit the number of names that can go on the band, generally 52. And, as Huff explained, the players lobbied for his inclusion.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m speechless,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd then seeing your name on there \u2014 you look up a few columns up and there\u2019s Wayne Gretzky. That was, to me, like, so awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last year, Huff spent his day with the cup in Fort Lauderdale with friends and family. He held an event with local businesses as a token of appreciation. He ate sushi out of the bowl, which he described as \u201creally cool.\u201d<\/p>\n
This year \u2014 imagine having two separate days with the Stanley Cup \u2014 he chose to bring it to Atlanta, where he had spent many crucial years of his life and made a number of good friends. A person whose job includes creating travel itineraries, he got to work and made a plan for him and the cup that was precise to the minute.<\/p>\n
![\"Huff](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/V3K3CUNHQ5E6VJIKO3K7QU27A4.jpg\")
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Credit: Photo courtesy of Mike Huff<\/p>\n
![\"icon](\"https:\/\/www.ajc.com\/sports\/2025\/07\/the-stanley-cup-in-atlanta-with-mike-huff-great-thing-happens-to-a-good-person\/[object)
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Credit: Photo courtesy of Mike Huff<\/p>\n
After the cup and its two caretakers touched down at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport from Montreal at about 9:40 a.m., he started at Delta, his former employer and the Panthers\u2019 official airline. Serendipitously, Tuesday was the day that his former work group of charter coordinators held their annual summit in Atlanta. (With MLB off for the All-Star break, it is one of the rare days in the year when no pro sports team are traveling.)<\/p>\n
He shared the cup with them and then took it to Delta\u2019s operations control center, where all of the airline\u2019s flights are monitored. He recalled heads popping up out of cubicles when an announcement was made of the cup\u2019s presence. Staff quickly gathered for pictures.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was cool to see how excited they were,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m thinking, \u2018Man, I\u2019m glad I\u2019m not on an airplane right now.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
(He was kidding.)<\/p>\n
From there, he drove up to Children\u2019s Healthcare of Atlanta. The hospital is dear to Huff, having often taken Yellow Jackets players there to visit with patients.<\/p>\n
\u201cI always loved doing that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Huff lugged the trophy to the Arthur M. Blank Hospital\u2019s Seacrest Studios, a space where patients can enjoy a creative outlet and also where programming can be broadcast throughout the hospital. Not long after word went out on the closed-circuit network, children started showing up in the studios, eager for an up-close look. Genevieve Sale, associate sports marketing coordinator for Children\u2019s, reported about 10 to 15 patient visitors and lots of smiles, even from those who knew nothing about the cup. Many of these are children, Sale reminded, are in the toughest battles of their lives and in need of anything that can put a smile on their face.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe kids were super happy,\u201d Sale told The AJC. \u201cMike was awesome to work with and we\u2019re super excited about that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Said Huff, \u201cThe children\u2019s hospital, that put such a big smile on my face, seeing those kids get to see it, whether they know what it is or not.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Huff](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/XTQFIVPZ4RG7DMPFSOXO2QDQMA.jpg\")
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Credit: Photo courtesy of Mike Huff<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Credit: Photo courtesy of Mike Huff<\/p>\n
Another group that Huff wanted to share the cup with was the youth hockey community in Atlanta. A Panthers staffer connected Huff with former NHL player Anson Carter, who lives in Atlanta and arranged for three youth teams and their families to greet the cup at Alpharetta\u2019s City Hall. Judging by video and photos, it was a crowd of hundreds.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was wild,\u201d Huff said.<\/p>\n
Huff talked with hordes of hockey fans who shared their stories or their Panthers fandom. Who knows how many dreams were both made and inspired by Huff\u2019s decisions to share his lone day with hockey\u2019s holy grail with strangers?<\/p>\n
![\"Huff](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/G35JSTS7B5ACVHTQJFEHAZXB6Q.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Credit: Photo courtesy of Mike Huff<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Credit: Photo courtesy of Mike Huff<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that\u2019s a testament to who Mike is,\u201d said Klein, his friend from Tech. \u201cNo one told him he had to go to CHOA.\u201d<\/p>\n
From there, the cup went into after-hours mode. Huff took it to Dunwoody Country Club and then a gathering of friends and family at the St. Regis Atlanta, where he and his guests drank Champagne out of the trophy\u2019s bowl. Having grown up around the game in New Jersey, Klein needed no education on what it meant to sip from the Stanley Cup.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was in shock for a while,\u201d he said. \u201cI was kind of speechless. It was really amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n
From there, it was on to dinner at neighboring Chops, where Huff toted the Stanley Cup through the steakhouse and floored diners. And then a visit to Johnny\u2019s Hideaway in Buckhead. Huff brought it onto the bar\u2019s dance floor, where he was careful to avoid crashing it into the hanging disco ball.<\/p>\n
For friends who wanted to drink out of it, Huff had to hoist the roughly 35-pound trophy himself, as cup rules permit only those whose names are engraved on it to hold it up.<\/p>\n
![\"Former](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/ZJVN7EDSKFHEJHJUMKE7XKR5J4.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Credit: Photo courtesy of Liam Klein<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Credit: Photo courtesy of Liam Klein<\/p>\n
Huff\u2019s arms?<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were really sore by the end of the night from all the hoisting, but totally worth it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
And, finally, as Atlanta social protocol would practically insist, a late-night meal at a Waffle House near Johnny\u2019s. Huff used the cup to dine on waffles with syrup and butter.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt actually tasted really good,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Finally, at 11:59 p.m., the cup\u2019s caretakers packed up this most glorious trophy. And the cup\u2019s first-ever day in Atlanta under the supervision of an NHL champion was over.<\/p>\n
\u201cWalked it out, put it in the case, said my final goodbyes,\u201d Huff said.<\/p>\n
Presented a day with one of sport\u2019s treasured trophies, Huff scarcely could have spent it better. Sharing it with family, friends and former co-workers, but also with others who might benefit most from getting close to it, even people he\u2019d never met and has nothing to gain from.<\/p>\n
Huff said he was following the lead of his team. He recalled how team captain Aleksander Barkov, who made sure that the first players to skate the cup after Barkov\u2019s lap were players who had never won it. In the same vein, Huff wanted to make his day about others.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt like it was a successful day,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat was achieved, I can\u2019t really tell you, other than I think it made people happy.\u201d<\/p>\n
In that way, a most rare day for Huff was not unlike the rest of them.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s never changed,\u201d Klein said. \u201cEven with all the success he has, he\u2019s still just a very humble, down-to-earth, great person and he\u2019s always thinking about other people.\u201d<\/p>\n
A worthy champion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The traditions of hoisting the trophy and skating a lap around the ice with it and drinking out…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":77867,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[293,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-77866","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-nhl","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114885329381922237","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77866\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/BJ4423WFAZBQBHTXBMOFM4MYOQ.jpg\")
<\/p>\n