June 18 (UPI) — The back-to-back Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers appear to have damaged one of the most iconic and hardest trophies to win in all of sports.

The Panthers won their second championship in two years on Tuesday, by downing the Edmonton Oilers 5-1 in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final.

As is tradition, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman awarded the Panthers, specifically their captain, Sasha Barkov, Lord Stanley’s Cup during an on-ice ceremony after the game to be paraded around the ice surface by each player.

However, not long after winning the oldest trophy in professional sports at 133 years old it appears the Panthers have damaged the silver hardware.

Images posted online show that not only has the bottom of the 35 and 1/4 inches tall cup been damaged but its iconic bowl has been torn.

Though given white glove treatment by its handler — Hockey Hall of fame’s Keeper of the Cup Phil Pritchard — throughout the year, after being awarded following the playoffs, the trophy is known to be treated without care.

Players drink beer and Champagne from its silver goblet in which babies are also frequently placed. And Phil Kessel filled it to the brim with hot dogs after winning it in 2017 as a member of the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Other foods consumed out of the cup include poutine (on more than one occasion), various pastas, borscht and more.

The rough treatment has seen the Cup receive its fair share of injuries, most notably by Nicolas Aube-Kubel of the Colorado Avalanche who gave it a nice dent to the bottom when he fell holding it as he was joining his team for a team photo in 2022.

The Cup has a storied history, and has been repeatedly lost, damaged and even once thrown into the Rideau Canal after the Ottawa Silver Seven won the trophy in 1905.

After winning the cup, Florida Panthers brought the trophy to the Elbo Room in Fort Lauderdale on Wednesday. The team has announced there will be Championship Celebration on Sunday with a parade along A1A, starting at Riomar Street and ending near Fort Lauderdale Beach Park where a rally will take place.

The Panthers’ home is Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, about 16 miles west of the rally.

TALLAHASSEE — As Minnesota reels from the murder of one state lawmaker and the shooting of another, Florida could shield from public disclosure the home addresses of legislators, other elected officials and their family members.

Florida lawmakers in April overwhelmingly passed a bill to create a public records exemption that would prevent the release of home addresses and telephone numbers of legislators and members of Congress. Also, the exemption would apply to the governor, lieutenant governor, state Cabinet members, county commissioners, property appraisers, elections supervisors, school superintendents, school board members, mayors and city commissioners.

The bill, which needs Gov. Ron DeSantis’ signature to become law, drew relatively little attention during this year’s legislative session.

But lawmakers said they have been threatened and harassed and have had people show up at their homes.

“All of us here are public servants,” House bill sponsor Susan Valdes, R-Tampa, said April 29, shortly before the House voted to give final approval to the measure. “We deserve to be protected. Our families deserve to be protected.”

Rep. Michele Rayner, D-St. Petersburg, said safety is “paramount.”

“A lot of us deal with this, we kind of deal with this in silence,” she said.

The issue of lawmaker safety has drawn national attention after a gunman murdered former Minnesota Democratic House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband early Saturday at their home and shot Democratic Sen. John Hoffman and his wife at their home. The Associated Press reported Monday morning that suspected gunman Vance Boelter had been arrested after a manhunt.

Florida law already provides public records exemptions for home addresses and telephone numbers for a variety of people such as law enforcement officers, judges, prosecutors, public defenders and tax collectors. The exemptions also generally apply to those officials’ spouses and children.

But the new bill would go much further in applying exemptions to elected officials and their family members. It passed the House in a 113-2 vote, after getting approved by the Senate in a 34-2 vote.

The bill, however, drew opposition from the First Amendment Foundation, which said it would reduce transparency. As an example, disputes have arisen in the past about whether lawmakers live in their districts, which might become harder for reporters and members of the public to check if addresses are shielded.

“While the bill will do little to deter bad actors, it makes it extremely difficult for people to check whether their elected officials actually live in their districts,” the First Amendment Foundation said in a report on its website.

Part of the bill includes a legislative finding that a “public necessity” exists for shielding addresses and telephone numbers. Under the bill, cities and ZIP codes where elected officials live would remain public, but not their actual addresses.

The bill, which would take effect July 1, said “public officers and their families may receive threats, including, but not limited to, verbal threats, harassment, and intimidation, while carrying out their official duties.”

“Vulnerability to such threats may discourage residents of this state from seeking elected office in order to protect themselves and their families,” the bill said. “The Legislature further finds that the harm that may result from the release of such personal identifying and location information outweighs any public benefit that may be derived from the disclosure of the information.”

By Jim Saunders, News Service of Florida