It did not take Mackie Samoskevich very long to decide where he was going to spend his day with the Stanley Cup. He was, of course, going to take it to his hometown of Newtown, Conn., and would stop by the Sandy Hook Elementary memorial not far from his childhood home to pay respect to those who died and were injured in a horrific mass shooting there when he was just a child.
Samoskevich, along with his two sisters Melissa and Maddie, attended Sandy Hook Elementary.
He and Maddie are twins, and were a year removed from being at Sandy Hook Elementary on Dec. 14, 2012, when a 20-year-old gunman armed with an AR-15 and two handguns barged into the school and killed 20 first-graders and six staff members.
Mackie and Maddie Samoskevich were, on the morning of the shooting, in class at the nearby Reed Intermediate School where they were in the fifth grade.
But much like the tragedy at Stoneman Douglas High in Parkland, it will always be with those who were there when it happened.
For the Samoskevich family, and those who lived in the close-knit community of Newtown, it is an event they will never, ever forget.
And, like Mackie did on Saturday, will always remember and reflect on those who were lost.
โI want to represent Sandy Hook,โโ Samoskevich said before being a first-round pick by the Florida Panthers in 2021. โItโs my favorite place in the world.โ
Saturday, he brought the Stanley Cup to the memorial park that was built near the site of the now-demolished school.
โI thought we would just bring it back,โโ he said, โin honor of them.โโ
Mackie Samoskevichโs day with the Stanley Cup was, as most days are, a family affair.
His two sisters joined mom (Patty) and dad (Fred) in Connecticut where the whole town was invited to celebrate the Panthersโ Stanley Cup victory.
Not only did Samoskevich take the Stanley Cup to the Sandy Hook Elementary memorial, but he also visited the Northford Ice Pavilion where he grew up skating when it was too warm for the Samoskevich backyard rink to be iced over.
it was at Northford that Samoskevich saw the Stanley Cup for the first time.
In 2013, a few months after the Sandy Hook tragedy, a group of Boston Bruins traveled to Newtown to spend the day in the community and to play a little hockey with the kids.
The Bruins even brought the Cup with them.
โI can’t even fathom what people are going through,โ then-Boston defenseman Andrew Ference told the Stamford Advocate in 2013. โI can’t even begin to understand it.โ
Samoskevich also had a grade-school project that his parents held on to, a piece of construction paper titled โWhen I Grow Up, I Want to Be a…โ
The young Mackie wrote out โhockey player.โ
Good on him.
His sisters are also very accomplished hockey players.
Melissa Samoskevich had a fantastic career in which she won Gold for Team USA at the World Junior U-18s and spent three seasons playing for the Connecticut Whale.
Maddie Samoskevich recently graduated after a standout career at Quinnipiac and was recently drafted by Vancouver of the PWHL.
โI have so many memories here growing up,โโ Mackie Samoskevich said. โYou see all the legends bringing the Cup around their town, so, itโs cool to kind of be a part of that. I just wanted to bring it here.โโ
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