It’s the most treasured trophy in all of sports. Yes, I’m talking about the Stanley Cup which has a long and storied history which is why it shouldn’t be awarded this season, regardless of whether the NHL returns to play in the summer. In the storied history of the NHL, there have been only two years that the cup wasn’t awarded (1919 and 2005). The 2005 lockout season is the only season that doesn’t have a name on the cup.
In 1919, the Stanley Cup Finals between the Seattle Metropolitans and Le Canadiens was cancelled after five games as the series was knotted at 2-2-1. Due to the fact that the series was tied at two when it was cancelled, as a result, both teams names were etched on the cup.
What Makes The Stanley Cup So Special And The History Behind It?
The Stanley Cup is the only trophy in sports that is not replicated every year and has a history behind it. It stands at 35 and a quarter inches tall and weighs 34 and a half pounds. The tiered rings that have the names of Stanley Cup Champions on them are replaced every 13 years to make room for the next round of champions.
There are three Stanley Cups, two of which are viewable to the public and the original is kept in a vault at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, Ontario. The two other cups are duplicates as there is a presentation cup and a replica cup. During the season, the presentation cup is on display, but in the summer, it’s the replica as the players have the presentation cup. In 1962, the original Stanley Cup was retired.
The tradition of the NHL commissioner handing the captain the Stanley Cup is a long-standing tradition that still continues today. In 1972, the Boston Bruins won the Stanley Cup Championship without having named a captain. It would be 36-year-old alternate captain John Bucyk who would end up being the first one to get his hands on the Stanley Cup that season.
Celebrating With The Cup
In 1995, the unofficial tradition of a day with the cup would be started by that season’s Stanley Cup Champions, the New Jersey Devils. However, their players and teams have spent time with the cup in the summer before 1995. Every summer, the cup spends a day with each player and front-office staff member of the organization and this usually lasts 100 days.
The Cup has done some pretty crazy stuff over the years, including being at strip clubs, having babies baptized in the cup, being in Mario Lemieux’s pool at his mansion, being a hot dog holder and much, much more. Each day is marked in the Stanley Cup’s Journal which can be found here.
The Summer of 2018 was a rough one for the Stanley Cup after the Washington Capitals managed to successfully win their first Stanley Cup Championship. Being able to lift the cup on home ice is something every team wants to do so they can celebrate with their fans, however, for the Capitals, they got the next best thing, lifting the cup and celebrating the win in Las Vegas, Nevada and it would be safe to say Alex Ovechkin didn’t have many sober moments after the victory. The same night as the victory, the champs celebrated the win at a local strip club in town and the party didn’t end when they landed back in Washington D.C.
Ovechkin and the team also jumped into the fountain and the Georgetown waterfront. The Capitals also went against the advice of Stanley Cup Keeper Phillip Pritchard who warned the Capitals not to do keg stands with the cup. “We ask them politely not to do it,” Pritchard said.
“We’re trying to preserve the history of the Stanley Cup. We don’t want any unnecessary damage to it or a person, in case they drop the person or he presses too hard or something. We’ll see what happens as we move forward with the Cup,” Pritchard said.
“At the end of September, the Cup is going in to get engraved and updated and cleaned and everything, so we’ll see how it is because we have to take it apart then and everything. We’ll know probably more then, in early October, once it’s back for the home opener. Our biggest thing is respect for it.”
However, when the cup was returned at the end of the summer, it wasn’t the same. The cup was fixed and luckily didn’t suffer as much wear and tear during the St. Louis Blues time with the Cup after they won the Stanley Cup Championship the following season.
What Should Be Rewarded To The Winners This Season?
The 2019-2020 Stanley Cup Champions this year should receive some kind of trophy to mark their accomplishments for the season, just not the Stanley Cup as previously mentioned. One idea could be something similar to the World Cup of Hockey trophy, a smaller, but still a rather shiny object.
I think it would be safe to say even if the Stanley Cup is awarded, it won’t be doing much traveling. Due to COVID-19, it’s highly unlikely that the usual Stanley Cup championship parade would be held to keep the social distancing measures in check and hopefully get back to a somewhat “normal” lifestyle again. So let’s all agree to preserve the cup and not ruin the storied history that goes along with it.