Stanley Cup

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The Stanley Cup

The Stanley Cup is the championship trophy of the National Hockey League (NHL), the major professional ice hockey league in Canada and the United States. Commonly referred to as simply "The Cup", or facetiously (chiefly by sportswriters) as "Lord Stanley's Mug", it is one of the most-recognized symbols in North American sports and is at the center of several legends and superstitions. Unlike the trophies awarded by the other three major professional sports leagues of North America, a new Stanley Cup is never made annually; the Cup winners only keep it until the new champion is crowned. It is also the only trophy in professional sports that has the name of the winning players, coaches, management, and club staff engraved upon it.

Originally known as the Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup, the trophy was donated by Lord Stanley of Preston in 1892 as an award for Canada's top-ranking amateur hockey club, decided by the acceptance of a challenge from another league championship team. Then in 1915, a gentlemen's agreement between two professional hockey organizations, the National Hockey Association (NHA) and the Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA), was reached in which their respective champions would face each other for the Stanley Cup. After a series of league mergers and folds, it became the de facto championship trophy of the NHL in 1926. The Cup would later become the official de jure NHL championship prize in 1947.

The current Stanley Cup champions are the Carolina Hurricanes (See also: List of Stanley Cup champions).

History

Origins

Stanley Cup on display at the Hockey Hall of Fame

Soon after Frederick Stanley, The Lord Stanley of Preston, was appointed Governor General of Canada on June 11 1888, he and his family became enthusiastic about ice hockey. Stanley's first exposure to the game occurred at Montreal's Winter Carnival during the winter of 1888, where he saw the Montreal Victorias versus the Montreal AAA. The Montreal Gazette reported that he "expressed his great delight with the game of hockey and the expertise of the players." During that time, organized hockey in Canada was still in its infancy, as anything resembling leagues were only based in Montreal and Ottawa.

Meanwhile, Lord Stanley's seven sons became active in hockey, with Arthur and Algernon forming a new team called the Ottawa Rideau Rebels. Arthur also later played a key role in the formation of what later became known as the Ontario Hockey Association (OHA). Soon, Arthur and Algernon started to persuade their father to donate a trophy to be "an outward and visible sign of the ice hockey championship."

By early 1892, the Ottawa Rebels won the OHA championship, and was honoured for their title victory at a March 18 dinner at the Ottawa Amateur Athletic Association. Unable to attend, Lord Stanley sent the following message to be read:

I have for some time been thinking that it would be a good thing if there were a challenge cup which should be held from year to year by the champion hockey team in the Dominion [of Canada]. There does not appear to be any such outward sign of a championship at present, and considering the general interest which matches now elicit, and the importance of having the game played fairly and under rules generally recognized, I am willing to give a cup which shall be held from year to year by the winning team.

Original Stanley Cup in the bank vault at the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Soon afterwards, Lord Stanley purchased a decorative bowl, forged in Sheffield, England, from London silversmith G.R. Collis and Company (now Boodles and Dunthorne Jewelers) for ten guineas ($48.67 USD at that time). He also had the words "Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup" engraved on one side of the outide rim, and "From Stanley of Preston" on the other side.

Originally, Lord Stanley planned the Cup to be used as a trophy given out to the top amateur hockey team in Canada, decided by the acceptance of a challenge from another team. He made five preliminary regulations on how it should be governed:

1. The winners shall return the Cup in good order when required by the trustees so that it may be handed over to any other team which may win it.
2. Each winning team, at its own expense, may have the club name and year engraved on a silver ring fitted on the Cup.
3. The Cup shall remain a challenge cup, and should not become the property of one team, even if won more than once.
4. The trustees shall maintain absolute authority in all situations or disputes over the winner of the Cup.
5. If one of the existing trustees resigns or drops out, the remaining trustee shall nominate a substitute.

Lord Stanley appointed Sheriff John Sweetland and Philip D. Ross as trustees of the Cup. Sweetland and Ross first presented the trophy in 1893 to the Montreal AAA, the champion of the Amateur Hockey Association (AHA), since they "defeated all comers during the late season, including the champions of the Ontario Association [the Ottawa Generals]". Sweetland and Ross also believed that the AHA was the top league, and thus first place in the AHA entitled Montreal to be called the best in Canada. Naturally, the Ottawa Generals were upset by the decision because there had been no challenge games scheduled, and because the trustees failed to convey the rules on how the Cup was to be awarded prior to the start of the season.

As a result, the Cup trustees then issued more specific rules on how the trophy should be defended and awarded:

• The Cup is automatically awarded to the team that wins the title of the previous Cup champion's league, without the need for any other special extra contest.
• Challengers for the Cup must be from senior hockey associations, and must have won their league championship. Challengers will be recognized in the order in which their request is received.
• The challenge games (where the Cup could change leagues) are to be decided either in a one-game affair, a two-game total goals affair, or a best of three series, to the benefit of both teams involved. All matches would take place on the home ice of the champions, although specific dates and times would have to be approved by the trustees.
• Ticket receipts from the challenge games are to be split equally between both teams.
• If the two competing clubs cannot agree to a referee, the trustees will appoint one, and the two teams shall cover the expenses equally. If the two competing clubs cannot agree on other officials, the referee will appoint them, and the two clubs shall also pay the expenses equally
• A league could not challenge for the Cup twice in one season.

Ironically, Lord Stanley himself never saw a game where his trophy was on the line, nor did he ever present the Cup bearing his name. Although his term of governor general ended in September of 1893, he was forced to return to England on July 15. In April of that year, his elder brother, the 15th Earl of Derby, died, and Stanley succeeded him as the 16th Earl of Derby.

The Challenge Cup Era

Main article: Stanley Cup Challenge Games

During the period when it was a challenge cup, all of the leagues that played for the trophy had no annual formal playoff system to decide their own respective championships; whoever finished in first place after the regular season won the league title. But in 1894, four teams out of the five-team AHA tied for the championship with records of 5-3-0. This created problems for the AHA governors and the league trustees as to which team was champion, as there was no tiebreaking system in place. After long negotiation and the withdrawal of Quebec from the championship situation, it was decided that a three-team tournament would take place in Montreal, with the Ottawa team getting a bye to the finals (being the sole "road" team). On March 17, in the first Stanley Cup playoff game ever, the Montreal AAA defeated the Montreal Victorias, 3-2. Five days later, the AAA beat the Ottawa Generals, 3-1, in first Stanley Cup Final game.

The next year was the first official challenge for the Cup, by Queen's University. However, this did not come without controversy. The Montreal Victorias won the league title and thus the Stanley Cup, but the challenge match, which was scheduled earlier for the next day, was to be between the previous year's champion and the university squad. Thus, it was decided by the trustees that if the Montreal AAA won the challenge match, the Victorias would become the Stanley Cup champions. The AAA would eventually win the match 5-1 and their cross-town rivals were crowned the champions.

The first successful challenge to the Cup came the next year by the Winnipeg Victorias, the champions of the Manitoba Hockey League. On February 14 1896, the Winnipeg squad defeated the champions 2-0, and became the first team outside the AHA to win the Cup.

As the prestige of winning the Cup grew, so did the need to attract top players. After winning the Cup in March of 1906, the Montreal Wanderers went to the annual meeting of the Eastern Canada Amateur Hockey Association (ECAHA) in November of that year and pushed through a resolution that would allow professional players to play alongside amateurs. Because the ECAHA was the top hockey league in Canada during that time, the Cup trustees went along and opened the challenges to preofessional teams. Meanwhile, the first professional players played for the Cup one month later during the Wanderers' two-game, total goals challenge series win over the New Glasgow Cubs, 17 goals to 5.

In 1908, the Allan Cup was introduced as the trophy for Canada's amateurs, and the Stanley Cup started to become a symbol of professional hockey supremacy. In that same year, the first all-professional team, the Toronto Trolley Leaguers from the newly created Ontario Professional Hockey League (OPHL), competed for the Cup. One year later, the Montreal AAA and the Montreal Victorias, the two remaining amateur teams, left the ECAHA, and the ECAHA dropped "Amateur" from their name to become an all-pro league.. Then in 1910, the National Hockey Association (NHA) was formed. The new league soon proved to be unquestionably the top league in Canada as it kept the Cup for the next four consecutive years.

Prior to 1912, challenges could take place at any time, given the appropriate rink conditions, and it was common for teams to defend the Cup numerous times in the year. In 1912, Cup trustees declared that the Cup was only to be defended at the end of the champion team's regular season.

The "World Series" Era

In 1914, the Victoria Aristocrats from the Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA) challenged the NHA and Cup champion Toronto Blueshirts. However, Victoria never formally submitted the challenge, and thus the Cup trustees viewed the series as illegitmate. As it turned out, the controversy was avoided as Toronto defended the Cup by sweeping the best-of-five series.

One year later, the NHA and the PCHA made a gentlemen's agreement in which their respective champions would face each other for the Cup, similar to baseball's World Series played between the American League and National League champions. Under the new proposal, the Stanley Cup Final series alternated between the east and the west each year, while the differing rules of the NHA and PCHA alternated each game. The Cup trustees went along with the NHA-PCHA agreement because after the Allan Cup became the top prize of Canada's amateurs, the trustees had become dependent on the top two professional leagues to keep its trophy prominent. The PCHA's Vancouver Millionaires then won the first "formal" PCHA-NHA Cup Final, three games to zero in a best-of-five series.

After the Portland Rosebuds, an American based team, joined the PCHA in 1914, the trustees issued a statement that the Cup was not just for the best team in Canada, but it was to be symbolic of world hockey supremacy. Two years later, the Rosebuds became the first American team to play in the Stanley Cup Final.. Then in 1917, the Seattle Metropolitans became the first American team to win the Cup. After the season, the NHA dissolved, and the National Hockey League (NHL) took its place.

The first year the Stanley Cup was not awarded was 1919. The Spanish influenza epidemic forced the cancellation of the series between the Montreal Canadiens and the Seattle Metropolitans. After the series was tied at 2-2-1, the final game was never played because Montreal players Joe Hall, Manager George Kennedy, Billy Coutu, Jack McDonald and Edouard Lalonde were hospitalized with influenza. Joe Hall died four days after the cancelled game, and the series was abandoned.

The format for the Stanley Cup Finals changed in 1922, with the creation of the Western Canada Hockey League (WCHL). Now, three league competed for the Cup; two league champions faced each other for the right to challenge the third champion in the final series. This would only last three seasons as the PCHA and the WCHL would later merge to form the Western Hockey League (WHL) in 1924. Its champion after the 1924-25 season, the Victoria Cougars, eventually became the last team outside the NHL to win the Stanley Cup.

The NHL takes over

Then NHL President Clarence Campbell and the Cup in 1957.

The WHL folded in 1926, leaving the NHL as the only league left playing for the Cup. As a result, the Cup became the de facto championship trophy of the NHL. By 1947, the NHL reached an agreement under which the trustees were only bound to award the Cup to the NHL champions (effectively automatically refusing challenges from other leagues that may have wished to play for the Cup).

Since then, the Cup was awarded every year until 2005. A labour dispute between the NHL's owners and the NHL Players Association (the union that represents the players) led to the cancellation of the 2004-05 season. As a result, no Cup champion was crowned for the first time since the flu epidemic in 1919.

The lockout caused controversy among many fans, questioning whether the NHL has exclusive control over the Cup. A web site known as Free Stanley was launched, asking fans to write to the Cup trustees and urge them to return to the original Challenge Cup format. Adrienne Clarkson, the then-Governor General of Canada, alternatively proposed that the Cup be presented to the top women's hockey team in lieu of the NHL season. This idea was so unpopular that the Clarkson Cup was created instead.

Meanwhile, a group in Ontario filed an application with the Ontario Superior Court, claiming that the Cup trustees overstepped their bounds in signing the 1947 agreement with the NHL, and therefore must award the trophy regardless of the lockout. On February 7, 2006, a settlement was reached in which the trophy could be awarded to non-NHL teams should the league not operate for a particular season.

Engraving on the Cup

The engraved names of the 2000-01 Stanley Cup champion Colorado Avalanche.

See also: Chronology of Stanley Cup engravings

A unique feature of the Stanley Cup is that, with few exceptions in the past, the Stanley Cup is currently the only trophy in professional sports that has the name of the winning players, coaches, management, and club staff engraved upon it. This has not always been the case - one of Lord Stanley's original conditions said that each team could, at their own expense, add a ring on the Cup to commemorate their victory.

Initially, there was only one base ring, the one attached to the bottom of the original bowl by the first Cup champion Montreal AAA. Clubs engraved their team names, usually in the form [TEAM NAME] [YEAR WON], on that one ring until it was full in 1902. With no room to engrave their names (and unwilling to pay for a second band), teams left their mark on the bowl itself. The 1907 Montreal Wanderers became the first club to record their name on the bowl's interior surface, and the first champion to record the name of every member on their team.

In 1908, for reasons unknown, the Wanderers, despite having turned aside four challengers, did not record their names on the Cup. The next year, the Ottawa Senators added a second band onto the Cup. Despite the new room, the 1910 Wanderers and the 1911 Senators, for reasons unknown, did not put their names on the Cup. On the other hand, the 1915 Vancouver Millionaires became the second team to engrave players' names, this time inside the bowl along its sides.

The band added by the 1909 Senators would eventually be filled by the 1918 Millionaires. The 1915 Ottawa Senators, the 1916 Portland Rosebuds, and the 1918 Vancouver Millionaires all engraved their names on the trophy even though they did not officially win it under the new PHCA-NHA system. They had only won the title of the previous champion's league, and would have been crowned as Cup champions under the old challenge rules.

No further engraving occurred until 1924, when the Canadiens added a new band on the Cup. However, since then, the engraving of the team and its players have been an annual tradition that has not been broken. Originally, a new band was added each year, causing the trophy to grow in size. Because the "Stovepipe Cup" (as it was later called due to its resemblance to the exhaust pipe of a stove) became impractical due to its ever increasing height, the Cup was then redesigned in 1948 as a two-piece cigar-shaped trophy with a removable bowl and collar. This Cup also properly honored those teams that did not engrave their names on the Cup themselves.

The modern one-piece Cup design was introduced in 1958 with the replacement of the old barrel with a five-band barrel (each of which could contain 13 winning teams). Although the bands were originally designed to fill up during the Cup's centennial year, the names of the 1965 Montreal Canadiens were engraved over a larger area than allotted (and thus there are 12 teams on that band instead of 13). The bands were finally all filled in 1991, and a decision was made to preserve the top band of the large barrel in the Hockey Hall of Fame and introduce a new blank band at the bottom so the size of the Stanley Cup would not grow further. Another new band will be added to the bottom of the Cup in September 2006; the Carolina Hurricanes will be the first team engraved on it. It is also to be noted that since 1958, the Cup underwent several minor alterations, namely the retirement of the collar in 1963 and the bowl in 1969 in favor of duplicates because the originals were too brittle.

Currently, the Cup stands at 89.54 cm (35-1/4 inches) tall and weighs 15-1/2 kg (34-1/2 lbs).

The Stanley Cup today

There are actually three Cups that exist; the original bowl, displayed at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, Ontario; a duplicate, made by Montreal silversmith Carl Petersen, which is the one awarded to the champions of the playoffs and used for promotions; and a replica that is displayed at the Hockey Hall of Fame when the playoff Cup is travelling.

Currently, in order to have one's name inscribed on the Cup, a player must have played at least 41 games for the championship team during the regular season (provided the player remains with the team when they win the Cup) or at least played in one game of the Finals. However, the NHL will also permit other reasons on a case-by-case basis.

The player who has been on the most Stanley Cup championships is Henri "The Pocket Rocket" Richard, of the Montreal Canadiens, with 11. Two other Canadiens players, Jean Beliveau and Yvan Cournoyer, are each on the Cup 10 times. The first U.S. citizen to have his name engraved on the Stanley Cup is John Sherf of Calumet, MI. After completing his senior season at the University of Michigan in 1936, the Detroit Red Wings signed him to play the balance of their regular season and the playoffs. Sherf played with the Red Wings in the Stanley Cup Finals when they defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Traditions and anecdotes

Various traditions surround the Stanley Cup. One of the oldest, started by the 1896 Winnipeg Victorias, dictates that the winning team drink champagne from the top bowl after their victory.

Another tradition is the on ice presentation of the Cup to the captain of the winning team after the series-winning victory, and the subsequent carrying of the trophy around the rink by each member of the victorious club. This has not always been the case - prior to the 1930s, the Cup was never awarded immediately after the victory. Possibly the first time that the Cup was awarded on the ice was to the 1932 Toronto Maple Leafs, but the practice did not become an annual tradition until the 1950s.

Ted Lindsay of the 1950 Cup champion Detroit Red Wings became the first captain, upon receiving the Cup, to hoist it overhead and skate around the rink. Since then, it has been a tradition to have each member of the winning team take a lap around the ice with the trophy hoisted above their heads. This was slightly breached by Joe Sakic and Ray Bourque when the Colorado Avalanche won the Cup in 2001. The seventh game of the 2001 Finals was the last of Bourque's 22 year NHL career, and he had never been on a Cup-winning team until then. When Sakic recieved the trophy, he did not hoist it, but instead immediately handed it to Bourque for him to hoist. Sakic then followed Bourque in hoisting the trophy.

Another tradition (or rather superstition) that is prevalent among today's NHL players is that no player should touch the Cup itself until his team has rightfully won the Cup. Adding to this superstition is some players' choice to neither touch nor hoist the conference trophies (Clarence S. Campbell Bowl and Prince of Wales Trophy) when these series have been won; the players feel that the Stanley Cup is the true championship trophy and thus it should be the only trophy that they should be hoisting. Mario Lemieux broke this tradition by lifting the Prince of Wales Trophy after defeating the Boston Bruins in 1991 and again in 1992. However, in 1994, Stephane Matteau, then of the New York Rangers, admitted that he tapped the Wales Trophy with his stick's blade before the overtime period in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals. Matteau subsequently scored the game-winning goal in double overtime, and the Rangers would go on to win the Stanley Cup. Also, in 2002 the Carolina Hurricanes hoisted the Prince of Wales trophy after they won their conference title, due to the fact that their winning season was so unexpected. The Carolina Hurricanes went on to lose their Finals series with the Detroit Red Wings four games to one. However, Steve Yzerman, the captain of the Red Wings, hoisted the Campbell Bowl each time his team won it, in 1995, 1997, 1998, and 2002. The Red Wings went on to win the Stanley Cup 3 out of those 4 years, in 1997, 1998, and 2002. The superstition held true in 2004, as Jarome Iginla of the Calgary Flames grabbed the Campbell Bowl, but Dave Andreychuk of the Tampa Bay Lightning refused to touch the Prince of Wales Trophy; the Lightning went on to win the Stanley Cup in seven games.

Although many players have unofficially had a private day with the Cup, a tradition started in 1995 wherein each member of the Cup-winning team is allowed personal possession of the Cup for a day. It is always accompanied by at least one representative from the Hockey Hall of Fame. The tradition became subject of an ESPN marketing campaign that showed players using the Cup in various ways (Ken Daneyko eating cereal out of it, Derian Hatcher using it as a cooler at a party, and so on) with the caption "What will the next winners do with it?"

The smallest municipality to ever produce a Stanley Cup champion is Kenora, Ontario; the town had a population of about 4,000 when the Kenora Thistles captured the Cup in January 1907. Aided by future hall of famers Art Ross and "Bad" Joe Hall, the Thistles defeated the Montreal Wanderers in a two-game, total goals challenge series. The Thistles successfully defended the Cup once, against a team from Brandon, Manitoba. In March of 1907, the Thistles were challenged to a rematch by the Wanderers. Despite an improved lineup, the Thistles lost the Cup to Montreal and faded into hockey obscurity.

Adventures

Arguably one of the most recognized trophies in professional sports, The Cup has logged more than 400,000 miles (640,000 km) during the past five seasons alone. Among its many adventures:

• visited North Carolina's outer banks, Shackleford Banks in particular, on a fishing skiff over the Fourth of July weekend in 2006
• went to the top of Fisher Peak, near Cranbrook, British Columbia and the top of Mt. Elbert in Colorado;
• went to Red Square and a soccer game at Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow;
• went to a monument near Yekaterinburg, Russia marking the geographic boundary between Europe and Asia;
• went to an auto glass plant in Hawkesbury, Ontario, Canada where then-Colorado Avalanche head coach Bob Hartley worked while coaching minor-league hockey;
• went to an Aboriginal Métis Nation Settlement;
• was taken on a roller coaster ride at Universal Studios and to the Hollywood Sign by Luc Robitaille;
• was a passenger on Darren McCarty's motorcycle;
• was a passenger on Brad Richards's jetski and his father's fishing boat on Northumberland Strait (both times, the Cup had its own life jacket);
• went to an igloo in Rankin Inlet;
• was a White House guest of George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush;
• served as the baptismal font for Sylvain Lefebvre's daughter;
• appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman, Meet the Press with Tim Russert, and Late Night;
• lent its support at the 1999 5K Celebrity Run-Walk for Women's Cancer Research;
• served as the engagement ring bearer for the Tampa Bay Lightning's André Roy while in a helicopter flown by Guy Lafleur;
• went to Kiev, Ukraine with Tampa Bay Game-7 hero Ruslan Fedotenko;
• went to Stephenville, Newfoundland for Hockey Day in Canada in 2006
• went to sauna in Finland with Finnish cup winners.
• it made a trip back to London, UK in April 2006. A plaque was placed at the site of the store where the Cup was initially bought by Lord Stanley.
• returned to Kiev, Ukraine with Carolina Hurricanes defenceman Anton Babchuk, 2006;

Misadventures

The Cup has also been mistreated, misplaced, or otherwise misused on numerous occasions:

• A member of the 1905 Ottawa Silver Seven tried to see if he could drop kick the Cup across the Rideau Canal. The attempt failed, and the Cup was not retrieved until the next day; luckily the canal was still frozen over.
• Weeks after members of the 1906 Montreal Wanderers left it at a photographer's studio, officials learned that the photographer's mother was using the Cup to plant geraniums.
• In 1907, a Kenora Thistles team manager threatened to throw the Cup into the Lake of the Woods in a dispute over the eligibility of two Thistles players.
• Members of the 1924 Canadiens, en route to celebrate their win at owner Leo Dandurand's home, left it by a roadside after repairing a flat tire. The Cup was recovered exactly where they left it.
• In 1925, Lynn and Muzz Patrick, the sons of Victoria Cougars manager-coach Lester Patrick, discovered the Cup in the basement of their home, and scratched their names on it with a nail. In 1940, their names would be properly engraved on it as members of the New York Rangers. They also urinated in the Cup with teammates.
• During the 1940-41 season, the mortgage on the Madison Square Garden was paid. The management publicly celebrated by burning the mortgage in the Cup. Some fans claimed that this act "desecrated" the Cup, leading to the alleged Curse of 1940, which "caused" the Rangers to wait 54 years for another win.
• In 1964, Red Kelly of the Toronto Maple Leafs posed for a photo with his infant son sitting in the Cup, only to find the child had urinated in it. Kelly was quoted years later as saying it has always since made him laugh to see players drinking out of the Cup.
• New York Islanders' Bryan Trottier admitted to sleeping with the Cup (as have, apparently, dozens of players).
• Clark Gillies used it as a food dish for his dog ; in a similar incident, Guy Lafleur took the Stanley Cup to his family's house in rural Quebec and used it as a bird feeder.
• In 1987, the Edmonton Oilers' Mark Messier took it to a strip club and let fans drink out of it. It wound up slightly bent in various places for unknown reasons. It was repaired at a local automotive shop, and shipped back to the Hockey Hall of Fame.
• The 1991 Pittsburgh Penguins and 1993 Montreal Canadiens decided to test its buoyancy by tossing it into Mario Lemieux's and Patrick Roy's respective pools ("The Stanley Cup" - noted then-Canadiens captain Guy Carbonneau - "does not float."). Dominik Hasek had his visit with the Cup cut short for doing the same .
• After the parade in their honor, members of the New York Rangers took the cup to McSorley's Old Ale House, locked the doors, and for 45 minutes allowed the patrons to hoist it above their heads and drink McSorley's Dark and Light out of it. The New York Post reported the next day that the cup was taken back by the league for "repairs".
• Several New York Rangers took the Cup to Belmont Park, filled it with oats, and let Kentucky Derby winner Go for Gin eat out of it.
• The Dallas Stars' Guy Carbonneau attempted to drop the Cup into Pantera drummer Vinnie Paul's pool but missed, resulting in a dent at its base
• In 1999 and 2003, the cup made a trip to Joe Nieuwendyk's alma mater, Cornell University, both times visiting a local college bar. .
• In 2003, the Cup was slated to make its first-ever visit to Slovakia with New Jersey Devils' Jiri Bicek, but was left behind in Canada; it was on the next flight out of Toronto.
• On August 22, 2004, Walter Neubrand, keeper of the Cup, boarded a plane to Fort St. John, British Columbia to deliver it to Tampa Bay Lightning head scout Jake Goertzen. However, Air Canada officials at Vancouver International Airport removed it before takeoff because of weight restrictions. The Cup spent the night in the luggage area, 750 miles (1200 kilometres) away. It was flown to Fort St. John the following day.

Women on the Cup

Eight women have had their names engraved on the Stanley Cup: Marguerite Norris (1955) was president of the Detroit Red Wings; Sonia Scurfield (1989) was a co-owner of the Calgary Flames; Marie-Denise DeBartolo York (1991) was president of the Pittsburgh Penguins; Marian Ilitch was a co-owner of the Detroit Red Wings (1997, 1998, 2002) along with her three daughters Denise Ilitch, Lisa Ilitch Murray and Carole Ilitch Trepeck. The Senior Director of Hockey Administration Charlotte Grahame's name was added in 2001 when the Colorado Avalanche won.

Errors in engraving

There have been errors on the engraving on the Cup, some of which also exist on the duplicate Cup found in the Hockey Hall of Fame:

• In 1929, Boston Bruins player-coach Cy Denneny's name was listed on the Cup twice (once as a player and once as a coach), with one being spelled correctly and the other as "Cy Dennenny".
• In 1952, Detroit Red Wings' coach Tommy Ivan's last name was misspelled as "Nivan", and Alex Delvecchio's last name was misspelled as "Belvecchio".
• In 1964, the Toronto Maple Leafs was misspelled as "Toronto Maple Leaes"; the Montreal Canadiens was misspelled as "Montreal Canadiene" two years later; and in 1981, the New York Islanders were identified as the "New York Ilanders".
• In 1972, the Boston Bruins was spelled "Bqstqn"
• Some other misspellings on the Cup that never have been corrected: Jacques Plante's name has been misspelled five times (including "Jocko," "Jack" and "Plant"); Bob Gainey was spelled "Gainy" when he was a player for Montreal in the 1970s; Ted Kennedy was spelled "Kennedyy" in the 1940s
• In 1984, Oilers owner Peter Pocklington included his father, Basil Pocklington, on the trophy. However, as Basil had no connection to the team, his name was crossed out with a row of Xs.
• In 1996, Colorado Avalanche forward Adam Deadmarsh's last name was misspelled as "Deadmarch". It was later corrected, the first time a correction had been made. Six years later, Detroit Red Wings' goaltender Manny Legace's last name was misspelled "Lagace", and was also corrected.

Stanley Cup finals of note

1927 Stanley Cup brawl

In Game 4 of the 1927 Stanley Cup Finals, Boston Bruins defenseman Billy Coutu started a brawl, apparently at the request of coach Art Ross. When Coutu punched referee Jerry LaFlamme, he became the first and only NHLer to receive a lifetime suspension. On October 8, 1929, the suspension was lifted so Coutu could play in the minor leagues, but he never played in the NHL again.

1942 Toronto Maple Leafs comeback

In 1942, the Toronto Maple Leafs were down 3-0 in the best-of-seven finals against the Detroit Red Wings, and were generally given up for dead. Instead of rolling over, however, the Leafs stormed back to win four in a row, becoming the first pro team to win a seven-game series after losing the first three, and the only one to do so in a championship series.

See also

• List of Stanley Cup champions
• Stanley Cup Challenge Games
• List of NHL franchise post-season droughts

References

• Podnieks, Andrew (2004). Lord Stanley's Cup. Triumph Books. ISBN 1551682613. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Diamond, Dan (2003). The Ultimate Prize: The Stanley Cup. Andrews McMeel Publishing. ISBN 0740738305. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Dan Diamond (ed.), ed. (1992). The Official National Hockey League Stanley Cup Centennial Book. Firefly Books. ISBN 1895565154. {{cite book}}: |editor= has generic name (help)
• Coleman, Charles (1966). Trail of the Stanley Cup. National Hockey League.

External links

• A virtual look at the Stanley Cup