Stanley Cup

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Image:Hhof stanley cup.jpg The Stanley Cup which was originally called the Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup, is awarded each year by the National Hockey League to the champion of its playoff tournament.

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History

Image:Hhof vault.jpg The Stanley Cup, originally a decorative bowl purchased from a London silversmith G.R. Collis and Company (now Boodles and Dunthorne Jewelers) worth 10 guineas ($48.67 USD), was donated in 1892 by Lord Stanley, Governor General of Canada, who had become enamoured with ice hockey. It was originally used as the trophy given out to the top amateur hockey team in Canada, decided by the acceptance of a challenge from another team by the Cup holders and trustees.

Lord Stanley had made several preliminary regulations regarding the Cup:

  • The Cup also acted as the league championship of the league to which that the champion belonged.
  • The Cup was not the property of any given team at any given time.
  • The Cup trustees have the final say on disputes should there be any on who was the rightful Cup holder.
  • Challengers for the Cup must have won their league championship.
  • The challenge games (where the Cup could change leagues) were 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 were to be split equally between both teams.
  • A league may not challenge for the Cup twice in one season.
  • The Cup champions have the responsibility to return the Cup in good condition when required by the trustees.
  • The Cup champions could add a silver ring to the Cup to commemorate their Cup victory.

The Cup was originally presented in 1893 to the Montreal AAA, the champion of the Amateur Hockey Association(AHA), the top hockey league of Canada at the time. Unfortunately, Lord Stanley himself never saw a game where his trophy was on the line, nor did he ever present the Cup bearing his name to the champions, since he returned to England in 1893.

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Early years

The first Stanley Cup playoff game occurred in March 17, 1894, and the first game where the Cup was on the line occurred on March 22 the same year. There were 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). In the first Stanley Cup Final game, the Montreal AAA successfully defended their title with a 3-1 win.

The next year was the first challenge for the cup, by Queen's University. However, this did not come without controversy. On March 8, 1895, 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. Their cup reign was brief: the Montreal Victorias, upon winning the AHA championship, demanded a rematch for the Cup. In what was said to be the most anticipated hockey game of the time, the Montreal Victorias defeated the Winnipeg Victorias 6-5 on December 30, 1896.

The first best-of-three challenge was originally scheduled in 1897 between the AHA champion Montreal Victorias against the Central Canada Hockey Association champion Ottawa Capitals. However, the series was ended after the first game, since the Victorias clearly had the upper hand in a 14-2 victory. It would not be until 1899 that the first true best-of-three challenge series was played (although the Winnipeg Victorias forfeited the second game— and the championship — after a controversial referee call), and until 1900 that the first best-of-three challenge went through an actual best-of-three series.

In 1899, the Cup was defended by two different teams in the same year, as the Montreal Victorias and new league champions Montreal Shamrocks defended the Cup against the Winnipeg Victorias and Queen's University, respectively. The challenge series of January 1902 was the first series that the Canadian Amateur Hockey League (CAHL, formerly the AHA) was not involved.

The 1903 challenge series was the first to have a game replayed. On January 31, the clock struck midnight as the second game of the series remained tied 2-2 following 27 minutes of overtime between the Winnipeg Victorias and Montreal AAA. Because of the Sabbath, the game was replayed on February 2, with Winnipeg winning 4-2 to even the series. A month later, the AAA would finish third in the CAHL standings with the top two teams tied in the standings, and thus the Stanley Cup champion was determined from a two-game totals affair between the Montreal Victorias and the Ottawa Silver Seven. The Silver Seven, upon winning the title, were forced to defend their championship two days later in a challenge series against the Rat Portage Thistles, a series that Ottawa easily won.

On January 30, 1904, a league game between the Silver Seven and the Montreal Victorias started late and both teams agreed to end the game at midnight, with the Silver Seven leading 4-1. The CAHL ordered the game be replayed instead of aborted, and the ensuing debate caused the Silver Seven to withdraw from the CAHL. The CAHL hoped that without Ottawa, the Cup would remain with the CAHL and become the property of its Quebec team, but the Cup trustees thought otherwise. For a while, the Silver Seven were not affiliated with any league, but in 1905, they joined the rival Federal Amateur Hockey League. That year was one of the more legendary Stanley Cup challenge series. The Dawson City Nuggets had to travel 4,000 miles (6,400 km) from the Yukon to the nation's capital, and they were tired from the long trip. They arrived in Ottawa only one day before the game and were outplayed in the series. The second game of this series set many Stanley Cup records that are unmatched to this date, such as Frank McGee scoring 14 goals in the 23-2 rout, the largest margin of victory for any challenge game or Stanley Cup Final game to date.

In 1906, the Eastern Canada Amateur Hockey Association (ECAHA) was created. In December of that same year, the first professional players to played for (and won) the Stanley Cup. Until 1910, when Cup trustees declared that only players who played in their league's regular season were eligible to play for the Cup, it was commonplace to bring in professional players for the challenge games. In 1908, the first all-professional team, the Toronto Trolley Leaguers, competed for the Stanley Cup. By then, the Allan Cup replaced the Stanley Cup as the trophy for Canada's amateurs, and the Stanley Cup became a symbol of professional hockey supremacy.

In 1909, the Montreal AAA and the Montreal Victorias, the two remaining amateur teams, left the ECAHA, and the ECAHA dropped "Amateur" from their name and became an all-pro league. The following year, the Canadian Hockey Association (formerly the ECHA) forced the Montreal Wanderers to leave the league. Also, the Ottawa Senators (formerly the Silver Seven) left the Canadian Hockey Association in mid-season after a challenge series for the newly-formed National Hockey Association (NHA). With two strong teams in the NHA, the NHA soon proved to be unquestionably the top league in Canada.

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.

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The new challenge

In 1914, the Victoria Aristocrats from the Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA) informally challenged the Cup champion Toronto Blueshirts to a series of exhibition series. This would set up an agreement between the NHA and the PCHA a year later in which their respective champions would face each other for the Cup, an agreement that lasted until 1926. 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 Vancouver Millionaires won the first "formal" final three games to zero in a best-of-five series.

In 1916, the first American team, the Portland Rosebuds became the first American team to play in the Stanley Cup Final. The following year, the first American team (the Seattle Metropolitans) hosted (and won) the Cup. The NHA dissolved in 1917, and the National Hockey League (NHL) took its place.

The first year the Stanley Cup was not awarded was 1919, when the influenza epidemic that ravaged the world that year forced the cancellation of the series between the Montreal Canadiens and the Seattle Metropolitans, and Montreal's "Bad" Joe Hall died from the flu. (See below for more information). The Stanley Cup finals format changed in 1922, with the creation of the Western Canada Hockey League (WCHL). The two league champions faced each other for the right to challenge the third champion. In 1924, because of a dispute on whether to send one or both of the western finalists to the championship, the PCHA's Vancouver Maroons and the WCHA's Calgary Tigers played in a series on the way east to determine which would go on to the Finals and which would face the Montreal Maroons in the semifinal bout.

The PCHA and the WCHL merged to form the Western Hockey League (WHL) later in 1924. Its champion that season, the Victoria Cougars, was the last team outside the NHL to win the Stanley Cup. Following the WHL's demise after the next season, the Cup's trustees effectively granted the NHL exclusive control of the Stanley Cup.

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The return of the challenge

Image:Clarence Campbell Stanley Cup 1957.jpg Even today, the Cup's trustees decide on the teams eligible to play for the Cup, although since 1926, NHL teams de facto are the only ones eligible. In 1947, the NHL reached an agreement (revised in 2000) whereby 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). This last agreement is a particularly contentious one, since the 2004-05 NHL lockout resulted in the Cup not being awarded for the first time since the 1918-19 NHL season. The opinion held by some is the Cup trustees overstepped their bounds in signing the 1947 agreement.

Because the labor dispute resulted in the Stanley Cup not being awarded, some have questioned whether the National Hockey League has exclusive control over the Stanley Cup, and whether today other (non-NHL) teams could vie for the trophy in lieu of an NHL season or even alongside the NHL. In December 2004, a group of fans attempted to ask the trophy's trustees to restore the challenge, with the winners of the Memorial Cup, Allan Cup, and the University Cup, alongside the top Canadian American Hockey League and ECHL teams competing for the Stanley Cup. The Cup's trustees, longtime NHL officials Scotty Morrison and Brian O'Neill, made no formal ruling, but did make the implication that they were only obligated to award the Stanley Cup to NHL teams. The Governor General of Canada, Adrienne Clarkson, had also alternatively proposed that the Cup be presented to women's hockey teams in lieu of the NHL season. This idea was unpopular, with many women's hockey players preferring to vie over a new trophy for their own.

In February 2006, the National Hockey League reached an agreement with the Cup trustees that the Cup could be awarded to non-NHL teams should the league not operate for a particular season.

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The Stanley Cup today

There are actually three Cups; the original bowl, displayed at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, Ontario; a duplicate, made by Montreal silversmith Carl Petersen, 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. It currently stands at 880 millimeters (35.2 in) tall and weighs almost 14.6 kilograms (36 lb 8 oz). The NHL's other postseason trophies travel with the Cup to the two cities represented in the Finals during the best-of-seven games.

To have one's name inscribed on the Stanley Cup, a player must have played at least 41 games for the team during the regular season (provided the player remains with the team when they win the Cup) or a game of the Finals, although 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, Jean Beliveau and Yvan Cournoyer, were on 10 each.

The cup made a trip back to London, England in April 2006, although few Britons are interested in this sports trophy. A plaque was placed at the store where the cup was bought by the Government of Canada, Hockey Hall of Fame and the City of Westminster.

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Engraving on the Cup

A unique feature of the Stanley Cup is that, with few exceptions in the past, the Stanley Cup is the only trophy in professional sports that has the name of every member of the winning team 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 Cup victory (the first year being an exception). Initially, there was only one ring, the one added by the Montreal AAA. Teams engraved their names on that one ring until it was full in 1902. With no room to engrave their names (perhaps unwilling to pay for a second band to the Cup), teams left their mark on the bowl itself starting with the 1903 Montreal AAA and continuing to 1908. The 1907 Montreal Wanderers recorded their names inside the bowl's interior.

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 new band onto the Cup. Despite the new room on the Cup, the 1910 Wanderers and the 1911 Senators, for reasons unknown, did not put their names on the Cup. The new band would eventually be filled by the Vancouver Millionaires, who, although they did not properly win the Cup (which by then was a formal championship game akin to the World Series), they did win the league championship of the previous champion's league. It has also been noted that two other teams were on the Cup due to the "league championship" clause from 1915 to 1918, although they did not officially win the Cup.

It is a mystery why 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. In particular, a new band was added each year, causing the Cup to grow in size from 16 inches (400 mm) tall in 1909 to almost three feet (900 mm) in height in 1940. The Cup was 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. In 2004, a second band replacement was needed. 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.

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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. Charlotte Grahame's name was added in 2001 when the Colorado Avalanche won.

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Traditions and anecdotes

The Stanley Cup trophy itself is colloquially known as "Lord Stanley's Mug" and tradition dictates that the winning team drink champagne from the top bowl after their victory. Another tradition dictates that immediately following the series-winning victory the captain of the winning team receives the Cup and then is the first to hoist it overhead; the cup is then passed from player to player and hoisted by each member of the team as they skate round the rink, a tradition known as "skating the cup". This second tradition was slightly breached in 2001 by Joe Sakic and Ray Bourque when the Avalanche won the Cup. 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. After Avalanche captain Sakic received the Cup from NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, he did not hoist it, but instead 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. However, it should be noted that 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.

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, the Cup is also accompanied by representatives of the Hockey Hall of Fame.

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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:

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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 river 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.
  • 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.
  • 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 1988, 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.").
  • 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 dropped the Cup into musician Vinnie Paul's pool, resulting in a dent at its base.
  • In 2003, the Cup was slated to make its first-ever visit to Slovakia with New Jersey Devils' Jiří 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.
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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"

Source: NHL.com - The Stanley Cup. http://www2.nhl.com/hockeyu/history/cup/fun_facts.html

  • 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

Source: NHL.com - The Stanley Cup. http://www2.nhl.com/hockeyu/history/cup/fun_facts.html

  • In 1984, Oilers owner Peter Pocklington included his father, Basil Pocklington, on his 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.
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Playoff games of note

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1919 flu epidemic: Stanley Cup not awarded

During the 1918-19 Stanley Cup playoffs between the Montreal Canadiens and the Seattle Metropolitans, several Canadiens players contracted Spanish influenza, part of a worldwide epidemic. The finals were cancelled after five games. The final game was never played, because Montreal players Joe Hall, Manager 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, remaining tied at 2-2-1. At that time, it was the only year for which the Stanley Cup was not awarded until the labour dispute of 2004-2005.

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1927 Stanley Cup brawl

In Game 4 of the 1927 Stanley Cup, Boston Bruins defenseman Billy Coutu started a Stanley Cup brawl, apparently at the request of coach Art Ross. Coutu punched referee Jerry LaFlamme. As a result, Billy Coutu was the first player to be suspended from the NHL for life. On October 8, 1929, the suspension was lifted so that Coutu could play in the minor leagues. He never played in the NHL again.

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2004-05 lockout

A labour dispute between the NHL's owners and the NHL Players Association (the union that represents the players) forced a lockout that began on September 15, 2004, leading to the cancellation of the 2004-05 season and Stanley Cup Playoffs on February 16, 2005. A fan site known as Free Stanley was also launched in hopes of having the Cup be given to the best hockey team in Canada; they called for a return to the "challenge cup format" previously used in competing for the Cup. A group in Ontario known as Justice for Stanley also filed an application with the Ontario Superior Court requesting a ruling on the terms of the Stanley Cup trust; they claimed that the trustees must award the trophy regardless of the NHL lockout. On February 8, 2006, the NHL conceded that the Cup was not their property, and could (in case of a future lockout) be awarded to the "best hockey team in Canada".


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See also

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External links

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