Top 5: Famous facts about the Stanley Cup

Opinion

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This article was published 24/04/2015 (3813 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s almost the only thing patriotic residents of the True North talk about at this time of year.

Whether you call it the Stanley Cup, Lord Stanley’s Mug, or just the Cup, it is the Holy Grail of hockey supremacy and fills the dreams of obsessed Canadian fans even before they are old enough to strap on skates.

Along with being the most-travelled championship trophy in the world, and arguably the most recognizable, the Stanley Cup is the oldest trophy competed for by professional athletes in North America.

It is, in fact, older than the National Hockey League itself, having been donated in 1892 by Sir Frederick Arthur Stanley, Lord Stanley of Preston, then the sixth Governor General of Canada. Lord Stanley bought the original silver punch bowl for about $50 and ordered it presented to “the championship hockey club of the Dominion of Canada.”

The first Cup was awarded to the Montreal Amateur Athletic Association in 1893. Since 1926, only NHL teams have competed for this legendary trophy.

Today, there are three Stanley Cups: the original bowl of the “Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup” is on display in the Vault Room at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto; the so-called “Presentation Cup” is the trophy awarded to victorious teams today; and the “Replica Cup” created in 1993 is a stand-in when the Presentation Cup is busy.

But, hey, you already knew all that, didn’t you? Well, you’ve just earned two minutes in the box for fibbing, Mr. Hockey Smartypants, because here are five famous facts you’ve probably never heard about our historic Cup:

 

5. They Get It Right the First Time

The cool thing about the Stanley Cup is, unlike most major sports trophies, they don’t make a new one every year. After each championship, the names of winning players, coaches, management and staff are engraved on the Cup.

Which meant they had to keep adding bands and the cup grew to an unwieldy size, earning the nickname “Stovepipe Cup.” According to the Hockey Hall of Fame, in 1958 the modern one-piece Cup was created with a five-band barrel and each band can hold the names from 13 winning teams. When the bottom band is full, it is removed and stored in the Hall of Fame and a new blank band is added to the bottom. So we are talking about a lot of names, which leaves more than a little room for error.

Along with a few dings and dents, the Cup carries decades of botched spellings, spacing gaffes and repeated words. For instance, championship teams have been misspelled: The 1980-81 New York Islanders became “Ilanders”; the Maple Leafs became the “Leaes” in 1963; and Boston was immortalized as “Bqstqn” in 1972. More than a dozen players and coaches have had their names butchered. Montreal star Dickie Moore, who won six Cups, had five versions of his name engraved, including D. Moore, Richard Moore, R. Moore, Dickie Moore and Rich Moore. Fabled goalie Jacques Plante had his first name spelled four different ways over five years.

A few others: Goalie Glenn Hall’s name became “Glin” in 1951-52; Alex Delvecchio’s name was spelled “Belvecchio” in 1954; and Ted Kennedy became “Kennedyy” in the 1940s. We can only pray Dustin Byfuglien is still on the roster when the Jets win.

 

4. Our Cup Runneth Over

One of the longest-running traditions involving the Cup, which began with the 1896 Winnipeg Victorias, is that members of the winning dream drink champagne from the top bowl to celebrate.

Another tradition, which began with the 1994-95 New Jersey Devils, is that each victorious player gets one personal day with the Cup during the off-season. For some players, that time is used in a respectful, thoughtful manner. For others… well, let’s take a look.

Eating breakfast cereal from the Cup appealed to Ken Daneyko of the Devils, Anze Kopitar of the L.A. Kings and Brad Marchand of the Boston Bruins. In contrast, Clark Gillies of the New York Islanders allowed his dog to eat kibble out of the Cup, the Dallas Stars’ Derian Hatcher reportedly used it as a cooler at a party and Kings legend Luc Robitaille filled it with meatballs at a 2014 soiree.

Perhaps the sweetest thing to fill the iconic mug was “gallons of ice cream, chocolate sauce, marshmallows, M&M’s and chocolate chips” in 2006 when the Carolina Hurricanes Doug Weight treated his kids to the world’s classiest ice-cream sundae. In 1994, the Cup was filled with raw clams and oysters on MTV after the Rangers’ victory. It was also reportedly used as a feedbag when Ed Olczyk, a former Jet, was said to have fed the 1994 Kentucky Derby winner, Go for Gin, out of the Cup at the Belmont. Olczyk has disputed that story, despite persuasive photographs we spent several minutes examining online.

The Cup’s cutest contents? That would be babies. Sylvain Lefebvre had his daughter, Jade-Isis, christened in the top bowl after Colorado won in 1995-96. Eleven years later, Swedish winger Tomas Holmstrom brought the mug home so his cousin could baptize his seven-week-old daughter in the trophy. In 2008, Detroit’s Kris Draper famously put his newborn daughter in the Cup and, says Kris, “she pooped in the Cup. We had a pretty good laugh. I still drank out of it that night, so no worries.”

 

3. Say it ain’t so, Guy

Regardless of who they cheer for, Canadian hockey fans treat the name Guy Lafleur with a certain reverence. Which is to be expected for one of the greatest players to ever slap on the blades and fly around a frozen sheet of ice.

The man they called “the Flower” during his glory years with the Montreal Canadiens was the first NHL player to score 50 goals and 100 points in six straight season. He was a first-team all-star in all six of those seasons. He reached the 1,000-point mark in just 720 games, the shortest time to reach that milestone in NHL history.

All of that goes a long way toward explaining why no one was especially upset when Lafleur, um, borrowed the Stanley Cup after a big parade honouring the 1979 Canadiens. According to the Hall of Fame’s website, the Flower impulsively grabbed the Cup and popped it into the trunk of his car, which he then drove to his parents’ house in Thurso, Que., where the beloved superstar proudly displayed it on the front lawn and allowed friends and family to photograph and get up close and personal with the trophy.

“While Thurso residents enjoyed the prank, the men responsible for the Cup’s safety were searching frantically for the missing prize,” recalls the official site of the Hockey Hall of Fame. “Lafleur returned the Cup later that night, but was told never to repeat his stunt.”

We’re not sure if that’s a two-minute penalty for snitching, or a game misconduct for illegal use of silverware.

 

2. Cup? Cup? Who’s Got the Cup?

You know what it’s like when you put something down, something really important, and then, no matter how hard you rack your brain, you just can’t remember where the (bad word) you put it? Well, the Montreal Canadiens had a moment like that in 1924 after winning their first Stanley Cup title as an NHL team.

The final game, played in Ottawa due to inadequate ice conditions in Montreal, ended in a 3-0 shutout of the powerhouse Calgary Tigers. As the story goes, the Canadiens could not wait to get back to Montreal to celebrate with family and friends. The result was one of the most bizarre incidents in Cup history.

According to the historical website of the Montreal Canadiens: “A team car that had the Cup in tow got a flat tire along the way. On the side of the road, a few players worked to replace the busted wheel. In order to do so, they decided to relieve the car of some weight by taking the Cup out of the trunk. With the tire replaced, the players hit the road again.”

When it came time to slurp champagne from the Cup, the players realized — oops! — they had left their symbol of hockey supremacy sitting in a snowbank on the side of the road. So they hopped in the car and raced back to where they’d changed the tire — and, whew, the Cup was still there.

You’d think that would be the dumbest thing a Montreal team could do with the Cup. You would, of course, be wrong.

In 1907, states the Hockey Hall of Fame, the Montreal Wanderers left the Cup at the home of a photographer they’d hired to document their victory. The photographer’s mother decided the Cup would make a perfect flower pot, and used it for that purpose until forgetful Wanderers’ executives finally figured out where they’d left the trophy.

 

1. They Get No Kicks From Champagne

You kind of expect athletes to do crazy things when they win the big game.

From that perspective, arguably the craziest incident involving our beloved Cup occurred in 1905 after the Ottawa Silver Seven (so named because a team executive paid the players with silver nuggets) won the title by hammering the (yes this next bit is true) the Dawson City Nuggets, a plucky squad that travelled 6,400 kilometres from the remote Yukon to Ottawa via dog sled, ship, and train for an infamous best-of-three challenge series.

The Silver Seven had their way with the overmatched Nuggets, including a 23-2 rout in Game 2, then politely celebrated by hosting their beleaguered visitors at a banquet. After which, according to the website of the Hockey Hall of Fame, this happened: “After a night of celebrating their Stanley Cup victory in 1905, members of the Ottawa Silver Seven felt it necessary to see if one could kick the Cup into Ottawa’s Rideau Canal.”

Seriously! As the story goes, forward Harry Smith was dared to drop-kick the Cup into the canal, and he happily obliged. Then the lubricated pucksters went on their merry way, completely forgetting to retrieve the trophy.

Fortunately for future generations, the canal was frozen and the dented Cup was still sitting there when the remorseful and hungover players crept back to the icy scene of the crime to rescue their battered prize.

 

A final shot in OT

So the Stanley Cup has been around the block a few times. Which is why it no longer goes anywhere without its handlers. Eventually — maybe not this year — it’s coming back to Winnipeg, where we know how to treat a legend with respect.

doug.speirs@freepress.mb.ca