Stanley Cup: Difference between revisions

Content deleted Content added
Supercoop (talk | contribs)
On the Canada web page, Canadian is used as the SP.
Line 4:
 
==History==
The Stanley Cup, originally a decorative bowl purchased from a [[London]] [[silversmith]] worth 10 guineas ($48.67 USD), was originally donated in [[1892]] by [[Frederick Arthur Stanley, 16th Earl of Derby|Lord Stanley]], [[Governor General of Canada]], who had become enamouredenamored with [[ice hockey]]. It was originally used as the trophy given out to the top [[amateur]] [[ice hockey|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:
Line 21:
===Early years===
 
The first Stanley Cup playoff game occurredinoccurred in [[March 17]], [[1894]], and the first game where the Cup was on the line occurred on [[March 22]] the same year. The year saw 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 were 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). The first Stanley Cup Final game saw the Montreal AAA successfully defending their title with a 3-1 win.
 
The next year saw the first challenge for the cup, by [[Queen's University, Kingston|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 the Montreal AAA, if they won the challenge match, would mean that the Victorias would become the Stanley Cup champions. The AAA would eventually win the match 5-1, while their cross-town rivals were crowned the champions.
Line 45:
 
===The new challenge===
In [[1914]], the [[Victoria Aristocrats]] from the [[Pacific Coast Hockey Association]] 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 where their respective champions would face each other for the Cup, an agreement that, by large, lasted until [[1926]]. The Stanley Cup Final series would alternate between the east and the west each year, while the differing rulesetsrule sets of the NHA and PCHA would alternate each game. The [[Vancouver Millionaires]] would win the first "formal" final, three games to zero in a best-of-five series.
 
[[1916]] saw the first American team, the [[Portland Rosebuds]], in either league, as well as the first American team in the Stanley Cup Final. The following year saw the first American team (the [[Seattle Metropolitans]]) to host (and win) the Cup. [[1917-18 NHL season|1917]] saw the dissolution of the NHA and the formation of the [[National Hockey League]] in its place. The first year the Stanley Cup was not awarded was [[1918-19 NHL season|1919]], when the [[influenza]] epidemic that ravaged the world that year forcing the cancellation of the series between the Montreal CanadiensCanadians and the Seattle Metropolitans, with Montreal's [[Joe Hall|"Bad" Joe Hall]] dying from the flu. (See below for more about this.) The Stanley Cup finals format remained largely unchanged until [[1921-22 WCHL season|1922]], with the creation of the [[Western Canada Hockey League]], where two of the league champions would face each other for the right to face the third champion. In [[1923-24 NHL season|1924]], because of a dispute on whether to send one or both of the western champions east, the PCHL's [[Vancouver Maroons]] and the WCHA's [[Calgary Tigers]] played in a series on the way east to determine who would get the free pass to the Finals and who would face the [[Montreal Maroons]] in the semifinal bout.
 
[[1924-25 WCHL season|1924]] saw the merger of the PCHA and the WCHL to form the Western Hockey League. 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 following season, the Cup's Trustees granted the NHL exclusive control of the Stanley Cup.
 
===The Stanley Cup today===
The Cup has been awarded every year since [[1893]], except for [[1918-19 NHL season|1919]] (when it was not awarded because of an outbreak of [[Spanish influenza]]) and [[2004-05 NHL season|2005]] (as a result of a [[NHL lockout|labour dispute]]). The [[Montreal CanadiensCanadians]] have won the most Stanley Cups, twenty-four. The [[Toronto Maple Leafs]] come in second with 13 Cup wins. The highest-ranking [[United States|American]] team is the [[Detroit Red Wings]] with 10 wins.
 
In [[December 2004]], a group of hockey fans from [[Edmonton, Alberta|Edmonton]] announced their intention to ask the trophy's trustees to make the Stanley Cup a challenge trophy once again due to the [[2004-05 NHL lockout]]. Their plan involved the winner of the [[Memorial Cup]], [[Allan Cup]], [[University Cup]], as well as the top Canadian minor professional teams ([[American Hockey League|AHL]] and [[ECHL]]). The Cup's current Trustees, [[Scotty Morrison]] and [[Brian O'Neill]] (both former longtime NHL officials), made no formal ruling, but were quoted as saying that the NHL's possession of the Cup is firm.
 
There are actually three Stanley Cups; the original bowl, which is displayed in a vault 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 is also used for promotions; and a replica that is occasionally on display at the [[Hockey Hall of Fame]] when the duplicate is travellingtraveling. It currently stands at 880 mm (35 1/4 inches) tall and weighs almost 14.6 kilograms (32 lb). 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 served on the most Stanley Cup championship teams is [[Henri Richard|Henri "Pocket Rocket" Richard]], of the Montreal CanadiensCanadians, holder of 11 Stanley Cup Rings. Two other CanadiensCanadians have 10 rings: [[Jean Beliveau]] and [[Yvan Cournoyer]].
 
==Engraving on the Cup==
Line 65:
In [[1908]], for reasons unknown, the Wanderers, despite having turned aside four challengers, did not record their names on the Cup. The next year saw the [[Ottawa Senators (Original)|Ottawa Senators]] add 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 was a mystery why no further engraving occurred until [[1924]], when the CanadiensCanadians 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 until the Cup was redesigned in [[1948]], causing the Cup to balloon 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 CanadiensCanadians were engraved over a larger area than allotted (and thus there are 12 teams on that band instead of 13). The bands were finally filled up in [[1991]] when 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 that 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 duplicate ones due to the originals being too brittle.
 
==Traditions and anecdotes==
Line 102:
*A member of the [[1905]] [[Ottawa Silver Seven]] tried to see if he could [[drop kick]] the Cup across the frozen [[Rideau Canal]]. The attempt failed, and the Cup was not retrieved until the next day.
*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 [[Pelargonium|geraniums]].
*Several members of the [[1924]] CanadiensCanadians, 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 Patrick|Lynn]] and [[Muzz Patrick]], the children of [[Victoria Cougars]] manager-coach [[Lester Patrick]], discover the Cup in the basement of their home, and scratched their names on the Cup with a nail. In [[1940]], both Lynn and Muzz would be properly engraved on the Cup as members of the [[New York Rangers]]. They would also urinate in the cup with teammates in 1940.
*[[New York Islanders]]' [[Bryan Trottier]] admitted not only to sleeping with it (as have, apparently, dozens of players before and since), but also to unscrewing the bowl 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. The Cup wound up slightly bent in various places for reasons unknown. The Cup was repaired at a local automotive shop, and shipped back to the Hockey Hall of Fame.
*Both the [[1991]] [[Pittsburgh Penguins]] and [[1993]] Montreal CanadiensCanadians tested its [[buoyancy]], causing it to wind up at the bottom of [[Mario Lemieux]]'s and [[Patrick Roy]]'s respective swimming pools ("The Stanley Cup," as pointed out by then-[[List of Montreal CanadiensCanadians captains|CanadiensCanadians captain]] [[Guy Carbonneau]], "does not float").
*[[Sylvain Lefebvre]] of the [[1996]] Colorado Avalanche had his daughter baptized in it.
*In [[2003]], the Cup was slated to make its first-ever visit to [[Slovakia]] with [[New Jersey Devils]]' [[Jiri Bicek]] , but it never arrived, having inadvertently been left behind in [[Canada]]; the Cup made the next flight out of Toronto.
Line 115:
* 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 CanadiensCanadians was misspelled as "Montreal Canadiene" two years later, and in [[1981]], the New York Islanders were identified as the "New York Ilanders".
* 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 that had ever happened. Six years later, Detroit Red Wings' goaltender Manny Legace's last name was misspelled "Lagace", and was also corrected.
Line 122:
 
===1919 flu epidemic: Stanley Cup not awarded===
During the [[1918-19 NHL season|1918-19 Stanley Cup playoffs]] between the Montreal CanadiensCanadians and the [[Seattle Metropolitans]], several CanadiensCanadians 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 labor stoppage of [[2004 in sports|2004]]-[[2005 in sports|2005]].
 
=== 1927 Stanley Cup brawl ===