Never Leave A Man Behind: Six Instances of Misplacing the Stanley Cup
While most members of the hockey community slinked away to whatever hibernation chambers they dwell in during the summer, there remains one bulwark of the NHL whose busy season is just beginning: Lord Stanley’s Cup.
Each year, the league’s hallowed trophy spends night after night with each of the championhip team’s personnel doing (nearly) anything they see fit. For almost 20 years now, the Cup has been protected enough that no harm could possibly befall the trophy. But this wasn’t always the case.
Below are six instances in which the cup could easily have been lost forever.
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The Rideau Canal. More people. Fewer Cups.
The Punt At Rideau Canal
In 1905, the Stanley Cup didn’t have any rings around it yet and, in fact, was still quite small. So small that if you’re drunk enough (and Canadian enough) it might resemble a football. And that loose connection is just about all the members of the Ottawa Silver Seven needed to convince themselves that punting the item they spent the better part of the year trying to procure across the frozen Rideau Canal was a fine idea.
Here’s what we know: a) most hockey players 95 years ago also played rugby, so punting makes a little more sense than it might otherwise have. b) the cup was punted and it was found a day later in the middle of the ice. c) Ottowans hate carrying things, so they just left the Cup there. d) It was recovered the next day in the middle of the ice. e) Out of shame for not being able to kick a metal cup cross a narrow body of water, no one fessed up to the drunken buffoonery. f) Eyewitnesses swear Hamby Shore spent the next week limping slightly. g) I made “e” up. h) You were lucky I even made it to “c.”
Boy, that Jimmy Rice really does do nice work.
The Stanley Vase
One year later and about 100 miles eastward, the 1906 Montreal Wanderers wanted their picture taken with the Cup, so they took it to the finest photographer in the world (according to a group of men who desired they picture taken with a small metal trophy anyway), a man named Jimmy Rice. Mr. Rice photog-ed ‘em and sent them on their way. As important as it was for the team to have their image captured with the metal trophy, none of them remembered to grab it on the way out.
They climbed the team wheelbarrow or whatever they used for travel, went their separate ways and lived a nice little offseason – all while Mr. Rice’s mother (or wife or housekeeper depending on who’s telling the story) used the Cup as a place to plant her geraniums.
The flowers stayed in the Cup and the Cup stayed in Mr. Rice’s window for weeks before hockey officials started asking questions.
Couldn't find a proper picture, so you get Hayden Panettierre licking the Cup. Deal with it.
A Cup And A Bowl
Sometime around 1910, a member of the Montreal Wanderers operated a bowling alley along St. Catherine Street in his spare time (bowling pun!). That’s not the funny part. Neither is the fact that the owner stuck the cup in the alley’s trophy case. This being Montreal shortly after the turn of the century, both those items can be looked at as no more than commonplace. I’ll even skip over the part where he jams the trophy full of gum and cigars like an immature cornucopia and highlight the fact that he did all this to increase bowling sales.
So what is to be learned from this story? About a century ago, the Stanley Cup was worth about 200 sticks of gum.
Blecch. Lifeboy.
Roadside Distraction
You’ll notice that almost every one of these anecdotes involves someone from Montreal. I’ll leave the conjecture as to why that is to someone else. I will say this, their team name simply identifies what nationality they are. As someone who has interacted with Houston Texans fans in my lifetime, I feel I can aptly draw safe assumtions about these people.
Anywho, in 1924, some Canadiens (not Canadians) left the Cup to die by the side of the road. The team and the Cup were on their way to the owner’s house when the vehicle carrying the Cup blew a flat tire. They got all the way to the party without realizing that the reason a party was being thrown in the first place had been left helpless a mile and half back.
Witnesses at he scene that I just made up on the spot said that the Cup was used to hold the tire’s lugnuts while Sprague Cleghorn changed the tire. When Cleghorn accidentally bumped into the cup and sent the lugnuts flying, Fern Headley blurted out “fudge.”
Only he didn’t say “Fudge.”
Two Worlds, One Cup
Former NHL owner, Conn Smythe was so sure that Montreal would win the sixth game of the 1947 Finals in Toronto and return to Montreal for the final game of the series that he left the Cup in Montreal.
And for the same reason that my roommate chooses only when I’m naked to not knock on my bedroom door, so was the fate that forced Toronto to win at home while the Cup sat lonely and naked 310 miles away in Montreal.
Smythe move, ex-lax.
.
.
You'd be pissed too if you traveled to Chicago from Montreal and watched your team get beat while sitting in these seats.
Mad Dash At The Mad House
A Montreal Canadien fan (who else?) named Ken Kilander was so disgusted by the his team’s pitiful play to the Chicago Blackhawks in the final game of 1961 playoff series that he left his seat, ran down to the front lobby of Chicago Stadium where the Stanley Cup was on display, grabbed it and ran like hell. Now, if you’re like me, you’re picturing a rather stout man with stubby legs and the inability to run fast – you know, your average Canadien fan. And if you’re picturing that, it shouldn’t surprise you that the cops nabbed him almost immediately.
When he was asked to explain his behavior to the judge he said, “You honor, I was simply bringing the Cup back to Montreal where it belongs.”
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Photos courtesy of Flickr
1 Response for “Never Leave A Man Behind: Six Instances of Misplacing the Stanley Cup”
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Please note that when the Winnipeg Victorias won the Cup in back to back years from 1900 to 1902, it was treated with respect and never lost. Of course it may have served as a home for some kittens during that time, but it was the turn of the century and all bets were off.