My Night With Lord Stanley
 

So after a tough week at work, I stop at the local Unos for a hot meal and a few beers. I see the local TV station come in with a camera and I ask the bartender whats going on. She says the Stanley Cup will be there any minute because its on a promotional tour for a local charity!

Sure enough, a few minutes later three men come in with the case, put on white gloves, and pull out the cup and plop it on the table right next to me! There she sat in all her sparkling glory and presence only about 7 feet away from me! There had not been any advertising in the media prior, so there was only a handful of people there, and after the initial excitement, only a few people remained. The guys taking care of the cup then let us touch it, hold it, kiss it etc!! For the next 30 minutes we literally sat with the cup, drank beer and examined it, touched it etc, all we wanted. I wondered how many hundreds or thousands of times the cup sat with a group of people drinking, and the names of the people in some of those groups.

Considering the history of the cup, and all the great players who held it over the past 100 years, it was truly one of the most exciting experiences for a hockey nut like myself!

https://home.comcast.net/~docsab/email2.JPG https://home.comcast.net/~docsab/email1.JPG

I wouldn't kiss it if I were you, once when I went to a family function where Pat Verbeek of Dallas Star won the cup, he invited the family for a party and while everybody was checking out the cup, somebody put a baby in the bowl and suffice to say, she shait her pant...literally.

That's just one of hundreds of thousands of gross things that has happened to The Cup - and that's part of the greatness of it. Besides, they clean it ritualistically.

Glad to hear you had a great time with The Cup. I haven't had an opportunity yet to touch The Cup, but I'm still young (I may be old by the time I get to though, being a Toronto fan...).

-Tamerlain

Wow, that's great. And it would only happen with the Stanley Cup. Very cool!

The other truth is, there are actually three cups, all exact duplicates.

One stays in the Hall of Fame

Another is the one the players get (the one the baby left its's mark on)

The third one gets taken around to different public events. It's the one you got to see.

I'm not trying to rain on your parade, just clarifying that you did not touch the same one the baby did.

I've seen the one at the Hall, and the real one when former Redwings trainer John Wharton brought it through Flint when they won the cup in 97.

God of Thunder, you're right about The Cup that stays in The Hall, but that is the only duplicate. The duplicate of The Cup stays in The Hall year round, and the real Cup makes tours during the regular season, since the players of the defending team would have all had their day with The Cup during the off-season.

So rest assured, you did in fact touch the same Cup that a baby shat in. :)

-Tamerlain

Not according to a worker I talked to at the Hall of Fame. He said the original cup was retired in the late 60's and that's when the three duplicates were made for the reasons stated above. One for the hall, one for the players and one for the fans. They didn't want to risk the player's cup to the public, but still wanted the public to have a chance to view it.

Are you serious???? So I was worshipping a cheap tawdy imitation that probably never so much as touched the foot of a Zamboni driver???? :confused:

********************Totally Deflated*********************

It's like Santa Claus - it's real -- you just have to believe...

Now put that cute lil ole smile back on your face and smooch the cup... :)

Wait, heres some info from Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia:

"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 travelling. It currently stands at 880 mm (35.2 inches) tall and weighs almost 14.6 kilograms (36 lb 8 oz)."

I feel better now, knowing that the cup I touched is the same one the players take home. :)

Also some more interesting facts:

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 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 geraniums.
Several 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 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.
During the 1940-41 season, the mortgage on the then-current Madison Square Garden was paid off. The arena management publicly burned 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 Cup win.
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 Canadiens 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-Canadiens captain Guy Carbonneau, "does not float.")
Several 1994 Rangers, during their year with the Cup, took it to Belmont Park, a horse racing track just outside the New York City limits. While there, they filled the Cup with oats and let the previous Kentucky Derby winner, Go for Gin, eat out of it.
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.
On August 22, 2004, Walter Neubrand, keeper of the Cup, was en route 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 the 35-pound (16 kilogram) trophy 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. "

Well, it seems the hall of fame employee was misinformed or their was a miscommunication.

I checked some sources as well, and they also point to the same three-cup scenario as what you pulled up from Wikepedia. Looks like the cup he was talking about as staying at the hall of fame was the original. Go figure.

Glad to see you got to touch the good one, dents and all.

Heh, makes me all warm inside knowing I kissed the very same cup the 1940 New York Rangers urinated on :thumbsup:

Thanks Maleficent, for being there for me in my hour of darkness :)

If you ever get the chance, go to the hall of fame in Toronto. It is in an old, restored bank building, and the bands for the original cup are on display in the old bank vault. A very impressive set up.

here is their website, so you can do some virtual touring:

http://www.hhof.com/index.htm

go to the silverware and trophies section, and take the virtual trophy tour. they have a virtual Stanley cup that you can browse.

Whoops, looks like I was wrong - sorry about that.

I just remember watching the Hockey Day in Canada special a couple of years ago on CBC and only remember hearing about 2 Cups, not 3. But 3 makes sense, in the scenario from Wikepedia.

-Tamerlain

The only problem with visiting the Hockey hall of fame is it's location, T.O.
Go Habs go!!!
Just kidding, Leto. The HHOF online tour link was great, thanks!
I've heard of strippers putiing various body parts into the bowl of the Cup,
so perhaps that may balance out some of the more, uh, gross items
placed therein.
Good for you Gonad.
It will be coming to Montreal before 2010, as we always win at least one per
decade, unlike Toronto.
This year it looks like Ottawa, though.
I just want the damn thing back in Canada.

great pix! I have not had a chance to even be near it. Every time there is a publicity thingy, I'm always busy and can't attend.

I heard a story about it going water skiing or tubing when the wings won it in 96.

haha.. you know, there is a Habs fan on my street. He has a dark blue corolla. I am, of course, a fan of THE team (les bleu et blanc) and have a bright red jetta. Whenever the habs and leafs meet, we manage to trade good natured barbs. I don't think it would work if there was a Sens fan on our street (they are sooo arogant! lol)

Last week, i found a big C H (canadiens logo) drawn in the snow of my red jetta, on the hood. (the leafs had lost, the habs had won).

Good thinking there Brad

Why the fuck doesn't the NHL allow the cup to be challenged during the lockout? It's not like the cup belongs to the league, does it?