Stanley Cup

The Stanley Cup is the championship trophy of the National Hockey League (NHL), the major professional ice hockey league in Canada and the United States. Commonly referred to as simply "The Cup", "The Holy Grail" or facetiously (chiefly by sportswriters) as "Lord Stanley's Mug", it is one of the most-recognized symbols in North American sports and is at the center of several legends and superstitions. Unlike the trophies awarded by the other three major professional sports leagues of North America, a new Stanley Cup is never made annually; the Cup winners only keep it until the new champion is crowned. It is also the only trophy in professional sports that has the name of the winning players, coaches, management, and club staff engraved upon it.

The Stanley Cup is the oldest trophy competed for by professional athletes in North America .Originally inscribed the Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup, the trophy was donated by Lord Stanley of Preston in 1892 as an award for Canada's top-ranking amateur hockey club, decided by the acceptance of a challenge from another league championship team. Then in 1915, a gentlemen's agreement between two professional hockey organizations, the National Hockey Association (NHA) and the Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA), was reached in which their respective champions would face each other for the Stanley Cup. After a series of league mergers and folds, it became the de facto championship trophy of the NHL in 1926. The Cup would later become the official de jure NHL championship prize in 1947.

History

Soon after Frederick Stanley, Lord Stanley of Preston, was appointed Governor General of Canada on June 11, 1888, he and his family became enthusiastic about ice hockey. Stanley's first exposure to the game occurred at Montreal's Winter Carnival during the winter of 1888, where he saw the Montreal Victorias versus the Montreal AAA. The Montreal Gazette reported that he "expressed his great delight with the game of hockey and the expertise of the players." During that time, organized hockey in Canada was still in its infancy, as anything resembling leagues were only based in Montreal and Ottawa.

Meanwhile, Lord Stanley's daughter, wife and seven sons became active in hockey, with Arthur and Algernon forming a new team called the Ottawa Rideau Rebels. and his daughter Isobel playing the game. Arthur also later played a key role in the formation of what later became known as the Ontario Hockey Association (OHA).Soon, Arthur and Algernon started to persuade their father to donate a trophy to be "an outward and visible sign of the ice hockey championship."

By early 1892, the Ottawa Rebels won the OHA championship, and was honoured for their title victory at a March 18 dinner at the Ottawa Amateur Athletic Association. Unable to attend, Lord Stanley sent the following message to be read:

“ I have for some time been thinking that it would be a good thing if there were a challenge cup which should be held from year to year by the champion hockey team in the Dominion [of Canada].

There does not appear to be any such outward sign of a championship at present, and considering the general interest which matches now elicit, and the importance of having the game played fairly and under rules generally recognized, I am willing to give a cup which shall be held from year to year by the winning team.
”
Soon afterwards, Lord Stanley purchased a decorative bowl, forged in Sheffield, England, from London silversmith G.R. Collis and Company (now Boodles and Dunthorne Jewelers) for ten guineas ($48.67 USD at that time). He also had the words "Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup" engraved on one side of the outside rim, and "From Stanley of Preston" on the other side.

Originally, Lord Stanley planned the Cup to be used as a trophy given out to the top amateur hockey team in Canada, decided by the acceptance of a challenge from another team. He made five preliminary regulations on how it should be governed:

The winners shall return the Cup in good order when required by the trustees so that it may be handed over to any other team which may win it.
Each winning team, at its own expense, may have the club name and year engraved on a silver ring fitted on the Cup.
The Cup shall remain a challenge cup, and should not become the property of one team, even if won more than once.
The trustees shall maintain absolute authority in all situations or disputes over the winner of the Cup.
If one of the existing trustees resigns or drops out, the remaining trustee shall nominate a substitute.
Lord Stanley appointed Sheriff John Sweetland and Philip D. Ross as trustees of the Cup. Sweetland and Ross first presented the trophy in 1893 to the Montreal AAA, the champion of the Amateur Hockey Association (AHA), since they "defeated all comers during the late season, including the champions of the Ontario Association [the Ottawa Generals]".Sweetland and Ross also believed that the AHA was the top league, and thus first place in the AHA entitled Montreal to be called the best in Canada.[10] Naturally, the Ottawa Generals were upset by the decision because there had been no challenge games scheduled, and because the trustees failed to convey the rules on how the Cup was to be awarded prior to the start of the season.

As a result, the Cup trustees then issued more specific rules on how the trophy should be defended and awarded:

• The Cup is automatically awarded to the team that wins the title of the previous Cup champion's league, without the need for any other special extra contest.
• Challengers for the Cup must be from senior hockey associations, and must have won their league championship.
• Challengers will be recognized in the order in which their request is received.
• The challenge games (where the Cup could change leagues) are 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 are to be split equally between both teams.
• If the two competing clubs cannot agree to a referee, the trustees will appoint one, and the two teams shall cover the expenses equally. If the two competing clubs cannot agree on other officials, the referee will appoint them, and the two clubs shall also pay the expenses equally
• A league could not challenge for the Cup twice in one season.
• Lord Stanley himself never saw a game where his trophy was on the line, nor did he ever present the Cup bearing his name. Although his term of governor general ended in September of 1893, he was forced to return to England on July 15. In April of that year, his elder brother, the 15th Earl of Derby, died, and Stanley succeeded him as the 16th Earl of Derby.

Challenge Cup era
During the period when it was a challenge cup, all of the leagues that played for the trophy had no annual formal playoff system to decide their own respective championships; whoever finished in first place after the regular season won the league title. But in 1894, 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 tie breaking 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). On March 17, in the first Stanley Cup playoff game ever, the Montreal AAA defeated the Montreal Victorias, 3-2. Five days later, the AAA beat the Ottawa Generals, 3-1, in the first Stanley Cup Final game.

The next year was the first official challenge for the Cup, by Queen's University. However, this did not come without controversy. 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.

As the prestige of winning the Cup grew, so did the need to attract top players. After winning the Cup in March of 1906, the Montreal Wanderers went to the annual meeting of the Eastern Canada Amateur Hockey Association (ECAHA) in November of that year and pushed through a resolution that would allow professional players to play alongside amateurs. Because the ECAHA was the top hockey league in Canada during that time, the Cup trustees went along and opened the challenges to professional teams. Meanwhile, the first professional players played for the Cup one month later during the Wanderers' two-game, total goals challenge series win over the New Glasgow Cubs, 17 goals to 5.

In 1908, the Allan Cup was introduced as the trophy for Canada's amateurs, and the Stanley Cup started to become a symbol of professional hockey supremacy. In that same year, the first all-professional team, the Toronto Trolley Leaguers from the newly created Ontario Professional Hockey League (OPHL), competed for the Cup.] One year later, the Montreal AAA and the Montreal Victorias, the two remaining amateur teams, left the ECAHA, and the ECAHA dropped "Amateur" from their name to become an all-pro league. Then in 1910, the National Hockey Association (NHA) was formed. The new league soon proved to be unquestionably the top league in Canada as it kept the Cup for the next four consecutive years.

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.

"World Series" era
In 1914, the Victoria Aristocrats from the Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA) challenged the NHA and Cup champion Toronto Blue shirts. However, Victoria never formally submitted the challenge, and thus the Cup trustees viewed the series as illegitimate. As it turned out, the controversy was avoided as Toronto defended the Cup by sweeping the best-of-five series.

One year later, the NHA and the PCHA made a gentlemen's agreement in which their respective champions would face each other for the Cup, similar to baseball's World Series played between the American League and National League champions. Under the new proposal, 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 Cup trustees went along with the NHA-PCHA agreement because after the Allan Cup became the top prize of Canada's amateurs, the trustees had become dependent on the top two professional leagues to keep its trophy prominent.The PCHA's Vancouver Millionaires then won the first "formal" PCHA-NHA Cup Final, three games to zero in a best-of-five series.

After the Portland Rosebuds, an American based team, joined the PCHA in 1914, the trustees issued a statement that the Cup was not just for the best team in Canada, but it was to be symbolic of world hockey supremacy.Two years later, the Rosebuds became the first American team to play in the Stanley Cup Final. Then in 1917, the Seattle Metropolitans became the first American team to win the Cup. After the season, the NHA dissolved, and the National Hockey League (NHL) took its place.

The first year the Stanley Cup was not awarded was 1919. The Spanish influenza epidemic forced the cancellation of the series between the Montreal Canadiens and the Seattle Metropolitans. After the series was tied at 2-2-1, the final game was never played because Montreal players Joe Hall, Manager George 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

The format for the Stanley Cup Finals changed in 1922, with the creation of the Western Canada Hockey League (WCHL). Now, three leagues competed for the Cup; two league champions faced each other for the right to challenge the third champion in the final series. This would only last three seasons as the PCHA and the WCHL would later merge to form the Western Hockey League (WHL) in 1924. Its champion after the 1924-25 season, the Victoria Cougars, eventually became the last team outside the NHL to win the Stanley Cup.

NHL takes over
The WHL folded in 1926, leaving the NHL as the only league left playing for the Cup. Other leagues and clubs occasionally issued challenges, but from that year forward, no non-NHL team played for it, leading it to become the de facto championship trophy of the NHL. In 1947, the NHL reached an agreement with trustees P.D. Ross and Cooper Smeaton to give control of the cup to the NHL, allowing the league to unilaterally reject challenges from other leagues that may have wished to play for the Cup.

Since then, the Cup has been awarded every year until 2005, when a labour dispute between the NHL's owners and the NHL Players Association (the union that represents the players) led to the cancellation of the 2004-05 season. As a result, no Cup champion was crowned for the first time since the flu epidemic in 1919.

The lockout caused controversy among many fans, questioning whether the NHL has exclusive control over the Cup. A web site known as Free Stanley was launched, asking fans to write to the Cup trustees and urge them to return to the original Challenge Cup format.[34] Adrienne Clarkson, the then-Governor General of Canada, alternatively proposed that the Cup be presented to the top women's hockey team in lieu of the NHL season. This idea was so unpopular that the Clarkson Cup was created instead.

Meanwhile, a group in Ontario filed an application with the Ontario Superior Court, claiming that the Cup trustees overstepped their bounds in signing the 1947 agreement with the NHL, and therefore must award the trophy regardless of the lockout. On February 7, 2006, a settlement was reached in which the trophy could be awarded to non-NHL teams should the league not operate for a particular season.

Stanley Cup Champions
1926-27 Ottawa Senators
1927-28 New York Rangers
1928-29 Boston Bruins
1929-30 Montreal Canadiens
1930-31 Montreal Canadiens
1931-32 Toronto Maple Leafs
1932-33 New York Rangers
1933-34 Chicago Blackhawks
1934-35 Montreal Maroons
1935-36 Detroit Red Wings
1936-37 Detroit Red Wings
1937-38 Chicago Blackhawks
1938-39 Boston Bruins
1939-40 New York Rangers
1940-41 Boston Bruins
1941-42 Toronto Maple Leafs
1942-43 Detroit Red Wings
1943-44 Montreal Canadiens
1944-45 Toronto Maple Leafs
1945-46 Montreal Canadiens
1946-47 Toronto Maple Leafs
1947-48 Toronto Maple Leafs
1948-49 Toronto Maple Leafs
1949-50 Detroit Red Wings
1950-51 Toronto Maple Leafs
1951-52 Detroit Red Wings
1952-53 Montreal Canadiens
1953-54 Detroit Red Wings
1954-55 Detroit Red Wings
1955-56 Montreal Canadiens
1956-57 Montreal Canadiens
1957-58 Montreal Canadiens
1958-59 Montreal Canadiens
1959-60 Montreal Canadiens
1960-61 Chicago Blackhawks
1961-62 Toronto Maple Leafs
1962-63 Toronto Maple Leafs
1963-64 Toronto Maple Leafs
1964-65 Montreal Canadiens
1965-66 Montreal Canadiens
1966-67 Toronto Maple Leafs
1967-68 Montreal Canadiens
1968-69 Montreal Canadiens
1969-70 Boston Bruins
1970-71 Montreal Canadiens
1971-72 Boston Bruins
1972-73 Montreal Canadiens
1973-74 Philadelphia Flyers
1974-75 Philadelphia Flyers
1975-76 Montreal Canadiens
1976-77 Montreal Canadiens
1977-78 Montreal Canadiens
1978-79 Montreal Canadiens
1979-80 New York Islanders
1980-81 New York Islanders
1981-82 New York Islanders
1982-83 New York Islanders
1983-84 Edmonton Oilers
1984-85 Edmonton Oilers
1985-86 Montreal Canadiens
1986-87 Edmonton Oilers
1987-88 Edmonton Oilers
1988-89 Calgary Flames
1989-90 Edmonton Oilers
1990-91 Pittsburgh Penguins
1991-92 Pittsburgh Penguins
1992-93 Montreal Canadiens
1993-94 New York Rangers
1994-95 New Jersey Devils
1995-96 Colorado Avalanche
1996-97 Detroit Red Wings
1997-98 Detroit Red Wings
1998-99 Dallas Stars
1999-00 New Jersey Devils
2000-01 Colorado Avalanche
2001-02 Detroit Red Wings
2002-03 New Jersey Devils
2003-04 Tampa Bay Lightning
2004-05 Not awarded due to 2004-05 NHL lockout.
2005-06 Carolina Hurricanes

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Stanley Cup. (2007, February 19). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 04:08, February 24, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Stanley_Cup&oldid=109398761