Stanley Cup

The Stanley Cup, originally referred to as the Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup, is awarded each year by the National Hockey League to the champion of its playoff tournament.

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 Lord Stanley, Governor General of Canada, who had become enamoured with ice hockey. It was originally used as the trophy given out to the top amateur hockey team in Canada, decided by the acceptance of a challenge from another team by the Cup holders and trustees.

Related Topics:
London - Silversmith - 1892 - Lord Stanley - Governor General of Canada - Ice hockey - Amateur - Canada

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Lord Stanley had made several preliminary regulations regarding the Cup:

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• The Cup also acted as the league championship of the league that the champion belonged in.
• The Cup was not the property of any given team at any given time.
• The Cup trustees have the final say on disputes should there be any on who the Cup holder should be.
• Challengers for the Cup must have won their league championship.
• The challenge games (where the Cup could change leagues) were to be decided either in 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 were to be split equally between both teams.
• A league may not challenge for the Cup twice in one season.
• The Cup champions have the responsibility to return the Cup in good condition when required by the trustees.
• The Cup champions could add a silver ring to the Cup to commemorate their Cup victory.

The Cup was originally presented in 1893 to the Montreal AAA, the champion of the Amateur Hockey Association, the top hockey league of Canada at the time.

Related Topics:
1893 - Montreal AAA - Amateur Hockey Association

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Early years

The first Stanley Cup playoff game occurred 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.

Related Topics:
March 17 - 1894 - March 22

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The next year saw the first challenge for the cup, by 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.

Related Topics:
Queen's University - March 8 - 1895 - Montreal Victorias

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The first successful challenge was made 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, becoming the first team from outside of the AHA to win the Cup. Their cup reign was brief, though: the Montreal Victorias, upon winning the AHA championship, demanded a rematch for the Cup. In what was said to be the most anticipated hockey game of the time, the Montreal Victorias defeated the Winnipeg Victorias 6-5 on December 30, 1896.

Related Topics:
Winnipeg Victorias - Manitoba Hockey League - February 14 - 1896 - December 30

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The first best-of-three challenge was originally scheduled in 1897 between the AHA champion Montreal Victorias against the Central Canada Hockey Association champion Ottawa Capitals. However, the series was ended after the first game, after the Victorias clearly had the upper hand in a 14-2 victory. It would be until 1899 that the first true best-of-three challenge series was played (although the Winnipeg Victorias forfeited the second game — and the championship — after a controversial referee call), and 1900 that the first best-of-three challenge went the distance.

Related Topics:
1897 - Central Canada Hockey Association - Ottawa Capitals - 1899 - 1900

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1899 also saw the Cup being defended by two different teams in the same year, as the Montreal Victorias and new league champions Montreal Shamrocks defended the Cup against the Winnipeg Victorias and Queen's University, respectively.

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The challenge series of January 1902 saw the first series where the Canadian Amateur Hockey League (formerly the AHA) was not involved.

Related Topics:
1902 - Canadian Amateur Hockey League

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The 1903 challenge series was the first to have a game replayed. On January 31, the clock struck midnight as the second game of the series remained tied 2-2 following 27 minutes of overtime between the Winnipeg Victorias and Montreal AAA. Because of the Sabbath, the game was replayed on February 2, with Winnipeg winning 4-2 to even the series. A month later, the AAA would finish third in the CAHL standings with the top two teams tied in the standings, and thus the Stanley Cup champions was determined from a two-game totals affair between the Montreal Victorias and the Ottawa Silver Seven. The Silver Seven, upon winning the title, were then forced to defend their championship two days later in a challenge series against the Rat Portage Thistles, a series that the Ottawa easily won.

Related Topics:
1903 - January 31 - Sabbath - February 2 - Ottawa Silver Seven - Rat Portage Thistles

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On January 30, 1904, a league game between the Silver Seven and the Montreal Victorias started late and both teams agreed to end the game at midnight, with the Silver Seven leading 4-1. The CAHL ordered instead the game to be replayed instead of aborted, and the ensuing debate caused the Silver Seven withdrawing from the CAHL. The CAHL hoped that, now without Ottawa, the Cup would remain with the CAHL and become the property of its Quebec team, while the Cup trustees thought otherwise. For a while, the Silver Seven were not affiliated with any league,

Related Topics:
January 30 - 1904

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but in 1905, they would join the rival Federal Amateur Hockey League. That year saw the Dawson City Nuggets in one of the more legendary Stanley Cup challenge series - partly because of the 4000-mile journey from the Yukon to the nation's Capital, and partly because how the Nuggets, tired from the long trip and arriving in Ottawa only a day before the game, were outplayed in the series. The second game of this series set many Stanley Cup records that were unmatched to this date, when Frank McGee scored 14 goals in a 23-2 rout, the largest margin of victory for any challenge game or Stanley Cup Final game to date.

Related Topics:
1905 - Federal Amateur Hockey League - Dawson City Nuggets - Yukon - Frank McGee

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1906 saw the creation of the Eastern Canada Amateur Hockey Association and, in December of that year, the first professional players to play for (and win) the Stanley Cup. Until 1910, when Cup trustees declared that only players who played in their league's regular season were eligible to play for the Cup, it was commonplace for both champion and challenger in the challenge series to bring in professional ringers to play the challenge games. 1908 saw the first all-professional team, the Toronto Trolley Leaguers, compete for the Stanley Cup. By then, the Allan Cup replaced the Stanley Cup as the trophy for Canada's amateurs, and the Stanley Cup became a symbol of professional hockey supremacy.

Related Topics:
1906 - Eastern Canada Amateur Hockey Association - 1910 - 1908 - Toronto Trolley Leaguers - Allan Cup

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The 1909 saw the departure of the Montreal AAA and the Montreal Victorias, the two remaining amateur teams, from the ECAHA, and thus the ECAHA dropped the "Amateur" from their name, becoming an all-pro league. The following year saw the Canadian Hockey Association (formerly the ECHA) kicking out the Montreal Wanderers as well as the Ottawa Senators (formerly the Silver Seven) leaving the CHA in mid-season after a challenge series for the newly-formed National Hockey Association. With two strong teams in the NHA, the NHA soon proved to be unquestionably the top league in Canada.

Related Topics:
1909 - Montreal Wanderers - Ottawa Senators - National Hockey Association

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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.

Related Topics:
1912

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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 rulesets 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.

Related Topics:
1914 - Victoria Aristocrats - Pacific Coast Hockey Association - Toronto Blueshirts - 1926 - Vancouver Millionaires

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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 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 1919, when the influenza epidemic that ravaged the world that year forcing the cancellation of the series between the Montreal Canadiens and the Seattle Metropolitans, with Montreal's "Bad" Joe Hall dying from the flu. (See below for more about this.) The Stanley Cup finals format remained largely unchanged until 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 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.

Related Topics:
1916 - Portland Rosebuds - Seattle Metropolitans - 1917 - National Hockey League - 1919 - Influenza - "Bad" Joe Hall - 1922 - Western Canada Hockey League - 1924 - Vancouver Maroons - Calgary Tigers - Montreal Maroons

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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.

Related Topics:
1924 - Victoria Cougars

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The Stanley Cup today

The Cup has been awarded every year since 1893, except for 1919 (when it was not awarded because of an outbreak of Spanish influenza) and 2005 (as a result of a labour dispute). The Montreal Canadiens have won the most Stanley Cups, twenty-four. The Toronto Maple Leafs come in second with 13 Cup wins. The highest-ranking American team is the Detroit Red Wings with 10 wins.

Related Topics:
1893 - 1919 - Spanish influenza - 2005 - Labour dispute - Montreal Canadiens - Toronto Maple Leafs - American - Detroit Red Wings

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In December 2004, a group of hockey fans from 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 (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.

Related Topics:
December 2004 - Edmonton - 2004-05 NHL lockout - Memorial Cup - Allan Cup - University Cup - AHL - ECHL - Scotty Morrison - Brian O'Neill

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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 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.

Related Topics:
Hockey Hall of Fame - Toronto, Ontario

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The player who has served on the most Stanley Cup championship teams is Henri "Pocket Rocket" Richard, of the Montreal Canadiens, holder of 11 Stanley Cup Rings. Two other Canadiens have 10 rings: Jean Beliveau and Yvan Cournoyer.

Related Topics:
Henri "Pocket Rocket" Richard - Jean Beliveau - Yvan Cournoyer

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