Music: {allcanada} Stanley Cup has adventures in NHL players' hands

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

{allcanada} Stanley Cup has adventures in NHL players' hands

When the Stanley Cup fell off a table and suffered a dented top while in Michael Ryder's possession this week, it wasn't the first time that the trophy has been damaged, dismantled, tarnished or faced other such indignities.

One of the charming aspects of the Stanley Cup is that players reverently respect it as if it is the Holy Grail, and yet part of the championship tradition is also to celebrate robustly with it. And through the years, some of those celebrations have placed the Stanley Cup in harm's way.

I've chronicled some of those stories in two books entitled Why is the Stanley Cup in Mario Lemieux's Swimming Pool? and Then Wayne said to Mario…

As former four-time Stanley Cup champion Doug Risebrough once told me, "The Stanley Cup is a very huggable trophy."

Here are some of the adventures the Stanley Cup has known:

•In 1992, former Pittsburgh Penguins player Phil Bourque, now a beloved Pens' radio analyst, threw the Stanley Cup from the top of an ornamental waterfall into Mario Lemieux's pool. The Cup filled with water, sunk and formed a suction on the bottom of the pool. Players had to organize themselves into diving teams to pry the Cup off the bottom of the pool. According to many who were there, the Cup was lopsided after that adventure and everyone had to be careful when they held it the next day at the parade.

•Hall of Famer Red Kelly has often told the story of putting his infant son in the Stanley Cup and watching helplessly as the child promptly urinated in the bowl.

•In 1905, a member of the Ottawa Silver Seven kicked the Stanley Cup onto the frozen Rideau Canal late in the evening. It was not retrieved until the next morning.

•In 1924, Montreal Canadiens owner Leo Dandurand left the Stanley Cup on a curb after he stopped to change a flat tire on his car.

•In the 1980s, the Edmonton Oilers lost the Stanley Cup, or at least they thought they did. Everyone was in a panic until Wayne Gretzky's agent Michael Barnett reported that it was safely in his trunk where it had been placed for safe-keeping.

•Goalie Patrick Roy took apart the Stanley Cup while it was in possession. Bourque did the same thing, carving his name on the inside with a screwdriver before putting it back together. Later on, he was surprised when Montreal player J.J. Daigneault confronted him about what he did. Daigneault knew because he had done the same thing.

•The Cup ended up in the pool and hot tub at the home of Vinnie Paul, drummer for the heavy mental band Pantera. (Contrary to a story told by Paul, Stanley Cup keeper Walt Neubrand, an eyewitness to the party, said the Stanley Cup was never thrown from a balcony. A player was pushed into the pool while holding the Cup.)

•In 1994, Joey Kocur received the Stanley Cup split in two pieces from a member of the New York Rangers. Kocur wouldn't say who gave him the damaged trophy. Not wanting a disabled Cup during his celebration, Kocur took it to a local machine shop to have it soldered together. He insisted they use sterling silver solder and only tack it in five places. It worked well enough because Kocur was able to strap it securely to an inner tube and pull it behind his boat. According to Kocur, his repair job lasted a couple of months before the Stanley Cup was professionally restored to its original form.

•In 2008, Def Leppard vocalist Joe Elliott left hockey fans aghast when he turned the Stanley Cup upside down on the stage during a concert in Detroit. Defenseman Kyle Quincey, then with the Red Wings, became the hero when he walked right in front of the performing band and righted the Stanley Cup. "It was so disrespectful," Quincey said. "To see it upside down was weird It's like someone trampling on your symbol or throwing your flag on the ground."

•In 1907, Stanley Cup was stolen from a photographer's home and when no one was willing to pay a ransom for it, the thief returned it. In those years, no one had any idea how important the Stanley Cup would become.