The tales Stanley could tell ...
He’s been everywhere this summer, from Humboldt, Sask., to China
THE
STORY OF the Stanley Cup’s summer travels is moving along quite nicely when the guy with the white gloves who accompanies it everywhere casually starts talking about the European leg of the tour.
“We had a cow eating out of it in the Bavarian mountains in Germany,” Phil Pritchard says. OK, we’ll bite.
Seems Washington’s backup goalie Philipp Grubauer was spending his day with the big silver mug in Rosenheim, near the Austrian border. While posing for photos, a curious cow wandered over to see what was going on and stuck its head in the bowl.
“It was great,” Pritchard laughs.
The Burlington native was in China last week with the Cup as part of a visit prior to a pair of pre-season games between Calgary and Boston. It was the first time Stanley ever got there. Which makes that country a rarity.
It’s been almost everywhere before now. This summer alone, it has been through Canada — with an emotional stop in Humboldt, Sask., — and the States, as well as in Denmark, Sweden, the Czech Republic and with Grubauer in Germany. It’s also been to Russia again, with Pritchard in tow. Siberia, actually. Off the coast of the Mongolian border.
“We were so far out,” he says. “Eleven times zones from here.”
Pritchard has watched as people have sipped gallons of champagne from the bowl — as well as other beverages — eaten hotdogs and fries from it as well as cereal, borscht, perogies, pepperettes, ice cream and even had a horse nibbling hay from it. He’s spent the night of the championship in a Las Vegas bar until 4:30 a.m. before boarding a plane to Washington at 8. He’s done six countries and nine flights in 14 days during the European jaunt.
Hey, you want to oversee the best tradition in sports, it’s going to wear you out.
The whole way, he was doing his best to protect it. That said, stuff does happen. People slip. Tables collapse. A website last week showed photos of the bowl with one side flattened after what obviously was a rough day. Pritchard says he’s watched players and their parents sweat furiously as they comically try to fix a ding or a misshapen edge.
Even he’s had to do it a few times.
“We do our best,” he says. “We have been in corners of buildings or underneath rinks trying to bend it back into shape.”
The reason is simple. This is the real Cup. There’s a second one that stays in the Hall of Fame during the tour but it’s only a replica. This is the one that Gretzky and Orr and Lemieux and Richard and all the other greats of the game have lifted and kissed and sipped from. This is history wrapped up in 35 pounds of well-travelled silver. History doesn’t always come with a perfectly round bowl.
“Fingers crossed, we’ve never had it get to that point that it’s unrepairable,” he says. “If it gets to that, I think we’ll have to revisit the Cup travels because it’s one of the greatest things in hockey and we want to make sure it’s around for another 125 years.”
Despite the occasional mini-disaster, he says he’s never seen a player be anything but respectful of the chalice. In fact, with each player on the winning team getting it for a day, any number of requests for activities with it could be made. He’s never had to say no to a single one.
To some of the players’ buddies, well, that’s a different story. A few have had to be reined in after a day of swilling beer while the player is off meeting with the mayor and doing appearances at local rinks. By the time the Cup and the winning player arrive at the party, some of the friends are well-lubricated and ready to get crazy.
Generally though, a gentle little explanation from Pritchard and everyone behaves.
Over the years, the Cup has been just about everywhere and done just about everything. Pritchard admits his job is near perfect because there are no bad days. He never shows up to scowling faces and angry people. Everyone always has a smile when they see him and his cargo.
The most moving moments? Those would be the visits to gravesites of parents and siblings and grandparents who helped the player along the way but weren’t around long enough to see the ultimate payoff. A guy can get misty watching those.
“It’s so powerful,” he says. With everything that happened this summer — the good and the oddball — at least he didn’t end up in a sauna with the Cup like he did the day Teemu Selanne celebrated with it back in 2007. They’d partied all day in the 24-hour sunlight of Finland, then retired to the sauna as is apparently custom.
Weird question, but since he was there in his official capacity did he have to wear his white gloves and blue Hall of Fame blazer into the sauna with it?
“I have a blue bathing suit,” Pritchard says. “And it’s not a Speedo, so it’s OK.”