Cup brings joy in difficult times
With protocols in place, Lightning take trophy to children’s cancer centre
Remy Heberlein’s grandmother joked he shouldn’t touch the Stanley Cup with chocolate on his hands.
The three-year-old whose leukemia is in remission was sad he couldn’t touch hockey’s holy grail at all, but that didn’t stop his eyes from lighting up at the sight of it. He and older brother Charlie echoed their father in yelling “Go Bolts!” while waiting for their time with the Cup, which came after months of isolation and Remy’s recent round of steroids.
This wasn’t like any other year when the NHL champions could take the Stanley Cup wherever they want. This visit to the Children’s Cancer Center in Tampa, Fla., was staged outside, where Tampa Bay Lightning players Steven Stamkos and Ryan McDonagh kept alive one of the sport’s greatest traditions despite a pandemic and brought some joy to families going through a harder fight than the competition for the 35-pound chalice.
“It’s difficult times right now and you’re trying to navigate that, but you still want people to feel that happiness that that thing brings whenever you’re around it,” Stamkos said. “When you dream of winning the Stanley Cup, you want to share it with as many people as possible and especially people that maybe are going through a tough time and that can really brighten up your day.”
After returning to Tampa from their playoff bubble in Edmonton, and parading the Cup along the Hillsborough River, Stamkos tried to figure out how to take the trophy safely to kids and their families.
Officials from the team and Children’s Cancer Center and the keepers of the Cup came up with an intricate plan: a 90minute outdoor gathering with hand sanitizer stations and families waiting in their cars until their three minutes with players and the trophy. Everyone had to wear masks except during family Cup photos, with the players stepping away.
“You have your normal protocols that everybody adheres to for COVID, but we’re dealing with immuno-compromised children,” said Patty O’Leary, executive director of the center.
Phil Pritchard and other keepers of the Cup added an extra, silversmith-approved cleaning step to wipe off bacteria and ensure the coronavirus doesn’t spread through contact. Pritchard and Hockey Hall of Fame colleague Craig Campbell wore their trademark white gloves that now serve as additional protection.
“We’re trying to keep it as clean as possible,” Pritchard said.
That was OK with Christen and Jim Gray and their eightyear-old son, Declan, one of 21 families chosen out of the more than1,000 the centre helps with educational, emotional and financial needs. They’re not in active treatment now but rather bereavement after their sixyear-old, Finn, died in January of Ewing’s sarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer.
Her eyes welling up as soon as they arrived, Christen carried a framed photo of Finn, while Jim brought with him the puck that fell at his son’s seat when he and Declan attended a Lightning game about a week after Finn’s death. He carries it everywhere and told Stamkos and McDonagh, who signed the puck.
“They really, truly seemed to be very touched,” Christen Gray said. “When you’re going through the hardest, most difficult journey in life, to have moments where you can just relax and enjoy and laugh and be a family and have somebody to cheer for, it really just showed.”
There’s a celebration everywhere the Cup goes, from the rink to schools, from police to fire stations, and now the Children’s Cancer Centre.
“All those people are going through some really tough times and then you throw a pandemic on top of that,” Stamkos said, “so for the few minutes that each family was around that Cup, just to see them just admire it and have fun and take pictures and laugh and smile, it was pretty rewarding.”