Keeper of Lord Stanley’s Cup makes important appointment
I Twas a dark and stormy night, and it led to a scene right out of the old “Blues Brothers” movie. “There are 106 miles to Chicago, we have a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it’s dark and we’re wearing sunglasses …”
Playing the part of Elwood Blues: Phil Pritchard.
“The Keeper of the Cup” — Lord Stanley of Preston’s Cup — wasn’t 106 miles from Chicago on the night of June 15, 2015. But he was far enough away that he and his precious traveling partner didn’t quite make it to United Center in time for the victory celebration after the Blackhawks defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning in six games.
Phil Pritchard, curator at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto and The Keeper of the Cup since 1988, had plenty of gas. He wasn’t smoking cigarettes. Instead of sunglasses, he wore gloves. White cotton ones, so as not to smudge the Cup.
Torrential rains, a tornado warning and a funnel cloud south of the town caused a traffic snarl.
When the game ended, the Cup had yet to arrive.
The Blackhawks celebrated on the ice, Cup-less. NBC did extraneous interviews, also Cup-less.
After a short delay and a police escort, the Cup arrived.
Cup check
“It was havoc on the roads but we made it, thanks to the Chicago police,” The Keeper of the Cup said.
On Wednesday, he was speaking from an undisclosed location in an undisclosed Las Vegas hotel, because most everything about the Cup is on a need-to-know basis until it is presented to the winning team.
“You can’t see it, but I’ve got my fingers crossed,” Pritchard said by cellphone about inclement weather or another unforeseen circumstance developing in the desert. I mentioned that last year we went 102 days without rain, and that there probably wouldn’t be a funnel cloud south of town.
But you never know when there might be a storm of locusts. So Pritchard and the Cup planned to arrive at T-mobile Arena long before the third period started.
As I was arriving at T-mobile Arena, so was the Cup. Phil Pritchard and another guy wheeled it in. Pritchard said hello. He wasn’t wearing gloves yet.
He said the Cup had a couple of appearances to make before the puck was dropped — nothing as extravagant as Wednesday’s float down a lazy river at an undisclosed hotel-casino swimming pool.
When the possibility arises for a team to cop the Cup in fewer than seven games, it is thought to be rude and impudent to put it on display in front of the other team and its fans. This is doubly true in Philadelphia, where hockey fans are known to be rude and impudent right back.
Cup to coast
He said he could only remember one situation like this one, where teams at virtual opposite ends of the hockey universe were paired in a final that potentially could have been decided by Game 5.
In 1994, the New York Rangers lost the first game to the Vancouver Canucks before winning the next three in the best-of-seven series. The Canucks won Game 5 at Madison Square Garden and Game 6 at Pacific Coliseum in British Columbia before the Rangers won Game 7 in New York.
Phil Pritchard and the Cup added to their frequent flyer miles. The Stanley Cup can hold 14 bottles of beer in its chalice but it doesn’t much care for never will Southern Nevada experience the sort of journey a hockey team took it on the past nine months.
“I think we’ll remember the group in this room most,” said Knights defenseman Deryk Engelland, the Las Vegas resident whose stirring and emotional speech at the home opener to honor the 58 dead and hundreds injured and first responders from the shooting will stand as a signature moment to the inaugural season. “After such a horrible tragedy, to go on this run and get this far, there were a lot of positives.
“After some time passes and we get over losing this, we’re all going to look back and be really proud of this group and what it accomplished.”
Season was ‘unbelievable’
Washington is your Stanley Cup champion, deserved in every way. It had the better offense, the better defense, the better special teams, the better goaltending, the better everything.
One of the game’s greatest airline peanuts, Pritchard said. And it doesn’t ride in the middle seat next to him, not even on Southwest after forgetting to check in. That changed after 9-11. The Stanley Cup now rides in a spiffy carrying case that is safely stowed in the special services section of the baggage compartment.
The Keeper of the Cup said he was prepared for whatever happened here Thursday, and in the other “if necessary” games, if they transpired.
He said he packed five pairs of white cotton gloves. One pair for Thursday in Las Vegas; one for Sunday in Washington, if needed; one for next Wednesday in Las Vegas, if needed. Two extra pairs, also if necessary.
They weren’t.
For once, the last guy the Golden Knights wanted to see on the ice Thursday night wasn’t Alex Ovechkin.
It was Phil Pritchard.
At 8:18 p.m. PDT, The Keeper of the Cup appeared on the ice. He was wearing white gloves. He placed the Stanley Cup on a pedestal so NHL commissioner Gary Bettman could present it to Alex Ovechkin, knowing full well that the polish he had applied a few minutes earlier would never hold up.
Contact Ron Kantowski at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702383-0352. Follow @ronkantowski on Twitter.
Margaret Mitchell wrote that tomorrow is another day, and it’s true that another season for the Knights will eventually commence, sooner than you might expect. But if storybook endings never really appear and they’re just someone’s way of leading us to a conclusion, a room full of players not wanted by their previous teams directed Las Vegas on the most amazing of voyages before it ended with another team celebrating.
players to glide across NHL ice also has his title, as Alex Ovechkin is the first Russian-born captain to win it all while also being awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy as the MVP of the playoffs.
Vegas, however, was the better story.
It was Thursday morning, and another standing-room-only collection of fans had gathered inside City National Arena in Summerlin, there again to show its faith and adoration and commitment to the Knights, there to inspire on a day that the team needed such encouragement more than any other point this season.
Those decked in Vegas colors held signs throughout the stands, offering words of motivation and, well, some pretty straightforward advice.
One read: “Be Who You Are.”
The Knights actually were in Game 5, more than at any other time during the series, staring adversity in the face and striking back time and again, answering scores with their own and showing the
sort of resiliency they displayed earlier in the playoffs while dispatching the Kings and Sharks and Jets.
It just wasn’t enough.
“This experience, this season, every bit of it, was unbelievable,” Knights forward Jonathan Marchessault said. “We wanted to finish it differently, but what an amazing experience.”
Margaret Mitchell wrote that tomorrow is another day, and it’s true that another season for the Knights will eventually commence, sooner than you might expect.
But if storybook endings never really appear and they’re just someone’s way of leading us to a conclusion, a room full of players not wanted by their previous teams directed Las Vegas on the most amazing of voyages before it ended with another team celebrating.
That’s the cruel part, of course, the immediacy of a final chapter.
But the big picture will stand on its own, ingrained into the fabric of this city, a team and a town and the impenetrable bond it will forever share.
The end.
Contact columnist Ed Graney at egraney@ reviewjournal.com or 702383-4618. He can be heard on “The Press Box,” ESPN Radio 100.9 FM and 1100 AM, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday. Follow @ edgraney on Twitter.