Hockey’s unwritten rules: Don’t touch trophy or step on logo
SEATTLE
Watch your step. Don’t touch that trophy. That one’s OK, as long as the captain says it’s OK.
Hockey is riddled with strange superstitions and one of the NHL’S biggest taboos, and one of its unwritten rules, is fairly well known. Someone who harbors dreams of winning the Stanley Cup one day absolutely, positively does not lift it over their head beforehand.
“Big no-no,” Kraken alternate captain Yanni Gourde, who has lifted the famous chalice twice, said. “You haven’t earned it until you’ve won it. I think it’s kind of cool.”
Some don’t want to touch it at all, even on display. When the trophy is out and about during the summer, spending a day with each member of the winning team in the city of their choice, you’ll occasionally see a friend leaning into photos awkwardly, hands by their sides.
When teams file in to surround the Prince of Wales Trophy, awarded to the Eastern Conference champions, and the Clarence S. Campbell Bowl in the West, the celebration is muted. It’s a toss-up whether they’ll touch the hardware at all. It isn’t the trophy they want, after all, and their sights are set on the Stanley Cup. Perhaps touching a lesser trophy will invite a jinx, scaring away the bigger prize.
It’s a relatively recent tradition. Philadelphia
Flyers captain Eric Lindros is credited with starting the trend in 1997, when he opted against celebrating with the Wales Trophy.
“We’re happy to make the finals, but our mission is not complete,” Lindros said at the time.
In the years since, some have followed suit – roughly half of the conference champions. Anecdotal evidence seems to play a huge part.
The eventual 2023 Stanley Cup champions, the Vegas Golden Knights, didn’t touch the Campbell Bowl after team leadership decided against it.
The Golden Knights handled the trophy in 2018 before losing in the Final to the Washington Capitals and were apparently wary of repeating that mistake.
The team they would beat in five games, the Florida Panthers, cheerfully carried around the Wales Trophy back East. So, 2023 favored the suspicious. But there’s no strong correlation – plenty on both sides of the debate have gone on to win the Stanley Cup.
The decision came from team leadership in the Penguins’ back-to-back titles in 2016-17.
Kraken defenseman Brian Dumoulin, a longtime Penguin, said it was captain and future Hall of Famer Sidney Crosby’s call. In 2008, the Penguins didn’t touch the Wales Trophy and lost the Final to the Detroit Red Wings. The following year, they came out on top in the East again, threw caution to the wind, enjoyed the trophy and went on to win the ultimate prize.
“For me, personally, I don’t think it has anything to do with whether you win or lose. For people who are superstitious like that, it does mean something. I respect that,” Dumoulin said.
The Lightning also went ahead and touched it during their run in 2020-21. In 2015, before a Final loss to the Chicago Blackhawks, Lightning captain Steven Stamkos leaned away from the conference trophy. Tampa Bay went back five years later and gave it a pat.
Gourde didn’t remember whether it was Stamkos or Lightning coach Jon Cooper who ultimately made the call, but remembers they reasoned: “Hey – we win a trophy, we pick it up.”
On that note, hey – we see a logo, we walk around. There’s often a big team emblem right in the middle of the locker room carpet, and it’s for admiring, not treading. Failure to comply means gentle correction at best, public shaming at worst.
“There’s an unwritten rule that you’re not bigger than the team and you’ve got to respect the team logo,” Gourde said.
Players are taught this early, but the information isn’t exactly posted for drop-ins. It often isn’t communicated at all, a true unwritten rule of hockey.
“I’ve definitely seen a celebrity, a time or two, come into the (Penguins) locker room and step on it,” Dumoulin said.
Dumoulin said he didn’t yell at the oblivious outsiders, but “you can, and people did.”
In Chicago in 2013, visiting Canadian pop star Justin Bieber backed up onto the Blackhawks logo while trying to snap a picture of their recently won Stanley Cup. That one caused a minor socialmedia kerfuffle.
The rule applies to visitors of all ages. The players’ kids toddling around the locker room receive the lesson as soon as possible. The logo was on the floor in Pittsburgh’s locker room, and Dumoulin’s young son Brayden had places to be.
“I’d have to tell him each time,” Dumoulin chuckled.
“It teaches them something of respect and awareness and paying attention, but it’s sometimes hard to do when it’s a 3-year-old.”
The Kraken made it easier on everyone and put their ‘S’ logo on the ceiling of their practice facility.
“That definitely helps,” Dumoulin said.