Worst things to happen to the Stanley Cup

Has Tampa become the new “City of Champions”?

Over the last 10 months, they’ve won:

2 STANLEY CUPS

1 SUPER BOWL

REPRESENTED THE AMERICAN LEAGUE IN THE 2020 WORLD SERIES

not a bad resume. We still brag about “Playing What We Want” … equal cachet in our minds.

This week, the Tampa Bay Lightning held their second Stanley Cup parade in 10 months and to say things got a little crazy would be an understatement. Sure the day started off nicely, the Cup got to go jet skiing, sailing, and sun tanning on the shores in Florida, it was every retiree’s dream of a perfect afternoon outside of Del Boca Vista Phase II.

But as quickly as it started off fun, it turned ugly when a tropical storm blew in cancelling the rest of the outdoor celebration and forcing a bunch of half-naked, tipsy hockey players inside …

and sadly the Cup got some damage. (FUNNY STORY: it’s on its way to MONTREAL to be fixed!)

Strangely enough this isn’t the WORST thing that’s happened to Lord Stanley’s Cup. It has endured its fair share of bumps and baby pee? But let us know if this cracks the TOP 5 WORST THINGS TO HAPPEN TO THE STANLEY CUP … (and no leaving it at home all day listening to JACK doesn’t make this list).

1999 DALLAS STARS & PANTERA

In 1999, the Dallas Stars won the Stanley Cup and celebrated with a pool party with the band Pantera. Story goes, Guy Carbonneau thought that tossing the Stanley Cup off of the deck of the house and into the pool would be a swell idea, but he misjudged the distance and the the Cup hit the edge of the pool getting severely damaged in the process

1941 NEW YORK RANGERS BONFIRE

The 1940-1941 New York Rangers took their Cup celebration to the next level. They won the Stanley Cup AND they also paid off the mortgage on Madison Square Garden. TO toast the moment, they lit their mortgage papers on fire and burned them in the Cup, however when the fire got out of hand, they had to douse the flames without any water near by … we mean a bunch of hockey players who had been drinking … ahem, you know what we mean. The fire was extinguished and to this day people believe this started their Cupless curse, known as The Curse of 1940, which lasted over 50 years until 1994, but we’re not talking about that.

1924 MONTREAL CANADIENS LEFT IN A DITCH

So yeah, the 1924 Montreal Canadiens won the Cup and were on their way to their post game celebration when their car got a flat tire. They took everything out of the car to fix the tire and when they left, they got about half way to their party when they realized they left the Cup on the side of the road beside a ditch. Luckily when they went back, it was still there. Imagine that happening now, it would have been up on Ebay SO FAST!

1991 PITTSBURGH PENGUINS DISMANTLE THE CUP

Every player on the Cup winning team gets some time to take the Cup home and share it with their family, friends and community. Phil Bourque got his turn in 1991 after the Penguins beat the North Stars in the ’91 Cup Final, but when he got the Cup home, he heard some rattling. So much so, he decided to dismantle the Cup with some repair men piece by piece. When they were done, he discovered the repair men carved their name into the inside of the Cup, so Borque did the same and to this day, might be the ONLY PLAYER with his name on the inside and outside of the Stanley Cup.

1993 MONTREAL CANADIENS GONE SWIMMING

Patrick Roy took the Cup home in 1993 after the Habs defeated Gretzky and the LA Kings. To celebrate he took the Cup swimming in his pool and left it at the bottom of the pool overnight. The league was not happy. (He wasn’t the first to leave the Cup at the bottom of a pool, Mario Lemieux did the same 2 years earlier).

1987 STANLEY EXOTIC?

Thank goodness Loonies weren’t in full circulation at this point, it could have been MUCH WORSE. In 1987, the Edmonton Oilers won the Stanley Cup. Mark Messier celebrated by taking Lord Stanley to a strip club, where it was brought on stage where it became a pole for the evening for a group of dancers. The Oilers players filled the Cup with champagne, drank from it, and left the trophy when they left the club. The club manager had to track them down the next day to return the Cup.

THE NUMBER ONE TROPHY FULL OF NUMBER TWO?

In 1998 after the Detroit Red Wings won the Stanley Cup and it might have suffered its nastiest fate. Kris Draper took the Cup home and wanted to get photos of his newborn inside the bowl. Cute idea until you remember babies can’t hold their functions and his daughter went BOTH #1 & #2 inside the Cup. It was cleaned out and back to its useful form as a drink holder later that night.

Of course in the 127 years the Stanley Cup has existed, there have been even MORE crazy stories. We just selected a few. What is your FAVOURITE Stanley Cup story!? Tell us on Twitter @JACK969Van.