Stanley Cup: Difference between revisions

{{Use Canadian English|date=June 2014}}

{{Infobox sports award

| competition = [[Stanley Cup playoffs]]

| firstwinner = [[Montreal Hockey Club]] (4) {{small|([[Amateur Hockey Association of Canada|AHAC]])}}

}}

The '''Stanley Cup''' ({{lang-fr|La Coupe Stanley}}) is the championship trophy awarded annually to the [[National Hockey League]] (NHL) [[Stanley Cup playoffs|playoff]] champion. It is the oldest existing trophy to be awarded to a professional sports franchise in North America, and the [[International Ice Hockey Federation]] (IIHF) considers it to be one of the "most important championships available to the sport".<ref>{{cite web|title=Triple Gold Goalies... not|url=http://www.iihf.com/home-of-hockey/news/news-singleview/?tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=850|website=International Ice Hockey Federation|author=Podnieks, Andrew|date=March 25, 2008|access-date=June 12, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170825225356/http://www.iihf.com/home-of-hockey/news/news-singleview/?tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=850|archive-date=August 25, 2017}}</ref> The trophy was commissioned in 1892 as the '''Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup''' and is named after [[Frederick Stanley, 16th Earl of Derby|Lord Stanley of Preston]], the [[Governor General of Canada]], who donated it as an award to Canada's top-ranking amateur ice hockey club. The entire Stanley family supported the sport, the sons and daughters all playing and promoting the game.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.legendsofhockey.net/LegendsOfHockey/jsp/LegendsMember.jsp?mem=b194502&type=Builder&page=bio&list=ByName|title=Lord Stanley (of Preston)|publisher=Hockey Hall of Fame and Museum|access-date=June 10, 2015}}</ref> The first Cup was awarded in 1893 to the [[Montreal Hockey Club]], and winners from 1893 to 1914 were determined by challenge games and league play. Professional teams first became eligible to challenge for the Stanley Cup in 1906. In 1915, the [[National Hockey Association]] (NHA) and the [[Pacific Coast Hockey Association]] (PCHA), the two main professional ice hockey organizations, reached an agreement in which their respective champions would face each other annually for the Stanley Cup. It was established as the ''[[de facto]]'' championship trophy of the NHL in 1926 and then the ''[[de jure]]'' NHL championship prize in 1947.

# And it is further mutually agreed that any disputes arising as to the interpretation of this Agreement or the facts upon which such interpretation is made, shall be settled by an Arbitration Board of three, one member to be appointed by each of the parties, and the third to be selected by the two appointees. The decision of the Arbitration Board shall be final.{{sfn|Podnieks|2004|p=5}}

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The Cup was awarded every year until 2005, [[2004–05 NHL lockout|when a labour dispute]] between the NHL's owners and the [[NHL Players Association]] (the [[Trade union|union]] that represents the players) led to the cancellation of the [[2004–05 NHL season|2004–05 season]]. As a result, no Cup champion was crowned for the first time since the flu pandemic in 1919. The lockout was controversial among many fans, who questioned whether the NHL had exclusive control over the Cup. A website known as freestanley.com (since closed) was launched, asking fans to write to the Cup trustees and urge them to return to the original Challenge Cup format.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story/?ID=115156&hubname= | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929162525/http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story/?ID=115156&hubname= | archive-date=September 29, 2007 | title=Lockout Reminds Lowe of Gretzky Deal | publisher=[[The Sports Network|TSN]] | date=February 16, 2005 | access-date=July 15, 2006}}</ref> [[Adrienne Clarkson]], then Governor General of Canada, alternately proposed that the Cup be presented to the top women's hockey team in lieu of the NHL season. This idea was so unpopular that the [[Clarkson Cup]] was created instead. Meanwhile, a group in Ontario, also known as the "Wednesday Nighters", filed an application with the Ontario Superior Court, claiming that the Cup trustees had overstepped their bounds in signing the 1947 agreement with the NHL, and therefore must award the trophy regardless of the lockout.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/news/story?id=2036537|title=Amateurs taking NHL to court to play for Cup|publisher=[[ESPN]]|access-date=October 13, 2007|date=April 13, 2005}}</ref>

With the Montreal Canadiens having won by far the most Cup championships of any team, the list of the players who have been engraved on the Cup the most often is dominated by Montreal players. [[Henri Richard]] of the Canadiens, with his name engraved eleven times, played on more Stanley Cup champions than any other player. He is followed by [[Jean Béliveau|Jean Beliveau]] and [[Yvan Cournoyer]] of the Canadiens with ten championships, [[Claude Provost]] of the Canadiens with nine, and three players tied with eight: [[Red Kelly]] (four with the Red Wings, four with the Leafs, the most for any player who was not a member of the Canadiens) and Canadiens players [[Jacques Lemaire]], [[Maurice Richard]]. Beliveau's name appears on the Cup more than any other individual, ten times as a player and seven times as management for a total of seventeen times.{{sfn|Conner|2002|pp=113–114}}

 

 

In [[2000–01 NHL season|2001]], [[Charlotte Grahame]], the [[Colorado Avalanche]]'s Senior Director of Hockey Administration, had her name engraved on the trophy. Her son [[John Grahame|John]] later had his name engraved as a member of the [[Tampa Bay Lightning]] in [[2003–04 NHL season|2004]].