Journeys of the Heart: A Stanley Cup Travelogue

Originally published in the 2004 NHL Playoff Magazine

By Lucas Aykroyd

We’ve all heard stories about crazy places where the Stanley Cup has ended up during victory celebrations: nightclubs, swimming pools, horse stables, and so on. But in many cases, the winners of this powerful symbol of NHL supremacy have done things with it that still resonate long after the days of champagne and confetti have faded.

First awarded in 1893, the three-foot-tall, 35-pound Cup has gotten bigger over time, and similarly, the opportunities for players to go places with their prize have also expanded. In the first half of the 20th century, the champions only set eyes on the silver chalice for a few minutes after the last game of the Stanley Cup Finals. It wasn’t until the 1970’s that they were collectively awarded the chance to hold on to the Cup for a couple of weeks. And only starting in 1995 did NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman mandate that each individual member of the winning club–players, coaches, trainers, and managers–should get at least one day with Lord Stanley under the supervision of a representative of the Hockey Hall of Fame, the Cup’s permanent home in Toronto.

So what motivates a hockey champion to go somewhere unique with the Cup or share it with special people in his life? Almost invariably, it’s the recognition that he could not have achieved this career pinnacle without support and love from others. His victory extends beyond the walls of his team’s dressing room. The Cup is meant to be shared. Let’s retrace some of these unforgettable journeys of the heart.

A Family Affair

Guy Lafleur stole the hearts of Montreal fans and robbed numerous goalies of their dignity during his 560-goal NHL career. But the legendary Canadiens winger pulled off a real heist on May 22, 1979 when he decided he just had to bring the Stanley Cup back to the home of his parents in Thurso, Quebec.

With his teammates celebrating their fourth straight championship at Toe Blake’s Tavern, Lafleur pretended he had forgotten something in the car of Montreal Forum public address announcer Claude Mouton. He borrowed Mouton’s keys and then got a friend to make duplicates. Later that day, when Mouton had the Cup in his car trunk for safekeeping, “The Flower” got it out, transferred it to his own vehicle, and drove out to Thurso. He showed off the trophy in his parents’ kitchen, with friends and neighbors coming over to marvel.

“Old people were crying and kissing the Cup,” Lafleur told hockey writer Kevin Allen. “They couldn’t believe the Cup was there. They were never able to touch the Cup before. My sister had had a baby, and she put the baby in the Cup and took pictures. It was something special.”

Meanwhile, a panicked search for the stolen mug was underway in Montreal. It didn’t take long for Mouton to finger Lafleur as the culprit. The superstar quickly returned the Cup to its guardian to elude punishment.

All-Star defenseman Denis Potvin of the New York Islanders also felt the urge to share the Cup with family upon winning his fourth straight title. But his excursion had an added element of poignancy.

It occurred in the early hours of May 18, 1983, shortly after the Islanders had completed a 4-0 series sweep of the Edmonton Oilers. Potvin’s father Armand had been stricken with cancer, but vowed he would survive the 1982-83 season to witness one more championship for his son. So Potvin took the Cup out of the jubilant Nassau Coliseum dressing room and went back to his New York home, where his father was waiting. There wasn’t much time, because Armand had to return to Ottawa for more treatments. Father and son sat together in the living room, just talking about the Cup, looking at it, taking pictures together.

A year later, Armand would tragically pass away at age 63, and for Denis Potvin, nothing would ever be the same: “I loved the game of hockey, but when he died, unquestionably it took my whole desire for the game away.” Still, the memory of sharing the Cup with his father remains a touchstone for Potvin.

The trophy is also associated with more upbeat family occasions today. Martin Brodeur will look back fondly on what he did with the Cup on August 22 and 23, 2003. Gathering with family and friends in Lac-Ste-Marie, Quebec, the Vezina-winning goaltender of the New Jersey Devils squeezed in plenty of Stanley surprises.

Brodeur took the Cup out on a nearby lake in a pontoon boat and then returned to his house to feed his four kids cereal and milk out of the gleaming bowl. That evening, he cooked dinner for his guests, afterwards filling up the Cup with marshmallows next to an outdoor fire for a sizzling roast. The next day, Brodeur kept the celebration going with a ball hockey tournament, a tradition from his two previous Cup wins, and a pool party where two of his close friends got engaged to be married. (Stanley for best man?)

Healing and Strengthening

The men who take care of the Stanley Cup on a daily basis often speak of the positive impact that the trophy has on people. “In today’s world, it is wonderful to be able to do something that makes people smile,” said Hockey Hall of Fame curator Phil Pritchard. “Everyone has a special place in their heart for the Stanley Cup.”

That certainly proved true when New Jersey defenseman Scott Niedermayer brought the Cup to his hometown of Cranbrook, British Columbia. In the late summer of 2003, this region was under siege from raging forest fires, which destroyed homes and forced the evacuation of thousands of residents. Niedermayer made a point of displaying the Cup at a nearby camp with 400 firefighters. The visit brightened the spirits of the soot-covered workers. “Sometimes, we think we’re here all on our own,” said one firefighter. “It’s amazing to know our heroes remember us at critical times like this.”

When Niedermayer got the Cup after New Jersey’s previous triumph in 2000, he chose to commemorate the personal inspiration he felt by hoisting his prize at the 9,300-foot summit of Fisher Peak, BC’s highest mountain. A circling helicopter took some of the most striking photos in the history of the Cup’s travels.

Aaron Ward found a special way to express loyalty to his alma mater, the University of Michigan, when the big blueliner earned a championship with Detroit in 1997. The decision to bring the Cup to Mott’s Children’s Hospital in Ann Arbor came easily, because he’d been there before as a college star and had seen how happy it made the patients. “My wife brought up the idea of taking the Cup to a hospital,” said Ward. “I wanted to visit Mott’s because I knew it was a class operation, and it was affiliated with my university.”

Far Across the Sea

For decades, no one even considered the possibility of the Stanley Cup leaving North America. Yet with European talent flooding the NHL in the 1990’s, that became the next logical step. In 1994, the Cup toured Finland and Germany, but Sweden’s Peter Forsberg became the first European player to take it to his native land when the Colorado Avalanche prevailed in 1996.

Colorful scenes have resulted. For instance, Dallas forward Jere Lehtinen incorporated the Cup into an ancient Finnish tradition in 1999. He invited a group of friends to a sauna party at his summer cottage in northern Finland, with Lord Stanley sitting outside to keep his cool.

Detroit’s Slava Fetisov, Igor Larionov, and Slava Kozlov held up the trophy in Moscow’s Red Square for the first time in 1997, which could never have happened under Soviet Communist rule less than ten years earlier. “Even playing far from the Motherland we could feel your support,” Larionov told happy Russian fans. When Detroit won again in 2002, Pavel Datsyuk conquered a new frontier when the gifted forward brought the Cup to his native Yekaterinburg on the Europe-Asia border in the Ural Mountains.

Another 2002 milestone was Dominik Hasek’s decision to use his Cup time to raise money for flood relief in the Czech Republic. The recipient of six Vezinas and two Harts, Hasek was able to contribute three million korunas ($100,000 US) as 5,000 citizens of Pardubice came to see him with the biggest trophy of all.

A Continuing Saga

There are many other stories about how the Cup has touched people’s lives. One of the best is about a Wilberforce, Ontario couple who had never been able to conceive a child. In 1996, they came to view the trophy courtesy of Mike Ricci. The wife kissed it and soon afterwards found herself pregnant with a son, who was then named “Stanley.”

Not all experiences are as mystical or profound. But everyone who encounters the Stanley Cup during its travels will remember that day forever. It’s something this year’s champions can take to heart.