Found abundantly in the hands of girls nationwide, yet seen only in a handful of grasps of men: the Stanley Cup.
When “stanley cup” is searched on Google, the top results showcase and advertise the popularized drinking tumbler. However, if equipped with the same Internet resources back in the late 1940s, these results would sport a rather large trophy composed of silver and nickel with the engravings of men’s first and last names.
Need help visualizing the trophy? Flip the Stanley drinking tumbler upside down, and you get a shape that closely resembles the National Hockey League’s ultimate trophy.
All this to say, with the confusion of similar shapes and homographic names, I’m here to help distinguish the Stanley Cup trophy, which is the oldest professional sports trophy in North America, having been awarded in 1893. The end goal of each player who competes within the National Hockey League (NHL) is to hoist this trophy over their head. It’s a two armed job, much unlike the minimal effort required to lift everyday Stanley cups.
The NHL playoffs
To preface, let’s begin with breaking down the NHL playoffs. Following the 82-game regular season is the postseason, in which teams contend with one another to ultimately win the Stanley Cup.
Out of the 32 total teams in the league, the playoffs begin with only 16 of them.
Within the two conferences that the NHL is divided into (Eastern and Western) are four divisions: the Atlantic, Metropolitan, Central, and Pacific. The NHL has the rankings, conferences, and divisions that all 32 teams are allocated within, which you can access here!
Returning to the playoff format, the top three ranked teams in each division are guaranteed a spot in the postseason, leaving four spots for the next top two teams in each conference, regardless of their division.
The playoffs are comprised of four rounds. For the first round, the teams are seeded in which division winners face the wild-card teams. The second and third placed teams of each division are matched against each other within their respective divisions.
Within each matchup played, teams compete in a best-of-seven series, and so the team that moves forward is the one that wins four games first.
To access this year’s Stanley Cup bracket, click here!
The quest of the cats
Moving on to this year’s reigning team, let us congratulate the Florida Panthers (also commonly referred to as the ‘Cats’), who finished the regular season leading the Atlantic division. Just last year, they had reached the Stanley Cup Final but ultimately fell to the Vegas Golden Knights in five games. This year was a different story.
Established in 1993, the Panthers have had three Stanley Cup Final appearances. This year was their first successful run for the 35-pound trophy. Before reaching the final, they would triumph 4-1 against the Tampa Bay Lightning, win 4-2 against the Boston Bruins, and carry their momentum to overtake the highly anticipated winners, the New York Rangers, within six games.
The path of the Floridian team’s home stretch for the Cup, however, cannot be considered quite so effortless. The final matchup of the Stanley Cup playoffs posed the Eastern Conference winners, the Florida Panthers, against the Western Conference winners, the Edmonton Oilers.
In the final series, the Panthers seemed to have effortlessly cantered their way to three wins, going up 3-0 in the series; just one more victory would seal the deal. The question coming into the fourth game of the series was: would the Oilers find an answer to the surely unstoppable Cats?
The answer almost materialized, because just as quickly as the Panthers had pawed three games under their belts, the Oilers countered resolutely, seizing their own three and pushing the series to a seventh game.
With their backs against the wall and the looming shame of having come so far just to potentially fall short at the finish line, the Panthers grounded themselves for the final game of the Stanley Cup Championship.
Fortunately for the Florida team, their season would end victorious for the Panthers as they clawed to conquer a nail-biting game with a final score of 2-1. The Oilers’ thirst for the Stanley Cup continues, perpetuating a drought of now 34 years, but their future is looking incredibly promising.
With notable players like their poster boy, Matthew Tkachuk, offensive powerhouses, Sam Reinhart and Carter Verhaeghe, the team’s captain, Alexandar Barkov, and their goalie, Sergei Bobrovsky, the boys were finally able to hoist the Stanley Cup trophy above their heads for the first time in the franchise’s history.
Hopefully by now, when you hear the words “stanley cup”, your brain will translate into picturing the grand trophy awarded by the National Hockey League, followed by the tenacious fight for it by all 32 NHL teams. If not, feel free to flip over and spill out the contents of your nearby Stanley tumbler to help jog your memory.