By Tina Comeau
THE VANGUARD
NovaNewsNow.com
Anyone who visited the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto on Tuesday, March 30 to see the Stanley Cup would have instead seen a replica of the cup with a note telling them that the real cup was in Nova Scotia.
Yarmouth, N.S. to be specific.
For three hours on March 30, the Mariners Centre was the temporary home to The Holy Grail of hockey, where 36 minor hockey teams and local Special Olympians got their opportunity to have their photo taken with The Cup.
The Stanley Cup came to Yarmouth as a result of a contest sponsored by Bridgestone. Dealerships were invited to enter the contest by writing an essay explaining what they would do with The Cup if they could bring it to their community for three hours.
Guy Surette, owner of Tusket Ultra Mart, decided to enter the contest, saying if he could bring the Stanley Cup to Yarmouth County he would share it with young hockey players and local Special Olympic athletes. The event would also be used as a fundraiser for Special Olympics and minor hockey.
There was also another reason behind Surette wanting to bring The Cup home.
“When I was a kid, mom and dad never had enough money for me to play hockey and playing hockey at the rink was always something I wanted to do,” he explained. “To bring the NHL Stanley Cup here and see the eyes of the hockey kids, and the Special Olympics kids, there’s no money that could pay for what I saw here tonight.
“To share that with them and to see their eyes, that’s all I wanted,” he added, brimming with excitement that he and Bridgestone were able to bring The Cup to Yarmouth.
Although hundreds poured into the Mariners Centre to have their team photos taken with The Cup, the event was considered “private,” as per the guidelines and regulations pertaining to The Stanley Cup. An invitation was extended to teams in the Yarmouth County Minor Hockey Association and the local Special Olympics, but the rules surrounding the Cup that organizers were given stipulated the event could not be advertised in the media ahead of time, nor could it be opened up to the public at large.
Going into the event, teams were told they would each get three minutes with The Cup. So as people spilled into the Mariners Centre on Tuesday, and teams sat in the stands according to their division, – from Timbits up to midget – the expectation was that the event might be nothing short of mass chaos. But the event went smoothly and orderly with teams being called onto the ice one at a time.
As for the teams, after they had their team photo taken, many would immediately turn to The Cup to touch it, photograph it, and read the names on it. The year 1967 was sought out repeatedly, as that was the last time the Toronto Maple Leafs won The Stanley Cup. Many of the younger generation looked for Sidney Crosby's name, the Penguins having won the Cup last year.
Although their time with the cup was brief, more or less a fleeting moment, it was a moment nonetheless.
“This is awesome,” exclaimed midget house player Marc Surette, as he and his teammates stood next to the ultimate hockey prize.
Phil Pritchard, vice-president and curator of the Hockey Hall of Fame, said that is what it is all about when it comes to bringing The Cup into small towns.
“When you’re in Canada it’s all about this, whether it’s small kids or whether it’s really big kids. The smile on their face when they get to see it . . . they get to see some of their heroes and they get to relive some memories,” he said. “And hopefully one of these kids will get to t he NHL one day and bring the cup home to their community.”
“When I was a kid, mom and dad never had enough money for me to play hockey and playing hockey at the rink was always something I wanted to do. To bring the NHL Stanley Cup here and see the eyes of the hockey kids, and the Special Olympics kids, there’s no money that could pay for what I saw here tonight." - Guy Surette, Tusket Ultra Mart
The Stanley Cup has come a long way since being donated by Governor General Lord Stanley of Preston 117 years ago. The trophy, originally inscribed the Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup, began as an award for Canada's top-ranking amateur ice hockey club. In 1926 it became the trophy awarded to the top team in the National Hockey League. There’s only been two seasons when it wasn’t handed out: during the 1918-19 season because of a Spanish Flu epidemic and 2004-05 season because of an NHL lockout.
“When it first started it was just the bowl at the top that Lord Stanley donated, and he never imagined that 117 years later it's going to be 35 pounds, three feet high with over 2,000 names on it,” said Pritchard.
“What happens is we run out of room,” he said about The Cup. “Of the five rings on the bottom, we take off the top ring every 13 years and that gets put in the Hockey Hall of Fame. We slide the other four up and we add another to the bottom, so every 13 years we add a new ring. So when the winner wins it now they’re going to be on the cup for 65 years.”
There is a lot of etiquette and unwritten rules when it comes to The Cup. But the biggest rule, Pritchard said, is to pick it up, you have to have your name on it.
Following its visit to Yarmouth, The Stanley Cup was heading to Pittsburgh on Thursday. The Mellon Arena is closing this year so the Cup was making a visit to the Igloo, which for now is home to the Stanley Cup championship Pittsburgh Penguins.
