The National Hockey League needs to do more to encourage better coverage of hockey games. With so many other sports achieving national coverage, the NHL sometimes gets forgotten. However, this year there is a race for the Stanley Cup, and there is only one he is set to win. But which team would that be?
Right now, bookmakers are showing that while the Philadelphia Flyers were ahead just days ago, the odds are now going back and forth with the Flyers and other potential contenders like the Ottawa Senators like teams to watch in the sprint. Stanley Cup this year. Of course, all NHL information and stats change daily, but odds are the current best indicator of which team is definitely a contender for the 2006 Stanley Cup.
However, the race for the 2006 Cup simply did not begin with the end of the 2005 playing season and Stanley Cup winning season. It began over 100 years ago in 1892, at an Amateur Athletic Association dinner in Ottawa. A speech was made which indicated that the Challenge Cup would be a good idea and that this competition should be held from year to year for teams in the Dominion of Canada. At the time, this was a total of three major teams. You might be accurate in assuming that the National Hockey League has experienced exponential growth since then.
Lord Stanley purchased a silver goblet, worth only $50 by today’s standards, and appointed Sheriff John Sweetland and Philip D. Ross as custodians of the goblet. This Stanley Cup is the same trophy that both men were custodians of all those years ago.
Each year the Stanley Cup winners are tasked with carrying the trophy and returning it to the trustees in good condition at the end of the year until it is awarded to the winner of the next cup. The trophy will never become the exclusive property of one team no matter how many times that team may win the trophy but each year the winning team’s name and year are engraved on the silver ring affixed to the trophy.
That first year, the Stanley Cup was chosen by the Montreal Hockey Association (AAA) as the winner for 1894. Unfortunately, Lord Stanley never saw a championship game or even the presentation of the trophy he had bought because he had returned to England, his home country, in the middle of 1893.
Hockey’s popularity grew so quickly that in 1895 every city in Canada had a team that thrived on hockey. Ontario, Quebec, and Winnipeg were no longer the only teams poised to win the Stanley Cup. Instead, many teams walked out and all teams were strong contenders for the Stanley Cup. In 1896, the Montreal Victorias versus the Winnipeg Victorians put the Cup 2 to 0. Less than a year later, a rematch was to occur.
Presented as the greatest sports ever in Winnipeg’s history, even in the economy of 1896, tickets were sized up to $12 each. Everyone wanted to see a Stanley Cup playoff game. Montreal won this game 6 to 5 after being down 2-0 at halftime. It is documented as the best match ever in Canada.
While the early Stanley Cup games differed greatly from today’s game, the popularity has continued to rise over the years. Originally, there were seven men on the ice for each team instead of the six we know today. Sideboards were nonexistent and the players used very little sports equipment. Injuries were very common and far more serious than what players have to deal with today in hockey games and practices.
The Stanley Cup is one of the most famous trophies in the world of sports. It is certainly the oldest trophy contested by professional athletes, having logged more than 400,000 miles traveling over the past five seasons alone. Traditionally, each winning player and member of the team’s management team receives a trophy for a day to share with their friends and family.
No matter how the lines move between now and the final play for this year’s Stanley Cup, you simply won’t want to miss following the track as the big day approaches. This game is the Super Bowl of hockey and it pales in comparison to many other sports in terms of national coverage. The Stanley Cup will be watched by millions, some of whom are not traditional hockey fans and many of whom do not know the history behind Lord Stanley’s remarkable purchase. And for a sporting event worthy of a trophy to travel over 400,000 miles to note the achievements worthy of one team is one that no one should miss especially those behind the major networks! By the way, in the humble opinion of many fans, the only real contender for the Stanley Cup this year is the Philadelphia Flyers. what do you think?
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