The Cup

The Stanley Cup is the most coveted championship trophy in the world...whether you are a hockey fan or not, everyone dreams of lifting that cup over your head....and if you are a hockey player, this is the ultimate goal of a lifetime...it has to rank right up to the birth your first born....The Holy Grail....The Cup....Lord Stanley's Mug...this is what you play for....that few seconds of skating around the ice with The Cup over your head....and players from either the Pittsburgh Penguins or Detroit Red Wings will have the thrill of hoisting The Cup...

Unlike the trophies awarded by the other three major professional sports leagues of North America, a new Stanley Cup is not made each year...Cup winners keep it until a new champion is crowned....it is the only trophy in professional sports that has the name of the winning players, coaches, management, and club staff engraved on it....the current Stanley Cup is made of silver and nickel alloy and has a height of 35.25 inches and weighs 34.5 lbs...

Currently, in order to have one's name inscribed on The Cup, a player must have played at least 41 games for the championship team during the regular season (provided the player remains with the team when they win The Cup) or at least played in one game of the Finals.... the NHL will also consider other reasons on a case-by-case basis....for instance, Vladimir Konstantinov, whose career ended after a car accident on June 13, 1997, had his name engraved on the Stanley Cup after Detroit defended their title in 1998.....

Jean Beliveau’s name appears on The Cup more than anyone else....he appears 17 times: 10 as a player and 7 as management....Henri "Rocket" Richard has won the most Stanley Cups as a player with 11...13 women have their names engraved on the Stanley Cup....

Tradition has it that the captain is the first player to hoist The Cup...however, that tradition did not happen on two recent occasions....after Colorado won in 2001, captain Joe Sakic accepted The Cup from the commissioner, however, he immediately handed it to Ray Bourque who was the first to hoist it....Bourqueplayed in the NHL for 22-years and never was on a Stanley Cup champion....

The other instance happened in 1998 when Detroit captain Steve Yzerman accepted The Cup but then immediately passed it to Vladimir Konstantinov, who had been seriously injured in a limo accident the previous year and had to be wheeled on the ice...

And remember, NHL players will not touch The Cup until they hoist it after winning the playoffs....

Over the next week, Stiles Points will be providing coverage of the Stanley Cup Finals and the NBA Conference Finals...