Tampa Bay does love their boat parades. After winning the team’s second Stanley Cup in a row the Tampa Bay Lightning took to the once pirate infested waters of Tampa Bay in celebration. Quick side note, Tampa please stop calling yourselves “Champa Bay.” Look we know you guys’ sports teams are having a lot of success but that just sounds wrong. It sounds like something Plankton would be serving at the Chum Bucket.
The boat parade looked like a great, or as the children today are saying “lit” time. You had Nikita Kucherov in a shirt openly mocking the NHL salary cap. Well that was when he was even wearing a shirt at all. There was a Stanley Cup replica made out of beer cans. Also, once again the cup took a joy ride on a jet ski. Also this happened, because apparently the Conn Smythe Trophy is a helmet now.
Looks like the Lightning had too much fun. We joked about the Stanley Cup being thrown between boats like Tom Brady did with the Lombardi Trophy. Luckily that didn’t happen, but Lord Stanley did have a few injuries from a day of too much partying.
Poor Lord Stanley looks like he got into a fender bender on the Jersey Turnpike. We all know that was the result of a different kind of bender that day. The Lightning probably thought, “don’t worry, nobody’s going to notice.” Oh we noticed all right.
This isn’t the first battle wound the Stanley Cup has suffered. It’s not a normal occurrence but it does happen once in a while. Here’s home history behind the cup’s marvelous misadventures.
Isn’t That The Original Stanley Cup?
We all know the Stanley Cup has grown and changed shape over its long history. It all started with a little silver bowl that was given by Lord Stanley of Preston. The original bowl remained at the top, while the rest of the cup grew underneath. That was until 1970 when the “original” bowl was replaced by a replica. The “original bowl,” the actual one bought by Lord Stanley in 1892, was at the Hockey Hall of Fame while its younger cousin enjoyed a wild Florida vacation.
This Happened Before?
There’s a lot of legends surrounding the Stanley Cup. Some are true and some can’t be proven. However, it is a 100% true fact the cup has been damaged before. That includes during victory celebrations like the Lightning’s. Let’s take a look down memory lane, shall we? To keep this easy, we’re only looking at times the cup has been damaged since 1967 expansion, or the NHL’s “modern” era.
The one exception to our “post-1967” stories was when the Toronto Maple Leafs won the Stanley Cup in 1962. When we were joking about the cup getting dropped into Tampa Bay, we learn that back in 1962 the cup fell into a bonfire and was damaged. The Toronto Maple Leafs themselves paid for the necessary repairs.
When the Edmonton Oilers won in 1987, Mark Messier brought it to a bar and let fans drink out of it. At the end of being passed around as the world’s greatest beer mug the cup was dented in various places. The repairs didn’t sound so bad, since they were able to be done at a local auto body shop.
When the New York Rangers won the cup in 1994, Mike Richter brought it to a bar and locked the doors while he let fans drink out of it. Apparently the cup had damage to the base and repairs had to be done by the NHL. The damage was described as to “the base” but not very specific.
When the Detroit Red Wings won the Stanley Cup in 2008 the cup was pushed off a table at Chris Chelios’s bar. NHL spokeswoman Bernadette Mansur said the cup was dented “slightly” but was able to be smoothed out. That was sugar-coating it, as apparently the cup suffered more damage than originally reported.
Remember New Jersey Devils legend Michael Ryder? Before his long, illustrious, and unforgettable career in New Jersey, Ryder won the 2011 Stanley Cup with the Boston Bruins. Unfortunately, on his day with the cup it fell off a table almost immediately after being put down by Ryder. The cameras were rolling, so there’s plenty of footage of it. My heart dropped a little when I saw the cup take that tumble.
More recently there was damage when the Washington Capitals won the Stanley Cup in 2018. The damage was not linked to any specific event, but Bardown showed pictures of damage to the upper bowl. We knew Alexander Ovechkin was going to party hard with the cup, so these damages might have been from a long summer of partying instead of one accident.
What About the Dallas Star Incident With Pantera?
If you have no idea what I’m talking about, that last sentence must have been a roller coaster ride of emotion. If you do know what I’m talking about, I skipped this over in the last part because a story of this magnitude deserves its own section. Don’t worry, I didn’t forget about it.
After winning the 1999 Stanley Cup, Dallas Stars’ defensemen Craig Ludwig had a party at his house to celebrate. In attendance was the late Pantera drummer Vinnie Paul. The story goes that Guy Carbonneau tried to throw the cup off a deck and into the pool. However the cup missed, hit the edge of the pool and was dented badly.
Here’s the tricky part. According to one of the Keepers of the Cup, Mike Bolt, that never happened. The “official” story is that the cup was thrown, at ground level, into the pool and taken out of the water almost immediately. Bolt even denies being at the party. Then again, if someone was at a party with rock stars where the Cup was badly damaged, what would you expect them to say?
Here’s another twist. The cup itself was definitely dented. That’s something Bolt admits to being a true fact. Bolt, still sticking to his story of not being at the party, said the dent came from a locker room celebration the night before.
There’s a few inconsistencies depending on who tells the story. Some say the party was at Craig Ludwig’s house, other’s say it was Pantera drummer Vinnie Paul’s house. Some say the cup was thrown off an upper deck, while other says it was thrown from the roof. According to Vinnie Paul, not only is the story true, but the Keeper of the Cup (he wouldn’t mention Bolt by name, but then again he probably didn’t know his name to begin with) was at the party. The story of it getting dented beforehand was a massive cover up on the NHL’s part to pretend Paul and his victory party weren’t involved.
Now the NHL and hockey pundits will go with Bolt’s recollection of the events as the “official” story. After all, he’s the Stanley Cup’s body guard. We obviously weren’t there and have no way of proving it, but it does sound like it’s possible the story is true and Bolt’s “official” explanation is a cover up. Either way it’s a story that’s fun to tell.
If you want to read Vinnie Paul’s recollection of the party you can find it here. By all means, it sounds like a great party. I’m kind of upset I didn’t get an invitation. Then again, I remember that I was four at the time, and didn’t live in Texas, so that’s probably the reason. Paul unfortunately passed away in 2018, but was remembered fondly by the Dallas Stars who called him, “more than a friend.”
Back To Tampa, What’s Going To Happen Now
The slightly damaged cup (you can hardly notice) will be sent to Montreal for repairs. The article says that the Lightning themselves are sending the cup for repairs, so we don’t know if it was the Lightning’s call to send it to get fixed or the NHL’s. Also no word on where it will get sent in Montreal. Instead of a random auto shop like when Mark Messier dented it, it’s probably going somewhere with a little more patience and experience.d The Cup should be ready to return to Tampa for some more celebrating next weekend.
Blame The Internet
People had fun turning the dented cup into a meme. Let’s think for a second, is the real reason the cup getting dented became huge news because of the internet? All the stories we listed above where before the days of camera phones and tweeting and social media. If the cup got damaged, it wasn’t a huge known fact spread across the hockey world. That’s why there’s so many varying stories of the Pantera party incident.
However there were plenty of people at the Lightning Stanley Cup boat parade. If something happened to the cup, people would notice, and notice fast. They could take a quick picture and spread it around the world with a single tweet. So, no the cup getting dented and damaged is nothing new, but having Twitter react to it is.