wherever it goes The Stanley Cup is also one of the oldest trophies in professional team sports as it has been awarded to hockey champions since 1893 Starting in 1918 the Stanley Cup was given to the champion of the NHL It still is today The Cup has come a long way since Lord Frederick Arthur Stanley then governor general of Canada came up with the idea that there should be a trophy awarded to that country’s hockey champion
The Stanley Cup trophy has changed over the years The bowl on top is a replica of the original trophy
I have for some time been thinking that it would be a good thing if there were a challenge cup which could be held from year to year by the champion hockey team in the Dominion Stanley wrote to the Ottawa Athletic Association in 1892 He later purchased a silver bowl for 10 guineas equal to about 50 at the time and created rules for how teams would win this new trophy In 1893 it was decided that the champion of the Amateur Hockey Association of Canada would start with the trophy The first team to claim the Stanley Cup then known as the Dominion Challenge Trophy was the Montreal AAA The AAA won the trophy by finishing the 1893 season with seven wins and just one loss in league play Two teams challenged the AAA for the title the next year But the AAA defeated the Montreal Victorias and Ottawa Generals to hold on to the trophy Winning back-to-back titles was common in the old days of hockey but it has become
much more difficult in modern times In fact the 2017 Pittsburgh Penguins were the first team in nearly 20 years to win back-to-back Stanley Cups Captain Sidney Crosby led the Penguins to a 4 2 series victory over the Nashville Predators as Pittsburgh earned its second straight Stanley Cup The last team to win consecutive titles was the Detroit Red Wings in 1997 and 1998 The Penguins Stanley Cup win in 2017 was their fifth title overall but they still have a long way to go to catch the Montreal Canadiens The NHL’s oldest team won the Stanley Cup a record 24 times from 1916 to 1993 Their total through 2017 was 11 more than the next best team the Toronto Maple Leafs A lot of Montreal Canadiens have had their names engraved on the Stanley Cup over the years That concept began in 1906 07 when the Montreal Wanderers had their names engraved inside the bowl The tradition didn’t catch on right away but starting in 1924
