The Los Angeles Kings have mapped out a Summer with Stanley for the second time in two years. This time, it got off to an interesting start.
According to a detailed account on the Kings website, assistant general manager Rob Blake, a member of the planning team, took a phone call that could have been part of the extensive scheduling.
Instead, it was to tell him he had been elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame.
"A smile on his face, Blake takes the call and excuses himself for several minutes, though he ultimately returns to help with the planning," the story by Jon Rosen said.
Each player and some members of the organization get to spend a full day with the Stanley Cup. Determining how the trophy gets to and from these locations is the job of the Kings' business operations department.
The trek started in California after the Game 5 win against the New York Rangers, stopped in Las Vegas for the NHL Awards and in Philadelphia for the NHL Draft.
It will travel the Eastern part of North American for a while, including a lengthy stay in Ontario, home to several Kings players, including Jeff Carter and Drew Doughty.
It also has dates overseas in Sweden, Finland, Russia, Slovakia and Slovenia.
"Winning for the first time in 2012 helped everyone with the Kings envision what was to come this time around, including the scheduling of the Cup, which is like a full-time job itself due to all the requests and what we have to do," Jeff Moeller, the Kings senior director of communications and content told the website. "Hockey is also the only sport that does this. Our colleagues with baseball and basketball don't deal with this, and we did our best to talk to other NHL teams such as Boston, Chicago and Pittsburgh.
"In 2014 we were not starting from scratch and that experience is invaluable."
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