When the hundreds of white balloons were released at 6:45 p.m. Saturday at the end of Ottawa's Sparks Street pedestrian mall, watched by local minor hockey players and the parents, grandparents, fans, dignitaries and the curious who had gathered, a glittering stainless steel monument to the Stanley Cup was exposed to glisten with a sparkle, wet in the floodlights.
From an idea that took shape in 2009 to the monument's unveiling Saturday, Lord Stanley of Preston's 1892 gift to Canada, and by extension to hockey and the NHL, is celebrated with a magnificent monument in downtown Ottawa, the original home of the most famous trophy in the game.
Supporters of the project include the NHL, the Government of Canada, the Ottawa Senators and the city of Ottawa itself, who all were represented at the unveiling. This monument, the idea of late hockey historian Paul Kitchen and pushed along by George Hunter, president of Lord Stanley's Memorial Monument Inc., a not-for-profit group that brought the project to fruition, celebrates the Stanley Cup just down the road from Canada's Parliament Buildings.