Stanley Cup ready for busy summer after Capitals win first championship

LAS VEGAS -- Like countless others in this town's casinos and on the Strip, for which neon surely was invented, the Stanley Cup went sleepless Thursday night toward the burnished dawn of Friday.
Here's hoping that it would sleep off its hangover Friday on the Washington Capitals' morning charter flight back east, because Lord Stanley's priceless trophy won't have an instant to catch its breath until further notice.

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History was made Thursday at T-Mobile Arena when the Capitals won the first championship in their history with a 4-3 victory against the first-year Vegas Golden Knights, who remarkably were Stanley Cup finalists while still wet behind the ears.

Hockey Hall of Fame curator Phil Pritchard, the so-called "Keeper of the Cup," and Craig Campbell, his Hall of Fame wingman, followed the Capitals from the T-Mobile ice and the dressing room back to the team's hotel for a party of players and their families. The Cup then headed out to the popular MGM Grand nightclub Hakkasan, with captain Alex Ovechkin casually strolling through the hotel lobby carrying the trophy like it was a silver suitcase, to continue festivities there until nearly 4:30 a.m.
Pritchard said early Friday morning that as far as he knew, the Cup finally found its way back to the Capitals hotel. Ovechkin had asked that the Conn Smythe Trophy be at the team's hotel gathering of family and friends, but it didn't make the trip to Hakkasan.

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Both trophies were headed back to Washington on Friday morning regardless of the Game 5 result, either for Game 6, which was scheduled for Sunday, or for the tumultuous welcome and parade that awaits it now. There's some talk that given the global makeup of this team, the Cup might make a few stops in the days ahead at various embassies in the national's capital.
"It's special, this is another chapter," Pritchard said as the Cup and the Conn Smythe Trophy cooled their sterling silver heels in their travel cases during Game 5. "If Washington wins tonight, you'll have the whole story of their Russian captain (Ovechkin), and of a team that literally is worldwide: Sweden, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Australia. Fans have been very supportive of the Capitals since they came into the League [in 1974-75], so I can't even imagine what it could be like in Washington if the Capitals take the Cup home as champions."
We're about to find out.

Wearing white gloves, Pritchard and Campbell, the Hall of Fame's Resource Center manager, have together been carrying the Stanley Cup onto the ice since 1998 for presentation to the winning captain by Commissioner Gary Bettman. Thursday was the 25th time that Commissioner Bettman has presented the Cup and the Conn Smythe Trophy, the latter awarded to the player voted by the media as the most valuable to his team in the playoffs.
This marked the third consecutive year that the trophies have been handed to the same man, Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby having preceded Ovechkin with Conn Smythe victories in 2016 and 2017. Since 1993, when he was four months into office, Commissioner Bettman has presented the Stanley Cup to 14 different champions in 20 different cities.

The historic trophy, 125 years old this year, and the Conn Smythe, a relative whippersnapper at 53, made their way from their splashy Strip hotel to T-Mobile Arena during the sun-scorched mid-afternoon on Thursday, ready for their big moment or to stay largely crated for at least another couple of days.
"We left our hotel around 3:30 p.m. and came here by the back roads," Pritchard said. "In Vegas, you wouldn't think there are back roads, but the guys in hotels know to get in and out."
He and Campbell were met in the arena loading dock, moving as inconspicuously as you can when you're rolling two large, airline-stickered crates whose contents are known to most anyone in the game.
"We're always conscious of players warming up with a soccer ball, so we went in a secret way," Pritchard said. "They know we'll be in the arena when the Cup can be won. The fans know; everyone knows. We did a thing with 'Hockey Night in Canada' on their set and some fortunate Capitals and Vegas fans who were there had their photos taken."
After a photo call with an NHL corporate partner, the Cup and the Conn Smythe sat in their cases in the League's ice-level communications office until early in the second period. Then they were wheeled through the arena's corridors to the dressing room of the on-ice officials; the Cup was placed on an NHL-crested table in front of a Stanley Cup Final backdrop.
Backup referee Chris Rooney and linesman Greg Devorski were delighted to seize the opportunity and be photographed with the trophy in what has become a dressing-room tradition, both pressing it overhead for the cameras of Pritchard and Campbell.

Rooney eagerly FaceTimed with his 8-year-old twin sons, Cole and Logan, his phone aimed at the shiny Cup as he spoke. But with all due respect, the trophy could have been a construction pylon to the boys, whose sole focus was on their father getting them souvenir pucks.
The night's on-ice crew -- referees Wes McCauley and Marc Joannette and linesmen Jonny Murray and Matt MacPherson -- arrived at the end of the second period. They posed for a group shot.
"They're as loyal to the game as anyone," Pritchard said of the officials. "It's great spending an intermission with those guys."

The Capitals' victory was historic for more than being their first championship. In late September or early October, after the Cup has spent the summer with players and others with the organization, the Capitals will be the first team to have names tapped into a new sterling band by veteran "engraver" Louise St. Jacques in Montreal.
That's because the trophy's five bands are now completely full. Coming off the Cup will be the top band, which will be retired to public display in the vault of the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto. Many of the NHL's Original Six teams and greatest stars will be removed to make way for a new band at the bottom; current bands two, three, four and five each will slide up one position to make room.

Champions from 1953-54 to 1964-65 will be retired, the names of Gordie Howe, Maurice Richard, Ted Lindsay, Bobby Hull, Glenn Hall and others coming off the barrel of the trophy, as will the Montreal Canadiens' unprecedented run of five consecutive titles from 1956-60. The band coming off will be the third to be retired, the 1927-40 and 1941-53 champions previously having been removed.
"The great part of the Stanley Cup is its evolution," Pritchard said. "The removal of the bands is unique and it's special and it's unlike any other sport. We're removing a band with some important names on it, but it's going to make way for some more Important names. Even with evolution, the Cup's tradition and aura remain."
Then, with a laugh, as he prepared to head out into an endless night:
"If we look this good when we're 125 years old," he said, "we'll be doing OK."