A Century Later For The Stanley Cup

It was 100 years ago, on March 26, 1917, that the Seattle Metropolitans won the Stanley Cup over the Montreal Canadiens in sold out Seattle Arena in front of 3,500 fans becoming the first American hockey team to win the championship.

Prior to the first game Canadiens coach George Kennedy said “I do not expect my men to have their feet tonight. Seattle may win tonight, but after that, I shall be greatly surprised if my men do not make a clean sweep of it.” In turns out he was correct but had the teams backwards, the Canadiens won the first game but Seattle then swept the next 3 games to win the Stanley Cup Finals 3-1.

The Metropolitans made it to the Stanly Cup Finals three times in 1916-17, 1918-19 and 1919-20, winning in 1916-17 and tying in 1918-19 with the Montreal Canadians. The Stanley Cup in 1918-19 was suspended with Seattle and Montreal tied 2-2-1 due to the Spanish Flu outbreak.

That 1916-17 team included three future Hockey Hall of Famers; Frank Foyston, Hap Holmes and Jack Walker in addition to Jim Riley (the only athlete to play in the NHL and MLB) and believe it or not there are a couple of cards depicting Seattle players though they came out many years later. In 1983, and then again in 1987, Cartophilium released a set of Hall of Fame cards and these sets included both Foyston and Walker in Seattle jersey. There are cards dating back to the tobacco era that include players who at one time had played in Seattle but none of them depict the player in the Metropolitans jersey.

Congratulations To The Chicago Blackhawks, The 2013 NHL Stanley Cup Champions

What a game in Boston tonight, Chicago comes in up 3-2 in the Stanley Cup Finals and it could have gone either way. The score was tied 1-1 at the beginning of the 3^rd Period before Boston’s Mila Lucic puts the Bruins ahead with 8 minutes left. Less than 1:30 left in the game and it appeared that the series would go 7 games before Chicago’s Bryan Bickell ties up the score with 1:16 left in the game. But Chicago was not done, 17 seconds later Chicago’s Dave Bolland puts in another goal with just 58 seconds remaining putting the game in hand and earning Chicago the win and the Stanley Cup.

 

This is Chicago’s second Stanley Cup win in 4 years and with most of the pivotal players under 30 years old, only Hossa (34), Sharp (31), Odya (31) and Rozsival (34) are over, the Blackhawks have the pieces in place to make additional runs at the trophy.

Chance At A Sweet Pull From Dominion Hockey

Following the a Stanly Cup Finals, players from the winning team are each issued an authentic miniature replica Lord Stanley Cup for their own personal collection. These trophies are an exact duplicate of the official Cup but are only 13” tall and are inscribed with the team name, year and each player’s name.

Over the years a handful of the official miniature cups have shown up for sale, though it is more common to find replicas which normally run $15-50 depending on the team and year. I have seen a couple of the replicas that were autographed running around $250 each. But the official player’s trophy cups, when they show up for sale, can run in to the thousands. Doing a quick search I found a 78-79 Montreal Canadiens Cup, which sold in 2003, for $2,700 and a 74-75 Philadelphia Flyers Cup currently selling for $12,000.

Panini has added a sweet redemption to their 2010-11 Dominion Hockey set, which sells for $350/8-card pack. They have added redemption for an authentic 78-79 Montreal Canadiens’ Cup from an unnamed player. On the Knights Lance blog Tracy says that the trophy cup was picked up at auction earlier this year for $4,000 and their will only be a single redemption card available. This would definitely make any collector’s dream pull.