The Lightning celebrated their Stanley Cup win in Tampa on Monday with yet another boat parade.
After the celebration, a picture surfaced of Pat Maroon holding the Cup, and the top portion of the trophy had a substantial dent:
The @StanleyCup did sustain some damage during today’s festivities. It’ll be sent to Montreal for repairs and be back to resume Cup celebration with @TBLightning next weekend pic.twitter.com/MEbZGZFxSD
— Joe Smith (@JoeSmithTB) July 12, 2021
The Cup, day-to-day with an upper-body injury, will be repaired in the next couple of days.
Social media was on fire after the picture started making the rounds, with a number of fans outraged over the incident. After perusing the replies to the various tweets of the pictures, most of the examples of replies have language that I'm not allowed to embed here. But you get the idea:
Such disrespect
— Ethan Greenberg (@TheEman22) July 12, 2021
Most people, I think, are aware of some of the things the Cup has been through over the years. Some of the examples:
- One Ottawa player in 1905 punted the Cup (it was smaller, then) into a canal and it wasn't recovered until the following day.
- The 1906 Montreal Wanderers lost the Cup for several weeks when they left it behind at a photographer's studio. When they went back to get it, it had been turned into a flower pot.
- The 1924 Canadiens pulled over on the side of the road to fix a flat tire and accidentally forgot the Cup on the side of the road when they left.
- Management from the 1940 Rangers burned Madison Square Garden's mortgage in the Cup. Players peed on the fire to put it out.
- The Cup sustained significant damages in 1962 when the Leafs dropped it in a bonfire.
- In 1964, Red Kelly's infant son peed in it.
- In 1987, Mark Messier took the Cup out to a club, and it had numerous damages by the end of the night. He got it fixed at an auto repair shop.
- There are several instances of the Cup -- which isn't airtight -- getting waterlogged in a pool and sinking. It's been at the bottom of the pools of Mario Lemieiux, Patrick Roy, and Dominik Hasek, at least. Guy Carbonneau threw the Cup from the top of a roof into a pool, and the Cup was dented by the pool's wall on the way in.
- Kris Draper's kid pooped in it in 1998.
- In 2008 the Cup was dented when it was pushed off of a table at Chris Chelios' restaurant.
- It's not clear how it happened, but the Capitals somehow dented the Cup in 2018.
Putting the Cup through the wringer during the ensuing celebrations is a steady tradition that spans over a century.
The Lightning are hardly the first team to put the Cup on IR, and they definitely won't the last. It'll continue to be as good as new by the time it gets presented to the next team. Personally, I think all the stories of crazy things that the Cup has been through just makes it that much more cool.
YOUR TURN: What do you think of the Lightning's mark on the Cup?