WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.319 Welcome to this custom -tailored deep dive designed 00:00:02.319 --> 00:00:04.940 specifically for you. Thanks for having me. Yeah, 00:00:04.960 --> 00:00:06.940 we know you love gaining knowledge quickly, but 00:00:06.940 --> 00:00:09.939 thoroughly. And you appreciate getting multiple 00:00:09.939 --> 00:00:12.439 perspectives without feeling totally overwhelmed 00:00:12.439 --> 00:00:15.000 by a sheer avalanche of information. Right, which 00:00:15.000 --> 00:00:17.160 is easy to happen with a topic like this. Exactly. 00:00:17.929 --> 00:00:20.750 So today we have a really fantastic mission. 00:00:20.910 --> 00:00:24.370 We are looking at a truly massive piece of documentation. 00:00:24.969 --> 00:00:28.769 Wikipedia's incredibly comprehensive list of 00:00:28.769 --> 00:00:31.870 Stanley Cup champions. It's a phenomenal record 00:00:31.870 --> 00:00:33.990 to sift through, honestly. And we are going to 00:00:33.990 --> 00:00:36.509 distill it down to its most fascinating elements 00:00:36.509 --> 00:00:39.729 because it's a lot. Most people look at the Stanley 00:00:39.729 --> 00:00:42.130 Cup and just see this legendary polished prize. 00:00:42.429 --> 00:00:45.409 But when you actually dig into the history. The 00:00:45.409 --> 00:00:47.850 journey of how it got into the hands of those 00:00:47.850 --> 00:00:51.350 champions is so much more complicated. And frankly, 00:00:51.450 --> 00:00:54.030 much stranger than anyone realizing. Oh, absolutely 00:00:54.030 --> 00:00:56.590 wild. Our goal for today's deep dive is to map 00:00:56.590 --> 00:00:59.969 the chaotic, surprising, and just wild evolution 00:00:59.969 --> 00:01:02.689 of North America's oldest professional sports 00:01:02.689 --> 00:01:05.129 trophy. It's a great journey to map out. Okay, 00:01:05.170 --> 00:01:07.890 let's unpack this. Because the shiny, pristine, 00:01:08.049 --> 00:01:11.349 heavily branded corporate NHL trophy that we 00:01:11.349 --> 00:01:14.519 all know today. It started out as a fiercely 00:01:14.519 --> 00:01:17.239 contested, strictly amateur challenge cup with 00:01:17.239 --> 00:01:20.319 almost zero consistent rules. That is the perfect 00:01:20.319 --> 00:01:22.959 way to describe it. If we wind the clock all 00:01:22.959 --> 00:01:26.019 the way back to 1892, the cup was donated by 00:01:26.019 --> 00:01:28.519 the governor general of Canada at the time, Lord 00:01:28.519 --> 00:01:31.239 Stanley of Preston. Right. But he didn't actually 00:01:31.239 --> 00:01:33.650 call it the Stanley Cup, did he? He didn't. He 00:01:33.650 --> 00:01:36.150 originally inscribed it as the Dominion Hockey 00:01:36.150 --> 00:01:38.870 Challenge Cup. And his intention was incredibly 00:01:38.870 --> 00:01:42.010 specific. It was meant strictly for amateur Canadian 00:01:42.010 --> 00:01:45.519 ice hockey clubs to compete for. Which... I mean, 00:01:45.540 --> 00:01:47.579 that sounds completely unrecognizable to a modern 00:01:47.579 --> 00:01:50.019 sports fan. Oh, entirely. Today, we are used 00:01:50.019 --> 00:01:53.340 to an exhausting 82 -game regular season, which 00:01:53.340 --> 00:01:56.239 is then followed by a grueling multi -round playoff 00:01:56.239 --> 00:01:58.900 bracket that takes months. Right, a massive television 00:01:58.900 --> 00:02:01.159 event. But back in the Challenge Cup era, which 00:02:01.159 --> 00:02:04.719 ran roughly from 1893 to 1914, there was no round 00:02:04.719 --> 00:02:07.219 -robin tournament to decide the champion, right? 00:02:07.359 --> 00:02:09.020 None at all. Champions back then were decided 00:02:09.020 --> 00:02:11.500 purely by challenge games. Just random challenges. 00:02:12.169 --> 00:02:14.909 Well, they had to be approved or sometimes explicitly 00:02:14.909 --> 00:02:17.689 ordered by the official Stanley Cup trustees. 00:02:18.349 --> 00:02:22.030 But it was highly informal. Wow. If a team in 00:02:22.030 --> 00:02:24.229 the same league as the current champion ended 00:02:24.229 --> 00:02:26.349 up winning their league title, they didn't even 00:02:26.349 --> 00:02:28.830 have to play a grand finale challenge game for 00:02:28.830 --> 00:02:30.889 the Cup. They just got it. They just inherited 00:02:30.889 --> 00:02:33.550 it. Whoever finished in first place after the 00:02:33.550 --> 00:02:36.150 regular season took the trophy. Playoffs were 00:02:36.150 --> 00:02:38.889 incredibly rare and really only happened if teams 00:02:38.889 --> 00:02:41.110 literally tied for first place in the standings. 00:02:41.449 --> 00:02:43.590 I just can't get over how loose the rules were. 00:02:44.189 --> 00:02:46.620 Challenge games could be played at almost any 00:02:46.620 --> 00:02:48.939 time during the hockey season. Yeah, it was chaos. 00:02:49.400 --> 00:02:51.879 It wasn't until about 1912 that the trustees 00:02:51.879 --> 00:02:54.120 finally stepped in and declared that the Cup 00:02:54.120 --> 00:02:56.240 could only be defended at the end of the champion 00:02:56.240 --> 00:02:58.960 team's regular season. And this lack of structure 00:02:58.960 --> 00:03:01.560 led to some of the most bizarre scenarios in 00:03:01.560 --> 00:03:04.539 sports history. Definitely. Take 1904, for example. 00:03:04.819 --> 00:03:07.280 We had the Ottawa Senators Club. Can you explain 00:03:07.280 --> 00:03:08.979 what happened there? Because it sounds like they 00:03:08.979 --> 00:03:11.020 just took their ball and went home. That is essentially 00:03:11.020 --> 00:03:13.780 what they did. At the time, the Ottawa Senators 00:03:13.780 --> 00:03:16.219 were part of the... Canadian Amateur Hockey League, 00:03:16.400 --> 00:03:20.319 often referred to as the CAHL. Okay. For various 00:03:20.319 --> 00:03:23.360 internal reasons, Ottawa decided they had enough 00:03:23.360 --> 00:03:26.219 and just withdrew from the league entirely in 00:03:26.219 --> 00:03:28.780 the middle of everything. Just up and quit. Up 00:03:28.780 --> 00:03:31.240 and quit. And under any logical assumption, you 00:03:31.240 --> 00:03:34.259 would think the Cup would stay with the CAHL 00:03:34.259 --> 00:03:36.659 to be awarded to their league champion. Right. 00:03:36.719 --> 00:03:39.400 You leave the league's trophy. You would think, 00:03:39.539 --> 00:03:42.659 but... The Stanley Cup trustees stepped in and 00:03:42.659 --> 00:03:45.020 ruled that the Cup stayed with Ottawa. That is 00:03:45.020 --> 00:03:48.460 wild. So for the bulk of 1904, the Ottawa Hockey 00:03:48.460 --> 00:03:50.840 Club wasn't actually affiliated with any league 00:03:50.840 --> 00:03:53.659 at all. They operated as completely independent, 00:03:53.979 --> 00:03:56.439 rogue cup holders. And they actually defended 00:03:56.439 --> 00:03:59.000 it, right. They successfully defended it in multiple 00:03:59.000 --> 00:04:02.120 challenge series. They beat the Toronto Marlboros 00:04:02.120 --> 00:04:05.080 2 -0 with a player named Arthur Moore scoring 00:04:05.080 --> 00:04:07.919 the winning goal. Wow. Then they beat a team 00:04:07.919 --> 00:04:10.639 called Brandon Wheat City where Frank McGee scored 00:04:10.639 --> 00:04:13.039 the clincher. They were just out there taking 00:04:13.039 --> 00:04:15.819 on all comers as an independent entity. It's 00:04:15.819 --> 00:04:18.160 like a local pickup team just hoarding a championship 00:04:18.160 --> 00:04:21.439 trophy. But my absolute favorite story from this 00:04:21.439 --> 00:04:25.620 early era is the famous midnight stoppage of 00:04:25.620 --> 00:04:28.699 1903. Oh, this one is classic. It sounds like 00:04:28.699 --> 00:04:31.279 something out of a cartoon. Right. It's Montreal 00:04:31.279 --> 00:04:33.980 playing the Winnipeg Victorious. It's January 00:04:33.980 --> 00:04:37.500 31st, a Saturday. Right. The game is fiercely 00:04:37.500 --> 00:04:40.079 contested. The players are exhausted and they 00:04:40.079 --> 00:04:42.819 are dead even at two goals apiece right as the 00:04:42.819 --> 00:04:45.740 clock strikes midnight. What happens next? the 00:04:45.740 --> 00:04:48.300 local government steps in. Wait, why? Yeah, because 00:04:48.300 --> 00:04:50.339 the clock struck midnight. It was technically 00:04:50.339 --> 00:04:53.060 Sunday. And the mayor of Westmount literally 00:04:53.060 --> 00:04:55.939 walked in and refused to let the game continue. 00:04:56.279 --> 00:04:58.500 The mayor just stopped a tied championship game 00:04:58.500 --> 00:04:59.680 in the middle of the night. Did they just call 00:04:59.680 --> 00:05:02.500 it a draw? He essentially invoked local Sabbath 00:05:02.500 --> 00:05:05.899 laws, which strictly prohibited public entertainments 00:05:05.899 --> 00:05:08.019 and sporting events on Sundays. Unbelievable. 00:05:08.019 --> 00:05:10.019 They couldn't just call it a draw for the Cup, 00:05:10.079 --> 00:05:12.120 so the game had to be completely voided, wiped 00:05:12.120 --> 00:05:14.220 from the record. So they had to start over. They 00:05:14.220 --> 00:05:16.899 forced everyone to come back and replay the entire 00:05:16.899 --> 00:05:20.540 game on Monday, February 2nd. Montreal eventually 00:05:20.540 --> 00:05:23.399 won that replayed game two to one with Tom Phillips 00:05:23.399 --> 00:05:25.740 scoring the deciding goal. Can you imagine a 00:05:25.740 --> 00:05:28.600 modern mayor walking into a packed arena today 00:05:28.600 --> 00:05:31.420 and pulling the plug on a championship game because 00:05:31.420 --> 00:05:33.800 that got too late? The fans would riot. It's 00:05:33.800 --> 00:05:36.459 completely unthinkable now. But what's fascinating 00:05:36.459 --> 00:05:39.759 here is how these quirky, hyper -local disputes 00:05:39.759 --> 00:05:42.959 and the sheer logistical nightmares they caused 00:05:42.959 --> 00:05:45.459 actually laid the groundwork for the heavily 00:05:45.459 --> 00:05:47.959 structured. corporate leagues we have today. 00:05:48.120 --> 00:05:50.379 That makes a lot of sense. The sport simply couldn't 00:05:50.379 --> 00:05:53.240 grow globally if a local mayor could just cancel 00:05:53.240 --> 00:05:55.759 a game on a whim, or if a team could just quit 00:05:55.759 --> 00:05:57.899 their league and walk away with the most prestigious 00:05:57.899 --> 00:06:00.899 trophy in the country. They needed formal organization. 00:06:01.379 --> 00:06:03.339 Logistical nightmares is definitely the right 00:06:03.339 --> 00:06:07.300 phrase, and that perfectly sets up the 1914 miscommunication 00:06:07.300 --> 00:06:10.350 involving the Victoria aristocrats. The paperwork 00:06:10.350 --> 00:06:12.790 disaster. This wasn't just administrative comedy. 00:06:12.910 --> 00:06:15.089 It was the growing pains of a sport getting too 00:06:15.089 --> 00:06:18.829 big for its own borders. Tell me about this giant 00:06:18.829 --> 00:06:21.970 administrative typo that nearly derailed the 00:06:21.970 --> 00:06:25.779 championship. It is a spectacular blunder. The 00:06:25.779 --> 00:06:28.120 Victoria Club, who played in the Pacific Coast 00:06:28.120 --> 00:06:31.480 Hockey Association, the PCHA, traveled all the 00:06:31.480 --> 00:06:33.680 way east to play the Toronto Hockey Club for 00:06:33.680 --> 00:06:35.759 the Cup. Which is a massive journey back then. 00:06:35.879 --> 00:06:38.560 A huge train ride. But right in the middle of 00:06:38.560 --> 00:06:41.220 the series, it comes to light that Victoria hadn't 00:06:41.220 --> 00:06:43.939 actually filed a formal challenge with the trustees. 00:06:44.379 --> 00:06:47.920 So on March 17th, a letter arrives from the Stanley 00:06:47.920 --> 00:06:55.540 Cup trustees basically stating, proper challenger 00:06:55.540 --> 00:06:59.079 because nobody formally notified us. Which must 00:06:59.079 --> 00:07:00.980 have been devastating for the players who traveled 00:07:00.980 --> 00:07:03.019 all that way. How does something like that even 00:07:03.019 --> 00:07:05.930 happen? It was a massive assumption by the executives. 00:07:06.250 --> 00:07:09.230 The PCHA president, Frank Patrick, never bothered 00:07:09.230 --> 00:07:11.069 to file the challenge because he just assumed 00:07:11.069 --> 00:07:13.629 that Emmett Quinn, who was the president of the 00:07:13.629 --> 00:07:16.990 rival National Hockey Association, the NHA, was 00:07:16.990 --> 00:07:19.170 handling all the paperwork in his role as a hockey 00:07:19.170 --> 00:07:21.069 commissioner. It's a classic case of, I thought 00:07:21.069 --> 00:07:23.449 you sent the email. Exactly. It was a total breakdown 00:07:23.449 --> 00:07:25.550 in communication. Fortunately, they eventually 00:07:25.550 --> 00:07:28.310 ironed it out. Okay, good. Trustee William Foran 00:07:28.310 --> 00:07:30.629 admitted it was a mutual misunderstanding the 00:07:30.629 --> 00:07:34.050 very next day and the challenge was a f***. But 00:07:34.050 --> 00:07:36.310 it didn't really help Victoria in the end, did 00:07:36.310 --> 00:07:38.769 it? Not at all. Toronto ended up sweeping Victoria 00:07:38.769 --> 00:07:41.649 three games to nothing anyway, with Harry Cameron 00:07:41.649 --> 00:07:43.829 scoring the deciding goal in the third period. 00:07:44.029 --> 00:07:46.790 All that paperwork drama just to get swept. Yeah. 00:07:47.009 --> 00:07:49.790 But that 1914 series feels like a massive turning 00:07:49.790 --> 00:07:52.129 point. It really was. It highlights that the 00:07:52.129 --> 00:07:54.810 old informal challenge system was becoming totally 00:07:54.810 --> 00:07:57.529 obsolete, which brings us into a whole new era. 00:07:58.060 --> 00:08:02.060 From roughly 1915 to 1926, where we see the rise 00:08:02.060 --> 00:08:05.160 of professionals, the impact of a pandemic, and 00:08:05.160 --> 00:08:07.699 the American invasion of a Canadian sport. A 00:08:07.699 --> 00:08:10.319 very busy decade. Because by 1908, professional 00:08:10.319 --> 00:08:12.160 players had completely taken over the Stanley 00:08:12.160 --> 00:08:14.720 Cup ride. Completely. The amateur roots that 00:08:14.720 --> 00:08:17.240 Lord Stanley originally envisioned were entirely 00:08:17.240 --> 00:08:19.939 gone. The game had changed. The professionals 00:08:19.939 --> 00:08:23.120 dominated the competition so thoroughly that 00:08:23.120 --> 00:08:25.720 a brand new trophy, the Allen Cup, had to be 00:08:25.720 --> 00:08:28.600 introduced in 1908 strictly for Canada's amateur 00:08:28.600 --> 00:08:30.939 teams, just so they had something to play for. 00:08:31.079 --> 00:08:34.379 By 1915, a few days after that messy Victoria 00:08:34.379 --> 00:08:37.440 -Toronto series we just talked about, the trustees 00:08:37.440 --> 00:08:40.779 realized they needed to modernize. Trustee William 00:08:40.779 --> 00:08:44.159 Foran formally wrote to the NHA president, officially 00:08:44.159 --> 00:08:46.500 agreeing that the representatives of the professional 00:08:46.500 --> 00:08:48.799 leagues could make all the arrangements for the 00:08:48.799 --> 00:08:51.500 Cup each season. And this became known as the 00:08:51.500 --> 00:08:54.320 Gentleman's Agreement? Correct. The two major 00:08:54.320 --> 00:08:57.399 leagues, the Eastern NHA and the Western PCHA, 00:08:57.460 --> 00:08:59.500 agreed that their respective champions would 00:08:59.500 --> 00:09:01.500 face each other in an annual series for the Cup. 00:09:02.360 --> 00:09:05.000 No more random challenges from independent teams. 00:09:05.220 --> 00:09:07.080 I love how they managed the logistics of that. 00:09:07.500 --> 00:09:10.179 They alternated hosting the finals between the 00:09:10.179 --> 00:09:12.580 East and the West each year. Yeah, a neat compromise. 00:09:12.980 --> 00:09:14.779 And because the leagues had slightly different 00:09:14.779 --> 00:09:17.399 rules, they actually alternated playing under 00:09:17.399 --> 00:09:20.320 NHA or PCHA rules from game to game. Could you 00:09:20.320 --> 00:09:22.679 imagine players adapting to different rules every 00:09:22.679 --> 00:09:26.039 other night? Not today, no. But the most significant 00:09:26.039 --> 00:09:27.960 shift during this era had to do with geography. 00:09:28.320 --> 00:09:30.620 For its entire early life, this was strictly 00:09:30.620 --> 00:09:33.700 a Canadian prize. But then the borders opened 00:09:33.700 --> 00:09:37.120 up. Right. In the summer of 1914, the new Westminster 00:09:37.120 --> 00:09:40.639 Royals, a Canadian team, relocated to Portland, 00:09:40.759 --> 00:09:43.139 Oregon and became the Portland Rosebuds. The 00:09:43.139 --> 00:09:45.899 first American chef. Exactly. They were an American 00:09:45.899 --> 00:09:48.340 -based team playing in a league competing for 00:09:48.340 --> 00:09:50.840 the Stanley Cup. The trustees actually had to 00:09:50.840 --> 00:09:53.200 issue a public statement clarifying that the 00:09:53.200 --> 00:09:55.740 Cup was no longer just for the best team in Canada. 00:09:55.919 --> 00:09:58.679 It was officially for the best team in the world. 00:09:58.860 --> 00:10:01.460 That is a huge philosophical shift for the trophy. 00:10:01.879 --> 00:10:04.360 The Rosebuds became the first American team to 00:10:04.360 --> 00:10:06.779 play in the final in 1916, though they ended 00:10:06.779 --> 00:10:08.519 up losing to the Montreal Canadiens. They got 00:10:08.519 --> 00:10:11.600 close. But it only took one more year. In 1917, 00:10:11.919 --> 00:10:14.340 the Seattle Metropolitans defeated those same 00:10:14.340 --> 00:10:17.179 Canadians three games to one, becoming the very 00:10:17.179 --> 00:10:20.379 first American team to win the Stanley Cup. Bertie 00:10:20.379 --> 00:10:22.179 Morris scored the winning goal in the first period 00:10:22.179 --> 00:10:24.600 of that deciding game. The sport was officially 00:10:24.600 --> 00:10:27.399 expanding. The North Americanization of the sport 00:10:27.399 --> 00:10:30.019 was in full swing. Right. But as hockey was pushing 00:10:30.019 --> 00:10:32.440 its boundaries, it ended up colliding directly 00:10:32.440 --> 00:10:35.480 with global history in a really tragic way. Let's 00:10:35.480 --> 00:10:38.840 slow down here, because 1919 is a profound moment 00:10:38.840 --> 00:10:41.179 in the historical record. It is. For the very 00:10:41.179 --> 00:10:43.379 first time since the Cup was donated decades 00:10:43.379 --> 00:10:46.879 earlier, it was not awarded at all. You had the 00:10:46.879 --> 00:10:49.200 Montreal Canadiens and the Seattle Metropolitans 00:10:49.200 --> 00:10:51.360 battling it out in the final. They were dead 00:10:51.360 --> 00:10:55.899 even. Two wins apiece plus one tie game. Right 00:10:55.899 --> 00:10:58.179 on the verge of a deciding match. But they never 00:10:58.179 --> 00:11:00.299 played it. They had to cancel the series entirely 00:11:00.299 --> 00:11:03.279 after the fifth game because of the Spanish influenza 00:11:03.279 --> 00:11:07.059 epidemic. The players were falling severely ill. 00:11:07.259 --> 00:11:09.779 It's terrible. If we connect this to the bigger 00:11:09.779 --> 00:11:12.659 picture, the history of the Stanley Cup is truly 00:11:12.659 --> 00:11:15.639 a mirror reflecting major historical world events. 00:11:15.879 --> 00:11:18.360 We often look at sports as a pristine escape 00:11:18.360 --> 00:11:21.779 from reality, a bubble where only the game matters. 00:11:21.840 --> 00:11:24.820 Yeah, an escape. But the players, the managers, 00:11:24.879 --> 00:11:27.480 and the leagues are still bound by the fragile 00:11:27.480 --> 00:11:30.279 human condition. It's a sobering reminder. The 00:11:30.279 --> 00:11:32.639 devastating global pandemic stopped the toughest 00:11:32.639 --> 00:11:35.299 sport in its tracks, leaving no champion for 00:11:35.299 --> 00:11:38.429 the year. Joe Hall, a legendary player for Montreal, 00:11:38.629 --> 00:11:41.509 actually passed away from the flu just days after 00:11:41.509 --> 00:11:43.330 the series was canceled. It was a huge loss. 00:11:43.629 --> 00:11:45.730 It really grounds all this sports trivia and 00:11:45.730 --> 00:11:48.370 real heavy human history. It absolutely does. 00:11:48.490 --> 00:11:51.009 The sport had to mourn and then slowly rebuild. 00:11:51.710 --> 00:11:54.649 As we move into the 1920s, the league formats 00:11:54.649 --> 00:11:56.990 kept shifting wildly as different organizations 00:11:56.990 --> 00:12:00.809 rose and fell. More growing pains. In 1922, a 00:12:00.809 --> 00:12:03.590 third major league entered the fray, the Western 00:12:03.590 --> 00:12:06.919 Canada Hockey League or the WCHL. Now you had 00:12:06.919 --> 00:12:09.820 three powerful leagues competing for one cup, 00:12:09.960 --> 00:12:12.559 which forced them to create a semi -final series 00:12:12.559 --> 00:12:15.480 where one team got a bye to the final. But that 00:12:15.480 --> 00:12:17.500 three -league system didn't last long at all. 00:12:17.620 --> 00:12:21.620 By 1924, the PCHA folded completely. They couldn't 00:12:21.620 --> 00:12:24.639 sustain it. And in 1925, the Victoria Cougars 00:12:24.639 --> 00:12:27.320 won the cup. Which is an incredibly significant 00:12:27.320 --> 00:12:29.919 piece of trivia for any sports fan to know. Very 00:12:29.919 --> 00:12:31.860 significant. The Victoria Cougars became the 00:12:31.860 --> 00:12:34.139 very last team outside of the NHL to win the 00:12:34.139 --> 00:12:36.299 Stanley Cup. Very last what? The following year 00:12:36.299 --> 00:12:39.980 for the 1925 -26 season, the WCHL was renamed 00:12:39.980 --> 00:12:42.879 the Western Hockey League, the WHL. The Victoria 00:12:42.879 --> 00:12:45.179 Cougars made it back to the final in 1926 to 00:12:45.179 --> 00:12:46.940 defend their title, but they lost to the Montreal 00:12:46.940 --> 00:12:49.639 Maroons. That tough loss. And that 1926 series 00:12:49.639 --> 00:12:52.500 marks the final time a non -NHL team ever competed 00:12:52.500 --> 00:12:54.669 for the Stanley Cup. Which seamlessly brings 00:12:54.669 --> 00:12:57.889 us to the modern structural era. The NHL monopoly 00:12:57.889 --> 00:13:01.830 and legal loopholes, running from 1927 all the 00:13:01.830 --> 00:13:04.870 way to the present day. When the WHL folded in 00:13:04.870 --> 00:13:08.110 1926, the NHL swooped in and acquired most of 00:13:08.110 --> 00:13:10.389 its remaining assets and player contracts. They 00:13:10.389 --> 00:13:12.649 bought up everything they could. Overnight, the 00:13:12.649 --> 00:13:15.110 NHL became the only league capable of competing 00:13:15.110 --> 00:13:17.529 for the Cup. Other smaller leagues occasionally 00:13:17.529 --> 00:13:20.250 issued challenges, but they were ignored. From 00:13:20.250 --> 00:13:23.740 1926 forward, the NHL locked it down. It became 00:13:23.740 --> 00:13:26.820 what we call a de facto monopoly. In practice, 00:13:26.940 --> 00:13:29.960 the NHL was the only game in town. But the NHL 00:13:29.960 --> 00:13:32.159 executives didn't just want a practical monopoly. 00:13:32.399 --> 00:13:34.779 They wanted legal certainty. They wanted it in 00:13:34.779 --> 00:13:38.019 writing. So in 1947, they made it a de jure reality, 00:13:38.179 --> 00:13:40.639 an official legal monopoly. The league signed 00:13:40.639 --> 00:13:42.879 a formal agreement with the Cup trustees at the 00:13:42.879 --> 00:13:45.559 time, P .D. Ross and Cooper Smeaton. Okay. This 00:13:45.559 --> 00:13:47.879 document officially granted the NHL control of 00:13:47.879 --> 00:13:51.019 the Cup, giving the league the explicit contractual 00:13:51.019 --> 00:13:53.879 power to reject challenges from any other leagues 00:13:53.879 --> 00:13:55.440 that might want to play for it. Here's where 00:13:55.440 --> 00:13:57.480 it gets really interesting, though, because that 00:13:57.480 --> 00:14:01.000 1947 agreement stood unchallenged for decades. 00:14:01.080 --> 00:14:03.799 A very long time. But fast forward almost 60 00:14:03.799 --> 00:14:07.519 years to 2006. An Ontario Superior Court case 00:14:07.519 --> 00:14:10.340 took a hard legal look at that 1947 agreement, 00:14:10.580 --> 00:14:13.220 and the court made a stunning decision. They 00:14:13.220 --> 00:14:15.240 found that the trustees had actually violated 00:14:15.240 --> 00:14:17.899 Lord Stanley's original conditions when they 00:14:17.899 --> 00:14:21.679 gave the NHL that exclusive power. How did this 00:14:21.679 --> 00:14:24.149 even end up in front of a judge? The catalyst 00:14:24.149 --> 00:14:28.610 was the 2004 -2005 NHL lockout. The league and 00:14:28.610 --> 00:14:30.350 the players union couldn't reach a collective 00:14:30.350 --> 00:14:32.669 bargaining agreement and the entire NHL season 00:14:32.669 --> 00:14:35.090 was canceled. Another year with no cup. Exactly. 00:14:35.370 --> 00:14:38.090 Fans were furious and amateur players started 00:14:38.090 --> 00:14:40.269 looking at the history books. A recreational 00:14:40.269 --> 00:14:43.049 hockey group basically said, wait a minute, if 00:14:43.049 --> 00:14:45.309 the NHL isn't playing, why can't we challenge 00:14:45.309 --> 00:14:47.169 for the cup like they did in the old days? I 00:14:47.169 --> 00:14:49.610 just love the audacity of that. It was brilliant. 00:14:49.710 --> 00:14:51.809 The legal argument they presented was that Lord 00:14:51.809 --> 00:14:54.080 Stanley donated the cup as a public challenge 00:14:54.080 --> 00:14:56.559 trophy for the best team in Canada and later 00:14:56.559 --> 00:14:59.679 the world. He did not donate it to be the proprietary 00:14:59.679 --> 00:15:02.240 corporate asset of a single commercial league. 00:15:02.399 --> 00:15:04.679 That makes total sense. So legally speaking, 00:15:04.919 --> 00:15:07.500 the NHL shouldn't have the right to hoard the 00:15:07.500 --> 00:15:09.620 trophy in a vault if they aren't actively using 00:15:09.620 --> 00:15:12.980 it. The irony is just dripping here. Because 00:15:12.980 --> 00:15:15.840 of a labor dispute, the cup wasn't awarded in 00:15:15.840 --> 00:15:18.679 2005. That was the only other time in history, 00:15:18.840 --> 00:15:21.899 besides the 1919 flu epidemic, that the trophy 00:15:21.899 --> 00:15:24.480 wasn't handed out. Quite the parallel. And because 00:15:24.480 --> 00:15:26.980 this recreational group pushed the issue in court, 00:15:27.139 --> 00:15:29.720 the NHL was forced to make a major concession. 00:15:29.980 --> 00:15:33.360 They have now legally agreed to allow other non 00:15:33.360 --> 00:15:36.080 -NHL teams to play for the Cup, but only under 00:15:36.080 --> 00:15:38.559 the specific condition that the NHL is not operating. 00:15:38.919 --> 00:15:41.600 It is a masterful legal compromise. The court 00:15:41.600 --> 00:15:43.799 acknowledged the amateur open challenge roots 00:15:43.799 --> 00:15:46.720 of Lord Stanley's original donation, but they 00:15:46.720 --> 00:15:49.960 also preserved the NHL's total dominance. As 00:15:49.960 --> 00:15:51.960 long as the NHL manages to keep their league 00:15:51.960 --> 00:15:54.860 functional and playing games, they hold the keys 00:15:54.860 --> 00:15:56.799 to the Cup. It's an incredible piece of legal 00:15:56.799 --> 00:15:58.919 trivia. Now, I want to shift gears and look at 00:15:58.919 --> 00:16:01.200 the sheer difficulty of winning this thing. When 00:16:01.200 --> 00:16:02.779 you look at the reigning giants of the Stanley 00:16:02.779 --> 00:16:05.419 Cup, one team towers above everyone else in historical 00:16:05.419 --> 00:16:08.159 data. the Montreal Canadiens. Oh, absolutely. 00:16:08.480 --> 00:16:10.379 Their dominance is hard to overstate. They have 00:16:10.379 --> 00:16:13.559 35 appearances in the final and 24 overall wins. 00:16:13.779 --> 00:16:16.779 Their legacy is staggering. It is a level of 00:16:16.779 --> 00:16:18.840 dominance that we will likely never see again 00:16:18.840 --> 00:16:21.100 in modern professional sports. Unlikely, yeah. 00:16:21.399 --> 00:16:23.980 To put it into perspective, the closest American 00:16:23.980 --> 00:16:27.240 team is the Detroit Red Wings, who lead all U 00:16:27.240 --> 00:16:30.299 .S. franchises with 24 appearances and 11 wins. 00:16:30.659 --> 00:16:33.860 The Toronto Maple Leafs also have a storied history 00:16:33.860 --> 00:16:37.370 with 13 wins, though... Their well -documented 00:16:37.370 --> 00:16:39.850 championship drought over the last several decades 00:16:39.850 --> 00:16:42.549 highlights just how hard it is to stay at the 00:16:42.549 --> 00:16:45.009 top. And the path to get to the final has evolved 00:16:45.009 --> 00:16:47.230 constantly. The physical toll on the players 00:16:47.230 --> 00:16:50.049 has only increased as the league expanded. Absolutely. 00:16:50.679 --> 00:16:54.820 If you look at the era from 1942 to 1967, the 00:16:54.820 --> 00:16:58.220 Cup was competed for by just six teams, affectionately 00:16:58.220 --> 00:17:00.840 known as the original six. The path to the Cup 00:17:00.840 --> 00:17:03.720 was intense and localized. Then came the massive 00:17:03.720 --> 00:17:06.779 1967 expansion, which doubled the size of the 00:17:06.779 --> 00:17:09.079 league and briefly pitted the East Division champion 00:17:09.079 --> 00:17:11.160 against the West Division champion. And from 00:17:11.160 --> 00:17:14.559 1982 to 2020, fans settled into the very familiar 00:17:14.559 --> 00:17:16.480 format of the Campbell or Western Conference 00:17:16.480 --> 00:17:19.140 champions facing the Wales or Eastern Conference 00:17:19.140 --> 00:17:22.119 champions. A very stable era. During that specific 00:17:22.119 --> 00:17:25.119 nearly 40 -year window, the Western champions 00:17:25.119 --> 00:17:28.019 actually had a slight edge, winning 20 of the 00:17:28.019 --> 00:17:31.730 38 series. But then global events forced another 00:17:31.730 --> 00:17:34.309 massive sudden shift in how the playoffs function. 00:17:34.490 --> 00:17:37.809 The COVID -19 pandemic. Right. In 2021, severe 00:17:37.809 --> 00:17:40.190 travel restrictions along the Canada -United 00:17:40.190 --> 00:17:43.130 States border forced the NHL to completely abandon 00:17:43.130 --> 00:17:45.650 their traditional conferences temporarily. They 00:17:45.650 --> 00:17:48.529 had to adapt on the fly. Another logistical hurdle. 00:17:48.650 --> 00:17:51.269 The league realigned into four strictly regional 00:17:51.269 --> 00:17:54.170 divisions and held a divisional -based playoff 00:17:54.170 --> 00:17:56.910 format to minimize travel. The four divisional 00:17:56.910 --> 00:17:58.890 playoff champions advanced to the semifinals. 00:17:58.920 --> 00:18:01.859 and the winners moved to the final, where the 00:18:01.859 --> 00:18:04.059 Tampa Bay Lightning ultimately defeated the Montreal 00:18:04.059 --> 00:18:06.720 Canadiens. It's a testament to how adaptable 00:18:06.720 --> 00:18:09.339 the league has to be to survive. Thankfully, 00:18:09.539 --> 00:18:11.200 the league returned to the traditional Eastern 00:18:11.200 --> 00:18:14.819 versus Western format in 2022. And bringing us 00:18:14.819 --> 00:18:17.099 right up to the modern era, the current champions 00:18:17.099 --> 00:18:19.160 at the time of this deep dive are the Florida 00:18:19.160 --> 00:18:21.740 Panthers. An amazing run for them. They pulled 00:18:21.740 --> 00:18:24.049 off an incredible feat. going back -to -back. 00:18:24.230 --> 00:18:27.009 They won the trophy in 2024 against the Edmonton 00:18:27.009 --> 00:18:30.509 Oilers and then repeated defeat in 2025, again 00:18:30.509 --> 00:18:33.210 defeating Edmonton. Winning back -to -back championships 00:18:33.210 --> 00:18:36.309 in the modern salary cap era is remarkably difficult. 00:18:36.609 --> 00:18:39.369 It really is. The physical grind of a grueling 00:18:39.369 --> 00:18:43.089 82 -game regular season, followed by four brutal 00:18:43.089 --> 00:18:46.089 rounds of playoff hockey, all while navigating 00:18:46.089 --> 00:18:49.470 a strict financial cap that prevents teams from 00:18:49.470 --> 00:18:52.240 just buying all the best players. It really highlights 00:18:52.240 --> 00:18:54.819 the monumental achievement of the Panthers organization. 00:18:55.359 --> 00:18:58.019 It is an incredibly exclusive club. And honestly, 00:18:58.180 --> 00:19:00.619 it makes you really feel for the franchises that 00:19:00.619 --> 00:19:02.460 have never tasted that glory. It's heartbreaking 00:19:02.460 --> 00:19:04.440 for some of those fan bases. The history books 00:19:04.440 --> 00:19:06.579 list a handful of teams that have never even 00:19:06.579 --> 00:19:09.319 made a single Stanley Cup final appearance. It 00:19:09.319 --> 00:19:11.420 puts into perspective just how brutal it is to 00:19:11.420 --> 00:19:13.900 survive the modern playoff bracket. You have 00:19:13.900 --> 00:19:16.259 the Columbus Blue Jackets, the Minnesota Wild, 00:19:16.420 --> 00:19:19.180 the Seattle Kraken, the newly minted Utah Mammoth, 00:19:19.200 --> 00:19:21.339 and the modern iteration of the... Winnipeg Jets. 00:19:21.380 --> 00:19:23.339 It's a tough road. For the millions of fans of 00:19:23.339 --> 00:19:25.960 those teams, the quest for Lord Stanley's Cup 00:19:25.960 --> 00:19:29.619 is still entirely aspirational. Every year is 00:19:29.619 --> 00:19:31.700 a new heartbreak. It really is. It's a testament 00:19:31.700 --> 00:19:34.319 to the parody of the modern league. Any team 00:19:34.319 --> 00:19:36.759 can theoretically win, but the sheer physical 00:19:36.759 --> 00:19:39.460 and mental toll the playoffs demand weeds out 00:19:39.460 --> 00:19:42.759 almost everyone. It is routinely called the hardest 00:19:42.759 --> 00:19:45.640 trophy to win in professional sports. And looking 00:19:45.640 --> 00:19:48.180 at the teams that have spent decades just trying 00:19:48.180 --> 00:19:51.039 to reach the final round, you can see why. So 00:19:51.039 --> 00:19:53.440 what does this all mean for you as someone absorbing 00:19:53.440 --> 00:19:56.279 this massive sweep of history? We've traced the 00:19:56.279 --> 00:19:58.640 journey of a donated silver bowl. An incredible 00:19:58.640 --> 00:20:02.220 journey. It started as a loosely regulated, highly 00:20:02.220 --> 00:20:05.220 localized amateur challenge cup, where a grumpy 00:20:05.220 --> 00:20:07.799 mayor could literally cancel a tied game at midnight. 00:20:08.269 --> 00:20:09.950 and a team could just walk away from their league 00:20:09.950 --> 00:20:12.630 and keep the prize. And through gentleman's agreements, 00:20:12.950 --> 00:20:15.309 global pandemics, league mergers, and literal 00:20:15.309 --> 00:20:17.950 court battles, it evolved. Completely transformed. 00:20:18.250 --> 00:20:20.809 It transformed into the most difficult -to -win, 00:20:20.950 --> 00:20:23.490 heavily structured corporate trophy in North 00:20:23.490 --> 00:20:26.990 American sports. It's a perfect reflection of 00:20:26.990 --> 00:20:29.569 how sports transition from simple community pastimes 00:20:29.569 --> 00:20:32.730 into massive global industries. This raises an 00:20:32.730 --> 00:20:34.430 important question though, a thought experiment 00:20:34.430 --> 00:20:37.069 for you to take away from this deep dive. Considering 00:20:37.069 --> 00:20:40.670 that 2006 Ontario court ruling, the one explicitly 00:20:40.670 --> 00:20:43.069 stating that Lord Stanley's Cup must legally 00:20:43.069 --> 00:20:46.150 be made available to non -NHL teams if the league 00:20:46.150 --> 00:20:48.900 ever stops operating, What would happen if the 00:20:48.900 --> 00:20:51.619 NHL vanished tomorrow? That's interesting. If 00:20:51.619 --> 00:20:54.500 another prolonged labor lockout or some unforeseen 00:20:54.500 --> 00:20:57.079 global event paused the league for a full season, 00:20:57.279 --> 00:21:00.099 who in your local community or what regional 00:21:00.099 --> 00:21:02.359 minor league would you rally together to issue 00:21:02.359 --> 00:21:04.980 a legal challenge? The right to fight for that 00:21:04.980 --> 00:21:07.119 historic silver bowl is technically still there, 00:21:07.259 --> 00:21:09.799 hidden away in the legal fine print, just waiting 00:21:09.799 --> 00:21:11.960 for a challenger brave enough to claim it. I 00:21:11.960 --> 00:21:13.640 absolutely love that idea. Just imagine a highly 00:21:13.640 --> 00:21:16.240 organized local beer league team hiring a sports 00:21:16.240 --> 00:21:18.859 lawyer to officially challenge for the Stanley 00:21:18.859 --> 00:21:21.400 Cup. It's the ultimate real -life underdog story 00:21:21.400 --> 00:21:23.779 just waiting for the right legal loophole to 00:21:23.779 --> 00:21:26.359 open up. Thank you so much for joining us on 00:21:26.359 --> 00:21:28.299 this custom -tailored deep dive. We hope you 00:21:28.299 --> 00:21:30.859 enjoyed exploring the bizarre, complicated, and 00:21:30.859 --> 00:21:33.640 amazing history of the Stanley Cup. Keep exploring, 00:21:33.779 --> 00:21:35.160 and as always, stay curious.