Free the Stanley Cup

February 16, 2005 by · 5 Comments
Filed under: Sports 

There’s a movement afoot called “Free Stanley“.

The basic idea here is to free the Stanley Cup.  The Cup existed long before the NHL, and control was only given to the NHL in 1947.  The whole idea of the Stanley Cup was to be a challenge cup – for anyone to be able to challenge the current cup holder to gain control.

Now that the NHL season is dead, I agree that the Stanley Cup should be awarded to SOMEBODY.  The Free Stanley site lists a bunch of leagues (college and minor-league pro) that should be considered for a challenge.

It might work like this:  The winners of the Canada University Hockey Championship, the Allen Cup (senior league), the AHL, the ECHL, and perhaps the NCAA would play in a tournament to award the cup.

Currently, Free Stanley is primarily a Canadian phenomenon, but I think it should be more of a North American phenomenon.

See the site linked above and contact the Hockey Hall of Fame at info@hhof.com.

(Hat Tip:  A Small Victory)

Update:  My letter to the Hockey Hall of Fame:

Dear Board of Trustees:

I would like to recommend that you award the Stanley Cup to a team identified by a playoffs between several leagues who are playing this year, rather than leave it unawarded.  While the NHL players and owners are selfishly fighting for money rather than goals, hockey lives on in other leagues.
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I would suggest that a Stanley Cup Tournament be held between several of the following North American league’s champions:
AHL
ECHL
NCAA
Canada University Hockey Champion
Allen Cup champion
Memorial Cup champion
UHL
CHL

The teams would be seeded and then play a standard single-elimination tournament to determine the winner.

The Stanley Cup should be engraved this year – regardless of what the NHL does.

Mark Smith
Hamilton, NJ USA
ECHL Trenton Titans season ticket holder

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RIP, NHL 2004-2005 Season

February 16, 2005 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Sports 

Today, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman announced that the entire 2004-2005 season has been cancelled.  This the first time since the league was established that the championship was cancelled with the exception of 1919 (when an influenza epidemic ended the season).

The NHL locked out the players after the players announced a strike against the league before the season started in September.  The league has pushed for a salary cap from the beginning – the players have resisted any salary cap.

I put the entire blame on the players.  There is no reason for someone who plays hockey to make multi-millions per year to play what is at best the lowest rung major league sport in North America.  The inflated salaries have priced the game out of the reach of most fans.  The owners have to raise ticket prices in order to cover these exorbitant salaries.
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In Philadelphia, the most expensive seats cost $85 each!  The LEAST expensive cost $23 each!  Contrast that with the NY Yankees, who only charge $12 per tickets for the cheapest seats.

While I’ll miss the season (and I already have missed it from October until now), it’ll only affect my TV viewing as I really can’t afford to go to many NHL games.  I’ll be watching my ECHL Trenton Titans where the entire 36-game season costs no more than $27 per game (including parking), and the cheapest seats are $10.50 for adults and $8.50 for children (who are $8.50 for all seats but the two rows next to the glass).  The caliber of ECHL play has been above par this year, as the lack of injury callups has kept the AHL and ECHL rosters full of high quality players (who would normally move up due to NHL injuries).  In fact, I’ll be at tonight’s game in Trenton!

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