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Stanley Cup-Beginning

The Stanley Cup, originally a decorative bowl purchased from a London silversmith, was donated in 1892 by Lord Stanley, the Governor General of Canada. It was the trophy given to the top amateur hockey team in Canada. Lord Stanley made several preliminary regulations regarding the Stanley Cup:

The Cup also acted as the league championship of the league that the champion belonged in.
The Cup was not the property of any given team at any given time. The Cup trustees have the final say on disputes should there be any on who the Cup holder should be. Challengers for the Cup must have won their league championship. The challenge games (where the Cup could change leagues) were to be decided either in one game affair, a two-game total goals affair, or a best of three series, to the benefit of both teams involved. All matches would take place on the home ice of the champions, although specific dates and times would have to be approved by the trustees. Ticket receipts from the challenge games were to be split equally between both teams. A league may not challenge for the Cup twice in one season. The Cup champions have the responsibility to return the Cup in good condition when required by the trustees. The Cup champions could add a silver ring to the Cup to commemorate their Cup victory.

The Cup was originally presented in 1893 to the Montreal AAA, the champion of the Amateur Hockey Association, the top hockey league of Canada at the time. Unlike today's playoff series the champion of the Cup was open for "challenges". This was where any team could challenge the Cup holder to a series in an attempt to win the Cup. This sometimes made for more than one Cup holder in any one year and also led to some lopsided scores in championship games.

Stanley Cup Competing Leagues

When someone mentions the Stanley Cup, we immediately associate it with the National Hockey League (NHL). Since the Cup was first put up in 1893 the following leagues have competed for possession of it. This listing includes both the amateur and professional league that have challenged for the cup.

AHA -- Amateur Hockey Association (1893-1898)
CAHL -- Canadian Amateur Hockey League (1899-1905)
FAHL -- Federal Amateur Hockey League (1904-1906)
ECAHL -- Eastern Canada Amateur Hockey League (1906)
ECAHA -- Eastern Canada Amateur Hockey Association (1907-1909)
MPHL -- Manitoba Professional Hockey League (1907-1909)
APHL -- Alberta Professional Hockey League (1907-1908)
OPHL -- Ontario Professional Hockey League (1907-1911)
NHA -- National Hockey Association (1910-1917)
PCHA -- Pacific Coast Hockey Association (1911-1924)
MPHL -- Maritime Professional Hockey League (1912-1914)
NHL -- National Hockey League (1917-Current)
WCHL -- Western Canada Hockey League (1921-1925)
WHL -- Western Hockey League (1925-26)

Stanley Cup-The Amateur Years

The first Stanley Cup playoff game occurred on March 17, 1894, and the first game where the Cup was on the line occurred on March 22, 1894.. That year saw four teams out of the five-team AHA tied for the championship with records of 5-3-0. This created problems for the AHA governors and the league trustees as to which team was champion, as there were no tie breaking system in place. After long negotiation and the withdrawal of Quebec from the championship situation, it was decided that a three-team tournament would take place in Montreal, with the Ottawa team getting a bye to the finals (being the sole "road" team). The first Stanley Cup Final game saw the Montreal AAA successfully defending their title with a 3-1 win.

The next year saw the first challenge for the cup, by Queen's University. On March 8, 1895 the Montreal Victorias won the Amateur Hockey Association title, and thus the Stanley Cup. The challenge match, which had been scheduled for the next day, was to be between the previous year's champion (Montreal AAA) and the university squad. It was decided by the Stanley Cup trustees that the Montreal AAA would represent the Amateur Hockey Association in the challenge match. If Montreal won the Cup would be presented to the Montreal Victorias as the league champion. Queens University would have retained the Cup if they would have won. Monttreal defeated Queens 5-1 and the Montreal Victorias wre awarded the Stanley Cup. (oh for the good old days of winning the Cup without having to play a series in June)

The first successful challenge was made the next year by the Winnipeg Victorias, champions of the Manitoba Hockey League. On February 14, 1896, the Winnipeg squad defeated the champions 2-0, becoming the first team from outside of the AHA to win the Cup. Their cup reign was brief, though: the Montreal Victorias, upon winning the AHA championship, demanded a rematch for the Cup. In what was said to be the most anticipated hockey game of the time, the Montreal Victorias defeated the Winnipeg Victorias 6-5 on December 30, 1896.

The first best-of-three challenge was originally scheduled in 1897 between the AHA champion Montreal Victorias against the Central Canada Hockey Association champion Ottawa Capitals. However, the series was ended after the first game, after the Victorias clearly had the upper hand in a 14-2 victory. It would be until 1899 that the first true best-of-three challenge series was played (although the Winnipeg Victorias forfeited the second game - and the championship - after a controversial referee call), and 1900 that the first best-of-three challenge went the distance.

1899 also saw the Cup being defended by two different teams in the same year, as the Montreal Victorias and new league champions Montreal Shamrocks defended the Cup against the Winnipeg Victorias and Queen's University, respectively.

The challenge series of January 1902 saw the first series where the Canadian Amateur Hockey League (formerly the AHA) was not involved.

The 1903 challenge series was the first to have a game replayed. On January 31, the clock struck midnight as the second game of the series remained tied 2-2 following 27 minutes of overtime between the Winnipeg Victorias and Montreal AAA. Because of the Sabbath, the game was replayed on February 2, with Winnipeg winning 4-2 to even the series. A month later, the AAA would finish third in the CAHL standings with the top two teams tied in the standings, and thus the Stanley Cup champions was determined from a two-game totals affair between the Montreal Victorias and the Ottawa Silver Seven. The Silver Seven, upon winning the title, were then forced to defend their championship two days later in a challenge series against the Rat Portage Thistles, a series that the Ottawa easily won.

On January 30, 1904, a league game between the Silver Seven and the Montreal Victorias started late and both teams agreed to end the game at midnight, with the Silver Seven leading 4-1. The CAHL ordered instead the game to be replayed instead of aborted, and the ensuing debate caused the Silver Seven withdrawing from the CAHL. The CAHL hoped that, now without Ottawa, the Cup would remain with the CAHL and become the property of its Quebec team, while the Cup trustees thought otherwise. For a while, the Silver Seven were not affiliated with any league, but in 1905, they would join the rival Federal Amateur Hockey League. That year saw the Dawson City Nuggets in one of the more legendary Stanley Cup challenge series - partly because of the 4000-mile journey from the Yukon to the Nation's Capital, and partly because how the Nuggets, tired from the long trip and arriving in Ottawa only a day before the game, were outplayed in the series. The second game of this series set many Stanley Cup records that were unmatched to this date, when Frank McGee scored 14 goals in a 23-2 rout, the largest margin of victory for any challenge game or Stanley Cup Final game to date.

Stanley Cup-The Amateur Winners

1906-07	Kenora Thistles (March 18)	Tommy Phillips
1906-07	Kenora Thistles (January)	Tommy Phillips
1905-06	Montreal Wanderers (March)	Cecil Blachford
1905-06	Ottawa Silver Seven (Febuary)	A.T. Smith
1904-05	Ottawa Silver Seven	A.T. Smith
1903-04	Ottawa Silver Seven	A. T. Smith
1902-03	Ottawa Silver Seven (March)	A. T. Smith
1902-03	Montreal AAA (Febuary)	C. McKerrow
1901-02	Montreal A.A.A. (March)	C. McKerrow
1901-02	Winnipeg Victorias (January)
1900-01	Winnipeg Victorias	D.H. Bain
1899-00	Montreal Shamrocks	H.J. Trihey
1898-99	Montreal Shamrocks (March)	H.J. Trihey
1898-99	Montreal Victorias (Febuary)	Mike Grant
1897-98	Montreal Victorias	F. Richardson
1896-97	Montreal Victorias	Mike Grant
1895-96	Montreal Victorias (December)	Mike Grant
1895-96	Winnipeg Victorias (Febuary)	J.C. G. Armytage
1894-95	Montreal Victorias	Mike Grant
1893-94	Montreal AAA	.
1892-93	Montreal AAA

Stanley Cup-Professional Years

Many of the "amateur leagues" were quietly paying top players under the table.The rising tide of professional teams led to the Stanley Cup being opened to professional teams in 1906. The Montreal Wanderers were the first officially-sanctioned professional team to win the Cup. The Allan Cup championship was launched in 1908 as Canada’s new amateur team trophy.

In 1910 the Stanley Cup trustees awarded the Cup to the National Hockey Association winners.

1906 saw the creation of the Eastern Canada Amateur Hockey Association and, in December of that year, the first professional players to play for (and win) the Stanley Cup. Until 1910, when Cup trustees declared that only players who played in their league's regular season were eligible to play for the Cup, it was commonplace for both champion and challenger in the challenge series to bring in professional ringers to play the challenge games. 1908 saw the first all-professional team, the Toronto Trolley Leaguers, compete for the Stanley Cup. By then, the Allan Cup replaced the Stanley Cup as the trophy for Canada's amateurs, and the Stanley Cup became a symbol of professional hockey supremacy.

The 1909 saw the departure of the Montreal AAA and the Montreal Victorias, the two remaining amateur teams, from the ECAHA, and thus the ECAHA dropped the "Amateur" from their name, becoming an all-pro league. The following year saw the Canadian Hockey Association (formerly the ECHA) kicking out the Montreal Wanderers as well as the Ottawa Senators (formerly the Silver Seven) leaving the CHA in mid-season after a challenge series for the newly-formed National Hockey Association. With two strong teams in the NHA, the NHA soon proved to be unquestionably the top league in Canada.

Prior to 1912, challenges could take place at any time, given the appropriate rink conditions, and it was common for teams to defend the Cup numerous times in the year. In 1912, Cup trustees declared that the Cup was only to be defended at the end of the champion team's regular season.

In 1914, the Victoria Aristocrats from the Pacific Coast Hockey Association informally "challenged" the Cup champion Toronto Blueshirts to a series of exhibition series. This would set up an agreement between the NHA and the PCHA a year later where their respective champions would face each other for the Cup, an agreement that, by large, lasted until 1926. The Stanley Cup Final series would alternate between the east and the west each year, while the differing rule sets of the NHA and PCHA would alternate each game. The Vancouver Millionaires would win the first "formal" final, three games to zero in a best-of-five series.

1916 saw the first American team, the Portland Rosebuds, in either league, as well as the first American team in the Stanley Cup Final. The following year saw the first American team (the Seattle Metropolitans) to host (and win) the Cup. 1918 saw the dissolution of the NHA and the formation of the National Hockey League in its place. The Stanley Cup finals format remained largely unchanged until 1922, with the creation of the Western Canada Hockey League, where two of the league champions would face each other for the right to face the third champion. In 1924, because of a dispute on whether to send one or both of the western champions east, the PCHL's Vancouver Maroons and the WCHA's Calgary Tigers played in a series on the way east to determine who would get the free pass to the Finals and who would face the Montreal Maroons in the semifinal bout.

1925 saw the merger of the PCHA and the WCHL to form the Western Hockey League, and its demise a year later meant that the NHL got exclusive control of the Stanley Cup.

The Cup has been awarded every year since 1893, except for 1919 for a flu epidemic and 2005 due a labor disruption. The Montreal Canadiens have won the most Stanley Cups, 24. The Toronto Maple Leafs come in second with 13 Cup wins. The highest-ranking American team is the Detroit Red Wings with 10 wins.

There are actually two Stanley Cups; the original, which is presented to the winning team, and a duplicate which is displayed in the Hockey Hall of Fame and is also used for promotions. It currently stands at 880 mm (35 1/4 inches) tall and weighs almost 14.6 kilograms (32 lb). To have one's name inscribed on the Stanley Cup, a player must have played at least 41 games for the team during the regular season (provided the player remains with the team when they win the Cup) or a game of the Finals, although the NHL will also permit other reasons on a case-by-case basis.

A unique feature of the Stanley Cup is the fact that, with few exceptions in the past, the Stanley Cup is the only trophy in professional sports that has the name of every member of the winning team engraved upon it. This has not always been the case - one of Lord Stanley's original conditions said that each team could, at their own expense, add a ring on the Cup to commemorate their Cup victory (the first year being an exception). Initially, there was only one ring, the one added by the Montreal AAA. Teams would engrave their names on that one ring until it was full in 1902, and with no room to engrave their names (perhaps unwilling to pay for a second band to the Cup), teams left their mark on the bowl itself, starting with the 1903 Montreal AAA and continuing to 1908. In particular, the 1907 Montreal Wanderers recorded their names inside the bowl's interior.

In 1908, for reasons unknown, the Wanderers, despite having turned aside four challengers, did not record their names on the Cup. The next year saw the Ottawa Senators add a new band onto the Cup. Despite the new room on the Cup, the 1910 Wanderers and the 1911 Senators, for reasons unknown, did not put their names on the Cup. The new band would eventually be filled by the Vancouver Millionaires, who, although they did not properly win the Cup (which by then was a formal championship game akin to the World Series), they did win the league championship of the previous champion's league. It has also been noted that two other teams were on the Cup due to the "league championship" clause from 1915 to 1918, although they did not officially win the Cup.

It was a mystery why no further engraving occurred until 1924, when the Canadiens added a new band on the Cup. However, since then, the engraving of the team and its players have been an annual tradition that has not been broken. In particular, a new band was added each year until the Cup was redesigned in 1948, causing the Cup to balloon in size from 16 inches (400 mm) tall in 1909 to almost three feet (900 mm) in height in 1940. The Cup was redesigned in 1948 as a two-piece cigar-shaped trophy with a removable bowl and collar. This Cup also properly honored those teams that did not engrave their names on the Cup themselves.

The modern one-piece Cup design was introduced in 1958 with the replacement of the old barrel with a five-band barrel (each of which could contain 13 winning teams). Although the bands were originally designed to fill up during the Cup's centennial year, the names of the 1965 Montreal Canadiens were engraved over a larger area than allotted (and thus there are 12 teams on that band instead of 13). The bands were finally filled up in 1991 when a decision was made to preserve the top band of the large barrel in the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, Ontario and introduce a new blank band at the bottom so that the size of the Stanley Cup would not grow further. In 2004, a second band replacement was needed. It is also to be noted that since 1958, the Cup underwent several minor alterations, namely the retirement of the collar in 1963 and the bowl in 1969 in favor of duplicate ones due to the originals being too brittle.

Stanley Cup-The Professional Winners

Stanley Cup Winners after formation of NHL in  1917
Year	Winning Team/Coach	Losing Team/Coach	Result
2004	Tampa Bay/John Tortorella	Calgary/Darryl Sutter	4-3
2003	New Jersey/Pat Burns	Anaheim/Mike Babcock	4-3
2002	Detroit/Scotty Bowman	Carolina/Paul Maurice	4-1
2001	Colorado/Bob Hartley	New Jersey/Larry Robinson	4-3
2000	New Jersey/Robinson	Dallas/Ken Hitchcock	4-2
1999	Dallas/Ken Hitchcock	Buffalo/ Lindy Ruff	4-2
1998	Detroit/Scotty Bowman	Washington/Ron Wilson	4-0
1997	Detroit/Scotty Bowman	Philadelphia/Terry Murray	4-0
1996	Colorado/Marc Crawford	Florida/Doug MacLean	4-0
1995	New Jersey/Jacques Lemaire	Detroit/Scotty Bowman	4-0
1994	NY Rangers/Mike Keenan	Vancouver/Pat Quinn	4-3
1993	Montreal/Jacques Demers	Los  Angeles/Barry Melrose	4-1
1992	Pittsburgh/Scotty Bowman	Chicago/Mike Keenan	4-0
1991	Pittsburgh/Bob Johnson	Minnesota/Bob Gainey	4-2
1990	Edmonton/John Muckler	Boston/Mike Milbury	4-1
1989	Calgary/Terry Crisp	Montreal/Pat Burns	4-2
1988	Edmonton/Glen Sather	Boston/Terry O'Reilly	4-0
1987	Edmonton/Glen Sather	Philadelphia/Mike Keenan	4-3
1986	Montreal/Jean Perron	Calgary/Bob Johnson	4-1
1985	Edmonton/Glen Sather	Philadelphia/Mike Keenan	4-1
1984	Edmonton/Glen Sather	NY Islanders/Al Arbour	4-1
1983	NY Islanders/Al Arbour	Edmonton/Glen Sather	4-0
1982	NY Islanders/Al Arbour	Vancouver/Roger Neilson	4-0
1981	NY Islanders/Al Arbour	Minnesota/Glen Somner	4-1
1980	NY Islanders/Al Arbour	Philadelphia/Pat Quinn	4-2
1979	Montreal/Scotty Bowman	NY Rangers/Fred Shero	4-1
1978	Montreal/Scotty Bowman	Boston/Don Cherry	4-2
1977	Montreal/Scotty Bowman	Boston/Don Cherry	4-0
1976	Montreal/Scotty Bowman	Philadelphia/Fred Shero	4-0
1975	Philadelphia/Fred Shero	Buffalo/Floyd Smith	4-2
1974	Philadelphia/Fred Shero	Boston/Bep Guidolin	4-2
1973	Montreal/Scotty Bowman	Chicago/Billy Reay	4-2
1972	Boston/Tom Johnson	NY Rangers/Emile Francis	4-2
1971	Montreal/Al MacNeil	Chicago/Billy Reay	4-2
1970	Boston/Harry Sinden	St.  Louis/Scotty Bowman	4-0
1969	Montreal/Claude Ruel	St.  Louis/Scotty Bowman	4-0
1968	Montreal/Toe Blake	St.  Louis/Scotty Bowman	4-0
1967	Toronto/Punch Imlach	Montreal/Toe Blake	4-2
1966	Montreal/Toe Blake	Detroit/Sid Abel	4-2
1965	Montreal/Toe Blake	Chicago/Billy Reay	4-3
1964	Toronto/Punch Imlach	Detroit/Sid Abel	4-3
1963	Toronto/Punch Imlach	Detroit/Sid Abel	4-1
1962	Toronto/Punch Imlach	Chicago/Rudy Pilous	4-2
1961	Chicago/Rudy Pilous	Detroit/Sid Abel	4-2
1960	Montreal/Toe Blake	Toronto/Punch Imlach	4-0
1959	Montreal/Toe Blake	Toronto/Punch Imlach	4-1
1958	Montreal/Toe Blake	Boston/Milt Schmidt	4-2
1957	Montreal/Toe Blake	Boston/Milt Schmidt	4-1
1956	Montreal/Toe Blake	Detroit/Jimmy Skinner	4-1
1955	Detroit/Jimmy Skinner	Montreal/Dick Irvin	4-3
1954	Detroit/Tommy Ivan	Montreal/Dick Irvin	4-3
1953	Montreal/Dick Irvin	Boston/Lynn Patrick	4-1
1952	Detroit/Tommy Ivan	Montreal/Dick Irvin	4-0
1951	Toronto/Joe Primeau	Montreal/Dick Irvin	4-1
1950	Detroit/Tommy Ivan	NY Rangers/Lynn Patrick	4-3
1949	Toronto/Hap Day	Detroit/Tommy Ivan	4-0
1948	Toronto/Hap Day	Detroit/Tommy Ivan	4-0
1947	Toronto/Hap Day	Montreal/Dick Irvin	4-2
1946	Montreal/Dick Irvin	Boston/Dit Clapper	4-1
1945	Toronto/Hap Day	Detroit/Jack Adams	4-3
1944	Montreal/Dick Irvin	Chicago/Paul Thompson	4-0
1943	Detroit/Jack Adams	Boston/Art Ross	4-0
1942	Toronto/Hap Day	Detroit/Jack Adams	4-3
1941	Boston/Cooney Weiland	Detroit/Ebbie Goodfellow	4-0
1940	NY Rangers/Frank Boucher	Toronto/Dick Irvin	4-2
1939	Boston/Art Ross	Toronto/Dick Irvin	4-1
1938	Chicago/Bill Stewart	Toronto/Dick Irvin	3-1
1937	Detroit/Jack Adams	NY Rangers/Lester Patrick	3-2
1936	Detroit/Jack Adams	Toronto/Dick Irvin	3-1
1935	Montreal*/Tom Gorman	Toronto/Dick Irvin	3-0
1934	Chicago/Tom Gorman	Detroit/Herbie Lewis	3-1
1933	NY Rangers/Lester Patrick	Toronto/Dick Irvin	3-1
1932	Toronto/Dick Irvin	NY Rangers/Lester Patrick	3-0
1931	Montreal/Cecil Hart	Chicago/Dick Irvin	3-1
1930	Montreal/Cecil Hart	Boston/Art Ross	2-0
1929	Boston/Cy Denneny	NY Rangers/Lester Patrick	2-0
1928	NY Rangers/Lester Patrick	Montreal*/Eddie Gerard	3-2
1927	Ottawa/Dave Gill	Boston/Art Ross	2-0-2
1926	Montreal*/Eddie Gerard	Victoria/Lester Patrick	3-1
1925	Victoria/Lester Patrick	Montreal/Leo Dandurand	3-1
1924	Montreal/Leo Dandurand	Calgary Tigers/Eddie Oatman	2-0
		Vancouver Maroons/Lloyd Cook, Frank Patrick	2-0
1923	Ottawa/Pete Green	Edmonton Eskimos/Ken McKenzie	2-0
		Vancouver Maroons/Frank Patrick, Lloyd Cook	3-1
1922	Toronto/George O'Donahue	Vancouver Millionaires**/Frank Patrick, Lloyd Cook	3-2
1921	Ottawa/Pete Green	Vancouver Millionaires **/Frank Patrick, Lloyd Cook	3-2
1920	Ottawa/Pete Green	Seattle/Pete Muldoon	3-2
1918	Toronto/Dick Carroll	Vancouver Millionaires**/Frank Patrick	3-2
1916-17	Seattle Metropolitans	Pete Muldoon
1915-16	Montreal Canadiens	George Kennedy
1914-15	Vancouver Millionaires	Frank Patrick
1913-14	Toronto Blueshirts	Scotty Davidson*
1912-13	Quebec Bulldogs	Joe Malone*
1911-12	Quebec Bulldogs	C. Nolan
1910-11	Ottawa Senators	Bruce Stuart*
1909-10	Montreal Wanderers	Pud Glass*
1908-09	Ottawa Senators	Bruce Stuart*
1907-08	Montreal Wanderers	Cecil Blachford
1906-07	Montreal Wanderers (March25)	Cecil Blachford
*Montreal Maroons (NHL folded in 1938) **Vancouver Millionaires (folded along with PCHA in 1925) Note: There was no Stanley Cup champion in 1919. The series between Montreal and Seattle was cancelled due to an influenza epidemic.