Can any sports championship really compete with the Stanley Cup? What do you love about the cup?
10 Mar, 2010 in SportsThe intensity of competition, the post series hand shake, every member of the organization skating around with the cup, the team picture. I’m ready to get cup crazy folks. What do you love about the cup? Or better yet, what is so great about other sports championships that can possibly compete with the cup.
Let’s face it: the World Series trophy (and the so-called "balanced" playoffs that precede the awarding of said trophy) just doesn’t emote "sex appeal". There are no cool stories about it (if you want to count how Bud Selig’s hairpiece rested upon it back in 1994, or the time Bowie Kuhn almost dropped it…yearly). You don’t see the baseball players run down the third base line with it held high in the air.
The NBA Championship trophy isn’t all that special, either. The only similarity between that and the Stanley Cup? Both are delivered by impish men (at least one who didn’t alienate his fanbase, but that’s for another time).
The Vince Lombardi trophy? Other than being little more than a crystal prize for the team with the best video crew…er, the team that won the Super Bowl, there isn’t an interesting backstory behind it.
Ladies and gentlemen, that is why for then, for now, and forevermore, the Stanley Cup is not only the greatest prize in all of team sports, the games leading to the awarding of it are the most grueling.
The Stanley Cup is the greatest prize in all sports!!!! I love watching the Red Wings hoist it.
To answer the question stated, the World Cup draws more viewers, its more popular. the Stanley Cup is by far the most watched tournament in N.America, no doubt about that.
The World Cup is all over the world. But anyway,
I love the teams in the Stanley Cup. Those 16 teams deserve to be there. They worked hard for 82 hard games and even more practices. In the end, the team that wins deserves it.
As long as Detriot don’t get it this season, I don’t really mind who gets it. The Sabres aren’t going to win it, but I don’t care.
nothing can compete with the Stanley Cup. It has a lot of history behind it and is a lot more meaningful to the players who have won it than athletes who have won the super bowl, world series, etc. The Stanley Cup is best championship ever!
Nothing compares to the cup. Nothing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yjC5l4GO54
Just to be devil’s advocate I’ll say March Madness is very impressive. Sixty five teams start out with high hopes but only one can emerge the winner over three short weeks.
Hockey wise it’s obviously harder for a player to win the Memorial Cup than it is the Stanley Dup. With the Memorial your team has to be better than 59 other teams and you only have a few seasons to get there. During the 2007 Stanley Cup playoffs Aleksey Morozov complained he was just too tired to play well. Then when the Pens got eliminated he played brilliantly in the IIHF World Championships on behalf of his country. Therefore I think it’s fair to say that even in the Stanley Cup playoffs there are players who are not %100 motivated. That being said I still enjoy the Stanley Cup the best of all sports tournaments.
Michinoku2001
You bring up an interesting point. Just after Christmas, Andy Murray stated that if the Blues do not make the playoffs, any Blues player who is asked to play in the World Championships, must attend.
"If a player is "too tired" to play in the World Championships, obviously they would have been too tired to compete in the Stanley Cup playoffs, and maybe a career in the NHL isn’t for them"