WashingtonPost- It was June 9, 2018, just two days after Washington won a franchise-first championship. It was also the day of another first, when a tradition of using the 126-year-old trophy for keg stands — or Cup stands — was born.
“[Keg stands] haven’t really been that popular in the hockey world, I guess,” said Philip Pritchard, who has been taking care of the Stanley Cup for the past 30 years. Pritchard repeatedly praised how the Capitals have reverently handled the Cup, but he said he has been “advising” them to quit the Cup stands for fear of damage. Still, there were at least two instances as recently as forward Chandler Stephenson’s day with it Aug. 24 and former assistant coach Lane Lambert’s on Aug. 26. “We ask them politely not to do it,” Pritchard said. “We’re trying to preserve the history of the Stanley Cup. We don’t want any unnecessary damage to it or a person, in case they drop the person or he presses too hard or something.” --------- You know, as disappointed as I am by the shooting-star-in-the-glossy-and-dilated-pupil-of-Alexander-Ovechkin-esque lifespan of Stanley Cup keg stands, I think I am okay with it being something that OD'd with the sobriety of the team that officially fathered it. Though the practice itself might be responsible for a few, there's no paternity test necessary to know for certain that the Washington Capitals brought the upside-down chugging out of championship trophies into this world, so it's only right they be the ones that lay it to rest for good. After all, we aren't just talking about the greatest trophy in all of sports. We are also talking about the trophy that has undoubtedly seem the most shit in sports. To be able to give it a new experience after all these summers alongside the most drunken of degenerates at their most delightfully debaucherous is damn near impossible. I don't know how it took until now for pro hockey players to go heels-over-head in guzzling out of something with a wide base that basically begs to be used for support in a frat-boyish-style of binge drinking, but the battered, beaten, and eternally bound boys who eventually did definitely earned their due. Now, I don't exactly think that polite suggestions are going to be the death of Cup stands, but if Philip Pritchard gets a little stricter in keeping Lord Stanley's chalice safe from the body weight of boozehounds then they will have lived a short, but full life while keeping the most deserving of company. If nothing else, the unforgettable celebration of the Capitals first title makes quite the fitting finale.
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