Stanley Cup coming to Joplin!
It took 52 years to bring the Stanley Cup to Missouri and at the conclusion of the 2018-2019 NHL season, the St. Louis Blues of the National Hockey League did it.
On Friday, October 11 the Stanley Cup is coming to Joplin!
The NHL St. Louis Blues organization is providing the citizens of southwest Missouri what could be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be in the presence of the highest prize in North American hockey.
First awarded in 1893, it is the oldest existing trophy to be awarded to a professional sports franchise. The trophy was commissioned in 1892 as the Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup. Named after Lord Stanley of Preston, the Governor General of Canada who donated it as an award to Canada’s top-ranking amateur ice hockey club. It has been the championship trophy of the NHL since 1926.
The St. Louis Blues organization will showcase the Cup at the Tulsa Oilers season-opening game later that evening in Tulsa. The Oilers are an ECHL affiliate of the NHL’s St. Louis Blues.
The trophy will be on display on the 1st floor of City Hall from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 11. Guests should enter through the west door on the Joplin Avenue side of the building.
This event will accommodate as many people as possible to view the trophy in the two-hour time-frame. Guests may have their photo taken next to it, however, the trophy cannot be picked up or moved.
No players of the St. Louis Blues team are scheduled to attend.
Significant Season:
No team prior to the 2019 Blues had gone from last place in the NHL after its 30th game to winning the Cup in the same season, and St. Louis – after 37 games, or 45% of its regular-season schedule – was the worst of the worst. But the Blues cultivated a resilience that propelled them to an 11-game winning streak, to the most points in the league after January 1, and through a grueling playoff series, each tied after four games. In the games that followed, the Blues went 8-2, winning by a combined score of 30-16.
52 years to Victory – No NHL team has waited longer for its first title than the St. Louis Blues. The 35-inch tall, 34-pound silver chalice is etched with the names of select members of the team; forever preserved for their achievement.