As you may recall, Dmitry Orlov nearly missed his day with the Stanley Cup this summer after the famous trophy missed its flight from Moscow to Novokuznetsk. Today on Instagram, Orlov shared a video produced by Russian TV host Stanislav Yarushin, which gave an overview of that day’s events.
The video features an interview with the Caps defenseman, in which Orlov explains how the disaster was narrowly averted, and how it felt getting up close and personal with the Cup and over 6,000 of his closest friends.
Video
Stanislav Yarushin: “What happened with the Stanley Cup?”
Dmitry Orlov: “Actually, the Cup just wasn’t loaded onto the plane in Moscow. So we were trying to figure things out, we were looking for the Cup, and we called Aeroflot. It was a pretty, well, nerve-wracking time.
“So we found out that the Cup had been left in Moscow; we called and confirmed that. So we started thinking about how to bring it here to my hometown.”
Stanislav Yarushin: “Did you panic?”
Dmitry Orlov: “Probably for a minute at the beginning, yeah. But then I sat down, thought about it, we talked about what our options were. Then we started calling around. Thankfully everything worked out. We sent the Cup to Novosibirsk on another flight, and our good friends helped us organize, to find a helicopter. The helicopter flew to Novosibirsk, the guy picked up the Cup, and flew it back to Novokuznetsk.
“The Cup was supposed to be there at 8:00 AM, but it only arrived at 5:30 PM. I tried to get them to let me keep it until the next day, but they prohibited me from doing that because the schedule had been planned out for all the players, and it would have been hard to change all the flights.
“So we had the Cup for nine hours. I think that was probably the shortest period of time that anyone had the Cup in a single city.”
Orlov goes on to describe some of the more emotional moments of his (abbreviated) day with the Stanley Cup.
Dmitry Orlov: “I was really touched when the people with disabilities were brought out, and one guy ended up on the square all alone. My father-in-law saw him, they found my brother and he helped bring him up. …
“I got down when I saw him and took a picture with him. I gave him the Cup to hold, and he started to cry. And I… I was deeply touched by that. We took a photo and I was fighting back a stream of tears. …
“It seems to me that it’s for moments like that that it’s good that we win. We bring joy to people, and that means a lot.”
The crush and stress of the day almost, but not quite, eclipsed Orlov’s own private moment with the Stanley Cup.
Stanislav Yarushin: “Did it ever hit you that you had the Stanley Cup [right there]?”
Dmitry Orlov: “Yeah. I think I probably caught myself thinking about it toward the end of the day when everything was wrapping up. My friends there were telling me, “you should at least hug it or kiss it.” And I realized that I did all this for the Cup, walked around, gave it to other people to take photographs with or to touch or run their fingers over it. So I hugged it, I closed my eyes, and thought to myself, ‘now that’s bliss.’ That’s what we play for.”
