Devante Smith-Pelly appeared on TSN’s Cabbie Presents Podcast and gave a full breakdown of the Stanley Cup Championship party.
Smith-Pelly is a personal friend of Cabbie, so the interview was very relaxed as he chatted about the monitoring of cell phones, how Jakub Vrana needed to chill out with his instagram stories during the Cup run, and his own plans for his Cup day. You’re going to want to take a listen below, but first, let us highlight some of the best parts of Smith-Pelly detailing the Cup celebration.
After the win, the team does their on-ice interviews and everyone gets their chance to skate a lap lifting the Cup above their head. The players reunite with their families and take a bunch of pictures.
Directly After the Cup Win
Once family photos are complete, the team, with their friends and family, enters a room and it’s time for drinks. A TON of drinks. Smith-Pelly says, “[The team] went into the room, we…like destroyed it.” He wore the Stanley Cup Champions tee shirt during the champagne drinking. Sadly, the tee shirt “got destroyed by alcohol. We had one [tee shirt] that we got and then we had like an extra, but they both just got like soaked. So, I don’t know if I have one really anymore. It’s gone.”
Cup Win Reception
Families and friends went back to the Mandarin Oriental hotel where the team had a reception to celebrate the win. By the time the team arrived back at the hotel for the reception, they were already ready to go out. “[the team] went back for a little reception, but I mean, we were ready to go. So it was kind of like ‘Hey mom, hey dad. Bro? what’s up, great….we gotta go we gotta bust.'” Smith-Pelly mentioned that the team probably stayed at the reception for maybe 30 minutes.
The Big Night Out
Hakkasan was the next destination for the team. Players had the opportunity to change and nobody wore their jerseys. “We did not need it, that’s for sure. Everyone was well aware what was happening. Everyone knew what was going on.” The team positioned themselves in four booths right behind the DJ, Tiesto. If you were curious when the team arrived, so was Smith-Pelly. “I honestly couldn’t even tell you. I want to say around midnight maybe?” When did they leave? “Four hours later maybe?” “We enjoyed when Tiesto came on to start and then after that, I wasn’t paying attention to him.” Did he have any regrets about the night? “I wish I had a Go-Pro on so I could relive everything and maybe remember some stuff.”
Before the BIG Night Out
Of course, all the content during the celebration was fantastic. One of the reasons why Smith-Pelly might have been a tad more inebriated than he had anticipated…he didn’t eat before the partying really began. “I had a slice of pizza because I knew I had to, but other than that I don’t think I ate” he said.
Plane Ride Home
“I think everyone didn’t really sleep the night before so….there was storytelling [on the plane] but then everyone slept because we knew that once we got back…we were gonna go again. The smart thing to do is to get, like, four and a half hours of sleep. We landed and met again.”
Georgetown Waterfront Day and Night
The players went home to shower and change. Then, there was a bus to pick up the players to take them to their next destination. The Georgetown waterfront. “We went to a place called St. Yves, I think that night? It’s a club. That was the St. Yves night. The whole team was out that night, just the guys. We had another good night.”
Baseball Game
“The first one…I mean, I think you can see the view behind we’re all behind like ‘Oh god, that was bad’. The second one was a lot better.”
This entire experience was Devante Smith-Pelly’s first time partying in Las Vegas. “I don’t think I’m gonna go back,” he said. After a celebration like this? I don’t blame him.
Smith-Pelly will have his day with the Stanley Cup this Monday, August 6th in Toronto. Smith-Pelly mentions that he’s hoping to possibly have the Cup involved with OVO Fest that will be happening at the same time.
