Keeper of the Cup

Keeper of the Cup says Capitals ignored precedent after winning championship in Vegas: ‘You don’t celebrate in visitors’ towns’

NBC Sports Washington published an insightful interview on the Capitals’ four-year Cupiversary on Tuesday.

Speaking with Philip Pritchard, the Keeper of the Cup went behind the scenes of how the Capitals celebrated its first championship in the hours immediately after winning.

According to Pritchard, the Capitals did something that prior teams did not do: celebrate in the visitor’s city. The Caps won the Stanley Cup at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

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By Ian Oland 1 year ago

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The NHL put The Child in the Stanley Cup

Steven Stamkos. Andrei Vasilevskiy. Victor Hedman. Nikita Kucherov. Jeff Halpern. These are just a few of the famous names that have celebrated with the Stanley Cup this fall.

Now you can add one more big name to that list, Grogu.

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By Ian Oland 3 years ago

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It’s been real, Phil. Here are the Keeper of the Cup’s best moments with the Washington Capitals.

Phil Pritchard stumbled into the job of being the Stanley Cup Trophy’s Keeper over 30 years ago. Now, he travels with it as it crisscrosses the globe, hammers out its dents, and–his favorite part of the job–carries it down the red carpet after the Stanley Cup Final is over to present it to its next team.

During his time with the Capitals, Phil didn’t always fade unobtrusively into Stanley’s shadow. Instead, he joined them in the spotlight (and one of their music videos), adding a broad smile and appreciative attitude to their celebrations.

The Stanley Cup is now in Boston and on Wednesday night, Phil and his friend Stan will be walking down another red carpet to hand Stan over to the 2019 Stanley Cup Champions. Before that happens, let’s take a look at the best of Phil Pritchard’s time with the Caps and the Cup.

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By Brennin Weiswerda 4 years ago

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A conversation with Mike Bolt, one of the Keepers of the Stanley Cup

RAYBURN HOUSE OFFICE BUILDING — Last Wednesday, the Stanley Cup made its last known public visit in Washington, DC to celebrate the Capitals’ Stanley Cup championship in June.

That morning, Eleanor Holmes Norton, DC’s non-voting Democratic representative in the House and a member of the Congressional Hockey Caucus, allowed fans, staffers, and Capitol police the opportunity to take photos with the NHL’s championship trophy in her office at the Rayburn House Building for a little over an hour.

Mike Bolt, one of the Keepers of the Stanley Cup, looked on from a leather couch, answering questions mostly pertaining to how intimate fans could get with the championship trophy in their photos.

“You can put your hand around it. Go ahead,” Bolt encouraged a nervous group.

“Can I lift it and hold it over my head?” one bold fan asked.

“You can when you win it,” Bolt retorted with a smile.

As fans filed in and out of the room, I chatted with the knowledgeable Hockey Hall of Fame employee for nearly 20 minutes. Bolt challenged my previous Cup superstition of not touching or taking a photo with the trophy until the Capitals won it all, citing a childhood photo of TJ Oshie when he was only 12. “Sure, that superstition is fun, but it’s not really a true thing because everywhere we go, somebody’s always touching it. You said you wouldn’t touch it, and that’s your own thing, but we’ve had other Capitals fans touch it over the years – even this year before they won.”

I learned in my conversation with Bolt that the Cup weighs 37.5 pounds. And that while Bolt had aspirations, like many young Canadian children, of winning the trophy as a player himself, he’s now had the opportunity to hold the Cup more than the game’s greatest players.

Funny how that all works out.

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By Ian Oland 5 years ago

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