LOOK: Lightning's Steven Stamkos doesn't touch Prince of Wales Trophy
After the Lightning won the Eastern Conference Final, captain Steven Stamkos refused to touch the Prince of Wales Trophy.
By
Chris Peters
•
1 min read
The Tampa Bay Lightning, thanks to a 2-0 win over the New York Rangers in Game 7, are Eastern Conference Champions. For surviving Eastern Conference Final, the Lightning were awarded the Prince of Wales Trophy.
Captain Steven Stamkos was called to accept the trophy from NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly. As is often the case, Stamkos came nowhere near touching the trophy. Some players are superstitious about picking up the conference finals trophy, feeling that they shouldn’t touch a trophy that isn’t the Stanley Cup.
Stamkos made sure to keep a very safe distance to avoid even an accidental grazing of the title. After the pictures were taken, Stamkos skated back to his teammates and Daly began the lonely walk back to the underbelly of Madison Square Garden. The Prince of Wales Trophy just sat there all by itself.
As far as I can tell, the last team to touch either of the conference trophies was the 2010 Philadelphia Flyers, who lost to the Chicago Blackhawks in six games in the Stanley Cup Final that year.
Sidney Crosby famously picked up the Prince of Wales Trophy in 2009 after the Pittsburgh Penguins were crowned Eastern Conference champs. They ended up winning the Stanley Cup that same year. The season ebfore, when Crosby and the Penguins won the East in 2008, Crosby didn't touch it and the Pens lost in the Cup Final.
So yes, you can win if you touch the Prince of Wales Trophy or its Western counterpart, the Clarence Campbell Bowl. It really only matters if you think it does. It matters to a lot of hockey players, apparently.
The Prince of Wales Trophy just wants to be held and loved and appreciated. Hockey players' superstitions just won't let that happen. Poor Prince of Wales Trophy.
