The Stanley Cup has taken another hit — this time, courtesy of the Florida Panthers. Fresh off clinching their second consecutive NHL championship with a Game 6 win over the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday night, the Panthers wasted no time diving into celebration mode. But in true hockey fashion, the 131-year-old trophy emerged from the festivities a little worse for wear.
According to a spokesperson from the Hockey Hall of Fame, the iconic trophy suffered a crack in the bowl and a dent in its base during the postgame and Wednesday festivities, which spilled from the locker room to the iconic Elbo Room on Fort Lauderdale Beach.
The damage isn’t shocking. The Cup, made of silver and nickel alloy and weighing 37 pounds, is relatively malleable — and famously battle-tested. Over the decades, it has been dented, dropped, kissed, swam with, and even accidentally left behind at parties. It has survived champagne showers, cross-country flights, and even a few plunges into swimming pools and oceans.
This latest round of damage is just another chapter in the Cup’s storied (and often chaotic) post-championship travels. In just the last few years, the Tampa Bay Lightning dented it during their 2021 boat parade, and the Colorado Avalanche managed to put a dent in it on the ice the night they won in 2022.
The “Keepers of the Cup,” the caretakers from the Hockey Hall of Fame entrusted with the trophy’s condition and transport, are already on the case. They plan to have the Cup fully repaired and gleaming again in time for the Panthers’ official championship parade scheduled for Sunday.
Despite the dings, the team — and its fans — wouldn’t have it any other way.
“The Cup’s been through worse,” one team staffer joked. “But it’s part of the charm — every dent tells a story.”
For the Panthers, the story is especially sweet: two Cups in two years, and a team that’s not just building a legacy, but living one — bumps, bruises, and all.
