The Boffey Silversmith Company of Montreal, Canada has a very important job every year.
Since 1980, an employee at Boffey Silversmith has had the unique responsibility of engraving the names of NHL champions right onto the holy grail of hockey, Lord’s Stanley Cup.
[singlepic id=1034 w=320 h=240 float=right]
[singlepic id=1035 w=320 h=240 float=right]
It was first awarded to the last team standing following the NHL playoffs in 1893.
But it wasn’t until the 1920s that the names of the players from each winning team were engraved on the cup.
Ever since the engravings began, multiple “rings” have been added to the Stanley Cup in order to fit more names.
The Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, Canada is the proud owner of Lord Stanley’s vault, the home of the original “cup” of the Stanley Cup.
An article on the Hockey Hall of Fame website said that rings are periodically retired in order to make room for new rings.
The Stanley Cup is the only trophy in professional sports on which every member of the winning teams name is engraved.
The Stanley Cup is unlike any other trophy in sports in more ways than one.
For example, following the conclusion of the NHL Playoffs, the cup goes on adventures across the world.
Every member of the winning team, including the coaching staff is allowed to spend a 24-hour day with the cup.
An article on the Hockey Hall of Fame website said that the Stanley Cup has stayed in Russia, Japan, Switzerland, and even made a trip atop mountains in the Rockies.
This tradition is unique to only the National Hockey League.
Since the task of engraving the names of the winning teams is so tedious, it’s not surprising that there are a few engraved errors on the cup.
An article in the Wall Street Journal said that more than just player names have been misspelled on the actual Stanley Cup.
The article said, “Illanders (Islanders), Leaes (Leafs) and Bqston (Boston) have found their way onto the cup.”
The article also said that every team has an allowance of 52 names that they can add to the cup after they win.
The Hockey Hall of Fame said there are 2,267 names engraved on the Stanley Cup, including the rings that have been removed and placed in the vault.
Out of those 2,267 names, there are 12 misspellings, five of those misspellings belong to the same player.
Jacques Plante, one of the most famous goaltenders to ever play the game, has his name engraved differently five times.
He won the Stanley Cup five years in a row with the Montreal Canadians from 1956-1961, according to the Montreal Canadians website.
Each of those five times, Plante’s name was spelled a different way.
The Hockey Hall of Fame website said that some of these misspellings included “Jocko,” “Jack,” and “Plant.”
You’d think that after misspelling the name the first four times, Boffey Silversmith’s would have double-checked the name following the 1960 Stanley Cup victory.
But I guess proofreading is not their strong suit.
Another mistake made on the Stanley Cup involves another goaltender.
Turk Broda, a goaltender on the Toronto Maple Leafs, had two different names engraved on the Stanley Cup.
Once, his name was put on the cup as “Turk.” And the second time, his name was engraved as “Walter.”
Another spelling mistake included another Toronto Maple Leaf, Gaye Stewart. His name was misspelled as “Gave” in 1946.
The Detroit Red Wings had two spelling mishaps in 1951.
One was for coach Tom Ivan. His last name was engraved as “Nivan.”
Also, Alex Delevicchio’s name was engraved as Alex “Belevicchio.”
In 1995, Adam Deadmarsh, a member of the Colorado Avalanche’s Stanley Cup team, had his name misspelled. Boffey Silversmith’s engraver spelled his name as “Deadmarch.”
There have been a few other misspellings on the Stanley Cup.
But the Hockey Hall of Fame website said that all of the misspellings were corrected shortly after they were noticed.
You can’t blame the guy for misspelling 12 of 2,267 names. In my eyes, those are pretty good odds.
Michelle Berthiaume can be contacted at mberthiaume@keene-equinox.com