When the Vegas Golden Knights won the Western Conference Final a couple of weeks ago, they refused to touch the trophy. When they won it in 2018, they hoisted the trophy, and weeks later, they’d lost the Stanley Cup Final.
It’s considered superstitious to even touch any trophy before you could lift the Stanley Cup, and to even think about it, or perhaps even worse, practicing it, is considered close to forbidden.
That’s why Zdeno Chara stunned the hockey world in an interview earlier this season. The Bruins great won the Cup with Boston in 2011, following an intense final series against the Vancouver Canucks. The Canucks held a 3-2 advantage heading into Game 6, and before a practice ahead of that game, Chara claimed that he and several teammates saw the Canucks’ roster practicing lifting the Stanley Cup.
Chara said that it helped gain that extra motivation needed, and the Bruins ended up winning the Cup.
”We found out about these things and we were like, ‘F–k this, we are not going to allow this to happen.’ It just fueled us,” Chara said.
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Since then, several players and coaches from that Canucks roster have stated that Chara’s accusations are false and that there absolutely wasn’t any trophy-lifting practice going on.
Chara also said that the Canucks had reached out to the NHL to see how many friends and family members could be on the ice for the celebration. Kevin Bieksa was on that team, and he’s claimed that it ’100% didn’t happen.’
Bieksa, now a well-liked TV analyst, was on TV with goalie legend Roberto Luongo for Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Finals on Thursday. Luongo was also on that Vancouver team in 2011.
Heading into Game 3 of this year’s finals, the Golden Knights had a 2-0 series lead. Bieksa and Luongo talked about how comfortable you could get while having that kind of lead, and they hilariously joked about their situation and Chara’s accusations.
”We know what it’s like to be up 2-0 in the finals, you’re pretty comfortable still right?” Bieksa said to Luongo.
And Luongo’s answer was nothing but amazing.
“Yeah I think we’re okay, remember when we were practicing lifting the cup after Game 2,” he said, bursting out in laughter.
