It's unlikely that there are hockey players who would not like to try their hand at least once in the NHL. In turn, among the players playing in this North American championship, there is no one who does not dream of winning such a trophy as the Stanley Cup, and take a few sips of champagne from it. There is nothing surprising in this, because in the hockey world it has been considered the most prestigious award for more than a hundred years. Along with this, it is quite understandable why the most exciting games in the world are hockey - the NHL playoffs and the final.
The trophy in the form of a heavy bowl was named in honor of Governor Lord Stanley Preston, who in 1888 - 1893 was a representative of the British Queen in Canada. The official fell in love with a new, previously unknown game, which resembled something adapted to the local conditions of football. Moreover, being a gambler, he proposed the annual award of the best Canadian hockey team. According to various sources, a cup for this purpose was purchased for about $ 50 Canadian dollars, not in London, or in Sheffield. The Stanley Cup was originally a silver bowl with gold lines at the edges, about 20 centimeters in diameter, mounted on a platform of ebony. Some time later, hockey players started a tradition, according to which the winners began to engrave their names on the trophy. As a result, very quickly there was not enough free space on it, in connection with which it was decided to add additional rings of silver. Thus, the height of the Stanley Cup was 90 centimeters, and the weight - 14.5 kilograms.
About ten months after the founding of the cup, Lord was recalled by the queen to his homeland, so he could not see even a few matches of the tournament. An interesting fact about the trophy is that in his first year he did not get a master. It so happened that on behalf of the founder to determine the winner was assigned a special match between the teams of "Ottawa", which was the current champion of that season, and "Toronto", which is the oldest in Canada. The game was to be held on the second floor, however, the representatives of "Ottawa" did not arrange such a course of events and they refused, so the Stanley Cup remained an "orphan". Only on March 22, 1894, the first owner of the trophy was determined. In a spectacular match that gathered an unheard of at that time an audience of five thousand spectators, "Montreal" with a score of 3-2 beat "Ottawa".
Since that time, the competitions began to be held annually. More than seventy years after the foundation of the award, the trophy was replaced. The fact is that there was a possibility that under the influence of time the bowl could simply fall apart, in connection with which the decision was made to make its duplicate. This work was brilliantly performed by Karl Petersen, who worked as a jeweler. The copy was made so skillfully and qualitatively that several ice in a row even the experts did not realize that this is not the original Stanley Cup. Until now, the role of the most popular hockey trophy is played by the Petersen variant, while the first Cup can be seen in the Canadian city of Toronto, in the Hall of Hockey Glory.