Stanley Cup is a trophy awarded annually to the team that wins the National Hockey League (NHL) championship. It is the oldest trophy in professional sports competition in North America.
The Stanley Cup winner is determined annually in a four-round elimination tournament following the end of the regular season. Eight teams from each of the two NHL conferences, the Eastern Conference and the Western Conference, qualify for the playoffs based on the number of points teams accumulated during the regular season. The first three rounds are played within each conference. Winning teams advance to the next round. The final round matches the winners of the two conferences. The winner of that round is the Stanley Cup, and National Hockey League, champion.
In 1893, Lord Stanley of Preston, the governor general of Canada, donated a silver bowl to be awarded annually to the amateur hockey champions of Canada. Professional teams in the National Hockey Association (reorganized into the NHL in 1917) began competing for it in 1910. The Stanley Cup has been under the control of the NHL since 1926.
Loading the player...Stanley Cup 1948
The Stanley Cup consists of a replica of Lord Stanley’s original bowl mounted on a large trophy. It weighs 32 pounds (14.5 kilograms) and stands 351/4 inches (89.5 centimeters) high. The original bowl and the Stanley Cup are displayed at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, Canada, except during the Stanley Cup finals, when the cup is awarded to the winning team. The names of the winning teams and their players are engraved on the cup.
