Lord Stanley’s well-traveled cup won’t make trip to arena until needed

The Cup is near the airport.

The Stanley Cup is resting at an undisclosed hotel near O’Hare International Airport, Phil Pritchard, who’s been chaperoning the Cup since 1988 for the Hockey Hall of Fame, said Monday morning.

The Cup will stay under Pritchard’s watchful eye at the hotel until NHL officials summon him to the United Center mid-game … if the scoreboard indicates that the most famous trophy in sport might be awarded Monday night.

Until then, “we’re just going to hang out here,” Pritchard said, noting a long-held and respected superstition that mandates the Cup stay out of sight of the players until it has officially been won.

At O’Hare, Pritchard snapped a photo of the monitor as the cup went through a baggage scanner. Moments later the pic went viral.

“Luckily we had a hockey fan working security because I’m not sure that picture would have been allowed,” Pritchard joked.

“The magical picture would have been getting the TSA guys faces when they see the X-ray machine and realize it’s the Cup,” Pritchard said.

“Before we go through we just tell them that the big case contains a trophy for hockey and then when they see it on the monitor, I’d say 99 percent of them know what it is right away. It’s pretty neat.”