ST. LOUIS — Stan Mikita, Bobby Hull, Glenn Hall and Pierre Pilote are forever enshrined in the Hockey Hall of Fame, but they’re no longer enshrined on the Stanley Cup. The silver band of names from championship teams from 1954-65 are being removed from the Cup to make room for a new layer of names.
The 1954-65 ring will be the third to be removed and displayed at the Hall of Fame in Toronto. Besides the 1960-61 Hawks, other names leaving the Cup include Gordie Howe and Maurice Richard. According to the Associated Press, the process will need to be repeated every 13 years, meaning a player’s name stays on the trophy for a maximum of 65 years.
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Once a 7-inch bowl, the Stanley Cup is now 3 feet tall. And to keep it mobile, it’ll stay that way.
“People in Saskatchewan are a little upset Gordie’s name is coming off, but that’s the tradition,” Mike Bolt, one of the keepers of the Cup, told the AP. “It can’t get any bigger. … We wouldn’t be able to do what we do.”
Mikita will be honored before Friday’s home finale with “One More Shift,” with his three grandsons taking the ice before the game.
“As a young hockey player, that’s the first thing you think about, is the numbers and where he ranks among the greats that have played the game,” Jonathan Toews said of Mikita. “But then the more time you spend in a city like Chicago, you get to know fans who’ll come up to you and tell you stories about the days that he played, and growing up watching him. You also start to hear those stories about who he was away from the rink and realize it’s so much more than that. That’s what the guys in this room, obviously, we all feel honored to wear that Blackhawk sweater every night. But you [also] realize how big the shoes are you have to fill when you have to follow people like him.”
Radio silence
Coach Joel Quenneville said Wednesday morning that he hadn’t spoken with Stan Bowman or John McDonough about his future yet. Asked if that worried him, Quenneville said: “We’ve never done that in the past. But we’ve never been in this position, either.”
