Friday, May 22, 2009

Today's Hockey Post...

... is different. From the WSJ… “The Stanley Cup Could Use an Editor.” Excerpts:
There are four teams remaining in the National Hockey League playoffs, and their star-studded rosters can be frightening -- especially for Louise St. Jacques, whose job is to engrave the names of the winning team's players on the Stanley Cup.
This iconic silver trophy, which is handed out each year to hockey's champion, carries with it the marks of another, quieter history -- decades of botched spellings, spacing gaffes, repeated words and the unsightly results of attempts to fix them.
Over the years words like "Ilanders" (Islanders), "Leaes" (Leafs) and "Bqstqn" (Boston) have found their way onto the cup, while more than a dozen players and coaches have had their names butchered. Former Montreal Canadiens goaltender Jacques Plante had the misfortune of having his first name spelled four different ways in the span of five years.
This, of course, comes as no news to long-time hockey fans. But some of the errors are pretty funny and make for an entertaining read… like this one:
One cup quirk isn't actually a mistake, but a victim of an unfortunate change in popular lexicon. Frank Selke was an assistant manager for the Maple Leafs when they won the cup in 1945. His title is abbreviated as "ass man." Says Philip Pritchard of the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, "We don't tell a lot of people about the ass man," he says. "Players love the story, though."
Heh. It’s good to see hockey in the Journal, for what that’s worth. Video, too.



(Photo from the WSJ article)

7 comments:

  1. So after a big effort with the Bruins, my local affiliate may have more trouble with the Pens.

    Re: trophies and misspellings -- the Brown University fencing team has 12 year old award for team spirit or something like that is named after Andrew Boies (or something like that). By accident, the namesake's name was misspelled on the original plaque, so now by tradition, each year's winner must also be misspelled.

    Due to my whining during the planning of the team's 100th anniversary (we were working hard to update all the plaques "despite the fact that my name is on none of them", a point I apparently mentioned more than once), event organizers invented the Philindo J. Marsosudiro award for the fencer whose name most closely resembles Philindo J. Marsosudiro. By accident, they misspelled my name. By accident, they say.

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  2. I could be an ingraver :)

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  3. Phil: That's classic, your story! Congrats on your namesake award! :D

    Yeah, I think the 'Canes have a real fight ahead of them, but they're NOT out of it. Yet.

    Lou: LOL!

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  4. Love the part where they messed up Jock Plont's name repeatedly! Bet they never did it to bad boy Ferguson though. Hey, I ran into Fergie at a Hunt Club Ball once - who would have guessed he'd go from high-sticking to suits and horses.

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  5. Lin sez: "Hey, I ran into Fergie at a Hunt Club Ball once - who would have guessed he'd go from high-sticking to suits and horses."

    Some hockey players move in strange circles... and I ain't talking about the patented Savard spin-o-rama. :D

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Just be polite... that's all I ask.