"Tradition" be damned, Flyers appreciate their accomplishment

by Bob Herpen
The Phanatic Magazine

Flyers captain Mike Richards shocked the hockey world at roughly 9:45 PM last night.

Four wins away from a Stanley Cup, he dared to handle the Prince of Wales Trophy which is awarded to the winner of the Eastern Conference – even though convention dictates that he ignore it and wait to touch hockey’s ultimate prize.

Not only did he touch that trophy, he carried it off the ice and all the way into the locker room and passed it around so that his teammates could take pictures.

Blasphemy!

After all, Chicago’s captain Jonathan Toews – whose team hadn’t made the Stanley Cup Finals since 1992 and is seeking its first title since 1961 -- declined to touch the Campbell Bowl after Sunday’s series-clinching victory, so who is Mike Richards that he should offend the hockey gods?

At least according to one intrepid beat writer at one of Philadelphia’s esteemed major news outlets, for “decades” the tradition has been to brush aside the conference championship silver for a shot to embrace the Stanley Cup.

Except, it’s totally and completely false.

I don’t exactly know when that superstition took hold, but it appeared to begin sometime around the lockout-shortened 1995 season.

I know Joe Sakic was smart enough to lift the Campbell Bowl for Colorado, and Mark Messier sure as hell celebrated when the Rangers (Matteau! Matteau! Matteau!) won in 1994. Dave Poulin triumphantly lifted the silver both times the Flyers won it in the mid-1980’s, once here and once in Montreal despite broken ribs. Wayne Gretzky never showed so much disrespect the five times he was on the receiving end.

But I do remember that in 1997, 13 years ago today, in fact, Eric Lindros chose to distance himself from the Prince of Wales Trophy after a Game 5 decision over the Blueshirts as if it contained the formula for career-ending concussions.

What happened after that – a four-game sweep at the hands of the Detroit Red Wings – sparked a furor that remains to this day in this city over whether or not it’s appropriate to disparage your accomplishment in favor of something which is not a guarantee.

Regardless of the opinions of fans, broadcasters or hockey experts across North America, the decision to shun the conference title hardware has been ingrained into this generation of hockey players. Year after year, there’s always one unlucky schmuck who thinks he’s not building up negative karma for his team by giving the thousand-yard stare to the conference trophy.

In all seriousness, howcome nobody’s ever asked Lindros, Dale Hunter, Michael Peca, Mike Modano, Scott Stevens, Ron Francis, Steve Rucchin, Jarome Iginla, Jason Smith, Daniel Alfredsson and Sidney Crosby why they did it, or how they felt about doing it after losing in the Cup Finals?

As much as Flyers fandom needs to hate on Crosby, though, he pretty much ended the hex last season. He raised the odd, cylindrical, round-based trophy after a win over Carolina and then went on to win the Cup.

If I can step out of professionalism for a minute here, I sincerely hope that when Richards absconded with the silver last night, he took some time to wipe that Penguin stink and stain off, and put some considerably more fragrant orange and black smudges on it.

Richards even admitted he had designs on hoisting the trophy in the post-game interviews, saying the club hadn’t done much by conventional means throughout the playoffs, so he might as well have bucked “tradition” then.  The fact that there wasn’t much of a discussion on what to do is even more encouraging.

I have personally despised this relatively new addendum to the amorphous hockey “code” ever since it took root, and expressed my views in no uncertain and often vulgar terms that hockey players are better served by gaining favor with the gods by purposefully celebrating their fortune.

Richards has scored some extra points in my book for his efforts to return to what can pass for a  saner version of hockey logic. It’ll only be worth anything if the hockey gods look upon his act with favor about two weeks from now.

The Flyers have continually shocked their little universe, ever since they gained a playoff berth on the last day of the regular season in a shootout victory.

A seven-seed isn’t even supposed to win a round. A team down 0-3 can’t win a series. You can’t pitch three shutouts against a team that beat the President’s Trophy winner and the defending champions on the road in a pair of Game 7s.

“Tradition” be damned.