Iain Maciver Todd and The Stanley Cup

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Scotland lost a vital world cup qualifier to Wales on a damp Friday night in Cardiff. The game was won single-handedly by Tottenham winger Gareth Bale.  During the Olympics Gareth conveniently pled injury to get out of competing for the Great Britain team but he has made Wales such a one-man team that they could change their name to Team GB. Although the Welsh may be a one-man team, that was still one more than Scotland had. The true indictment of how low Scotland have fallen isn’t losing a world cup qualifier, it’s the fact Gary Caldwell has over 50 caps.

If asked which trophy is the most travelled in the world I expect most people would answer the World Cup. In fact it’s the NHL’s Stanley Cup. If you are wondering which country has a football league called the NHL then the answer is no country! As a distraction from Scotland’s woes the site is abandoning football for the day and looking at Ice Hockey instead.

The Stanley Cup is presented to each winning team of the NHL. The NHL is the biggest and most famous professional Ice hockey league  in the world and comprises teams from the US and Canada. The winning team is allocated 100 days with the trophy.  Recently teams have given each player 1 day each to do with it what they like.

Players have taken it home to show to their families, its been taken to Afghanistan to cheer up the troops and one player took it to a night club to drink champagne out of it. If you’re a multimillionaire player with a sporting physique and you still can’t pull in a nightclub without the aid of a trophy then your chat must be rotten!

Sport can be notorious for its prehistoric views on homosexuality but not the Stanley Cup. It’s even been to Gay Pride.

The base of the cup contains the names of every player and coach of the winning sides. This puts a lot of pressure on the engraver to get it right. He sometimes gets it wrong. In 1963 Toronto Maple Leafs won it but the cup was engraved as Toronto Maple Leaes. A similar error exists in Scotland where Rangers have been engraved as winners on a number of trophies when it should actually have been Celtic. [The author admits a bias to the green half of Glasgow and awaits the result of the EBT case with interest!]

The NHL season should be under way but it’s currently on hold as  the players are in dispute with the league over how much they should be paid. Some players have decided to play in other leagues whilst they await the outcome which is why last week Glasgow’s professional Ice Hockey side The Braehead clan (http://www.braeheadclan.com/) announced the signing of a genuine Stanley Cup Winner Drew Miller. He won the Stanley Cup with the Anaheim Ducks in 2007.

The Braehead Clan play their home games at Braehead arena. Tickets are reasonably priced and they offer a facility where you can print your own ticket at home. Although don’t do what I did and then leave the tickets at home! Luckily they offered a reprint facility at the arena.

The game was a Scottish derby against  Edinburgh Capitals (http://www.edinburgh-capitals.com/)

The Edinburgh side are bottom of the league so it was no surprise when the Clan ran out 6-3 winners.

After the game they offer ‘Skate with the Clan’. For £5 you can pay to skate on the ice and be joined by the teams players for chats and photographs. Imagine if football let you play on the pitch afterwards. I think this could be a money earner for teams with all-weather surfaces, although after a defeat a players might not want to meet a fan for a “chat.”

Finally, a challenge to SCFC readers. The team has just launched a new mascot but he currently has no name! You can offer suggestions on their Facebook and Twitter pages. My current suggestion for the cow is ‘Pat’.

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About the Author
Iain “Toddinho” Todd mistakenly believes he could have been a professional footballer if only the ‘The Claude Makelele role’ had been invented in the 1980’s. Unfortunately his ability to be neither a defender or a midfielder meant he could often be found on the bench. His greatest achievement was a match winning hat trick which the local paper reported as been scored by his twin brother and his brother wasn’t even playing that day. He recently celebrated 25 years of playing 5 aside footy and has nothing to show for it other than a dodgy hip.

Iain Todd graduated from Charlie Ross’s comedy class and has subsequently shown why Charlie should fail some students. He does open spots as one half of “The Brothers Todd” – the third best comedy twin act in the world! Only three comedy twin acts are in the world so they are also the world’s worst. They make Jedward look talented.

He stalks celebrities at @iainmacivertodd

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