Superstition

Tomorrow, the Stanley Cup finals begin when the Pittsburgh Penguins face the Detroit Red Wings in a repeat of last years finals, where the Wings prevailed. The Penguins are hoping to turn the tides this year and be able to grab the cup from the Wings. But will superstition and tradition get in the way? Following Pittsburgh's four game sweep of the Carolina Hurricanes, team captain Sidney Crosby broke with tradition, causing some hard core fans to believe that that would cost them the Stanley Cup. In the hockey world, tradition dictates that when a team is presented with their conference championship trophy, bad luck will accompany it if it is touched by the winning team. That is why when team captains are presented with the trophy, they simply acknowledge it and other that posing for a picture with it, they simply skate away not even looking at it. The reason for this is simple; they want the big prize, the Stanley Cup, and superstition dictates that if you touch any other trophy before winning the cup, you risk the chance of losing it. Hockey players don't take the Stanley Cup lightly. Example: two brothers who played on opposite teams attended a family reunion during the off season. One had been on the cup winning team that year, and he had brought the cup to the reunion. The cup was placed in a separate room and the brother who had not won it never went in to see it, let alone touch it. Players believe that in order to touch it, you must first win it. And so now, taking all of the above into consideration, let us look back at this year's Eastern Conference Championship trophy presentation. Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby actually picked up the trophy and skated around with it, at one point handing it off to other players. His reasoning was that they avoided it last year and they wound up losing the series, so they decided to break tradition. Whether they prevail or not remains to be seen.