The NHL postseason is rife with traditions like playoff beards, post-game handshakes and high-stick salutes to a team's loyal fans.
But there is one ritual that surpasses them all.
“You can't touch the Stanley Cup until you've won it,” said Philip Pritchard, associate director and curator of the Hockey Hall of Fame. “It's an unspoken rule, but it's one of the best rules in sports.”
And those are the rules he also follows as Cup keeper.
Pritchard is responsible for making sure the 132-year-old Stanley Cup remains intact, if a few dents, as it travels from charity events to championship celebrations, but he always wears white gloves when handling the precious trophy.
In true hockey style, Pritchard's trademark accessory adds another layer to Stanley Cup lore.
Like many CanadiansPritchard grew up playing hockey and dreaming of winning and hoisting the Stanley Cup. As a child, he visited the Canadian National Exhibition with his father and viewed the trophy on display.
“I didn't even touch it the first time I saw it,” he said.
Pritchard quickly realized he wasn't good enough to win the Cup, so he did the next best thing: In 1988, at age 27, he began working for the Hockey Hall of Fame, cataloging the facts and legends of the sport, but it wasn't long before he was helping make hockey history.
In 1993, Pritchard was on a conference call with NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman to discuss ideas for improving the presentation of the Stanley Cup. “We thought, 'How can we make the Stanley Cup mean more?'” Pritchard says. After Bettman suggested a red carpet, Pritchard introduced the white glove concept. The commissioner was intrigued.
“He said, 'What do you mean, white gloves?'” Pritchard recalled, before explaining that gloves are a necessity for many museum caretakers because skin oils can damage delicate pieces from the past.
“To deal with artifacts [your] “In the museum world, it's a white glove mistake,” Pritchard says. “We don't go anywhere without white gloves.”
The league's 3-foot, 35-pound pure silver chalice is by no means fragile, but to Pritchard, the glove is a sign of respect. Bettman, Pritchard said, was sold.
The white gloves made their first appearance in one of the most memorable Stanley Cup Finals in NHL history, Game 7 between the New York Rangers and the Vancouver Canucks at Madison Square Garden in 1994. The Rangers' 3-2 victory broke what many believed to be a franchise curse and gave New York their first championship in 54 years.
“The red carpet was rolled out onto the ice and a voice came over the monitors to the crowd saying, 'Ladies and gentlemen, here's the Stanley Cup,'” Pritchard recalled. “The fans in the Garden were so loud I thought it was going to blast through the floor.”
As the Rangers celebrated, Pritchard and fellow Hall of Famer Craig Campbell carried the Cup onto the ice, both wearing official black suit jackets with crisp white gloves, as MSG Network analyst John Davidson took notice.
“These guys are wearing white gloves and carrying the Stanley Cup!” Davidson said. “That's priceless. That's beautiful!”
And Pritchard and Campbell have acted out the scene at every finals game since. “I think the white gloves have become synonymous with the Stanley Cup,” Pritchard said.
Gloves have also become synonymous with the curator.
“Wherever I go, whether I have the Stanley Cup or not, people expect me to be wearing white gloves,” Pritchard said. “I go to the bathroom and someone asks, 'Where are my white gloves?'”
If Pritchard wore gloves on every occasion, he would quickly run out of storage space; all of the gloves he's worn to carry the Cup to date have been stored in a T-shirt drawer or between socks.
“I guess that's my curatorial side,” he says. “Every pair has a story, and if they could tell it, it would be a great chapter in the book.”
When it comes The latest chapter in hockey history is still being written, but it already deviates from a familiar storyline.
The Florida Panthers hold a 3-0 lead over the Edmonton Oilers in this year's finals and need to win one more game in Alberta to claim the title. Pritchard typically waits until a crucial moment in this series to take the Cup outside the venue. “I don't want to have it inside the venue if we're not going to win it,” he explained.
But the Cup made a surprise appearance before the puck drop of Game 1 — one of the few times the Cup has made an early appearance since the 1960s — and while Pritchard suggested this could be the start of a new tradition, many players stuck with the game's long-standing traditions.
“I tried not to look at it too much,” Panthers defenseman Gus Forsling said, “just tried to stay focused on the game.”
Florida captain Sascha Barkov chimed in, “Me too.”
Maybe with the efforts of Forsling and Barkov, the Panthers can win the franchise's first title, but the Oilers could also rally to victory and bring the Cup home to Canada for the first time in more than 30 years.
No matter who the winner is, the Cup Keeper will present the prize with pride, recognizing that each member of the winning team has grown from man to legend.
“We walk out with our gloves on, and they take their gloves off,” Pritchard said. “They're Stanley Cup champions and they've earned the right to touch the Stanley Cup with their bare hands.”
ESPN E60's Mike Farrell contributed to this article.
