The Stanley Cup Final in ice hockey (also known as the Stanley Cup Finals; ) is the annual championship series of the National Hockey League (NHL). The winner is awarded the Stanley Cup, North America's oldest professional sports trophy, and one of the "most important championships available to the sport [of ice hockey]" according to the International Ice Hockey Federation.
Originally inscribed the Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup, the trophy was donated in 1892 by Lord Stanley of Preston, governor general of Canada, initially as a "challenge trophy" for Canada's top-ranking amateur ice hockey club. The champions held onto the Cup until they either lost their league title to another club, or a champion from another league issued a formal challenge and defeated the reigning Cup champion in a final game to claim their win.
Professional teams first became eligible to challenge for the Stanley Cup in 1906. Starting in 1915, the Cup was officially held between the champion of the National Hockey Association (NHA) and the champion of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA). After a series of league mergers and folds, it became the championship trophy of the NHL in 1926. Starting in 1982, the championship round of the NHL's playoffs has been a best-of-seven series played between the champions of the Eastern and Western Conferences. Since then, Western champions have won 21 times, while the Eastern champions have won 20 times.
History The Stanley Cup was first awarded to the Montreal Hockey Club in 1893 when the team won the 1893 AHAC season. The team then had to defend its champion-title both through league championships and challenge games organised by the Stanley Cup trustees. Until 1912, these challenges could take place before or during a league season. After 1912, the trustees ordered that challenges only take place after all league games were completed.
The last challenge, in 1914, was the inauguration of the first "World Series" of ice hockey,Diamond, Zweig, and Duplacey, p. 25 a series between the Stanley Cup and league champion Toronto Hockey Club of the National Hockey Association (NHA) and the Victoria Aristocrats, champions of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA). The series was pre-arranged between the two leagues before the season after post-season exhibitions held in their previous seasons. The inaugural series was to be held in the city of the NHA champion, and alternate annually following the series.
After the series got under way, there was some concern that the series would not produce an "official" Stanley Cup champion. The Victoria club had not formally applied to the Stanley Cup trustees to challenge for the Cup. A letter arrived from the Stanley Cup trustees on March 17, that the trustees would not let the Stanley Cup travel west, because they did not consider Victoria a proper challenger, as they had not verified themselves with the trustees. However, on March 18, trustee William Foran stated that it was a misunderstanding. PCHA president Lester Patrick, had not filed a challenge, because he had expected Emmett Quinn of the NHA to make all of the arrangements in his role as hockey commissioner, whereas the trustees thought they were being purposely ignored. The Victoria challenge was accepted. Any tension was diffused as Toronto successfully defended the Cup by sweeping a best-of-five series in three games.Diamond (1992), p. 46 This began the end of the influence of the Stanley Cup trustees on the challengers and series for the Cup. In March 1914, trustee William Foran wrote to NHA president Emmett Quinn that the trustees are "perfectly satisfied to allow the representatives of the three pro leagues (NHA, PCHA and Maritime) to make all arrangements each season as to the series of matches to be played for the Cup."
Part of their 1913 agreement to set up drafting and player rights ownership, the NHA and PCHA agreed to have their respective champions face each other for the Cup. At the same time, the NHA concluded a similar agreement with the Maritime Hockey League but the MHL champions abandoned their 1914 challenge and did not challenge again. From 1914 onwards, the Stanley Cup championship finals alternated between the East and the West each year, with alternating games played according to NHA and PCHA rules.Diamond, Zweig, and Duplacey, p. 20 The Cup trustees agreed to this new arrangement, because after the Allan Cup became the highest prize for amateur hockey teams in Canada, the trustees had become dependent on the top two professional leagues to bolster the prominence of the trophy.Diamond (1992), p. 45 After the Portland Rosebuds, an American-based team, joined the PCHA in 1914, the trustees issued a statement that the Cup was no longer for the best team in Canada, but now for the best team in the world. Two years later, the Rosebuds became the first American team to play in the Stanley Cup championship finals. In 1917, the Seattle Metropolitans became the first American team to win the Cup. After that season, the NHA dissolved, and the National Hockey League (NHL) took its place.
In 1919, the Spanish influenza epidemic forced the Montreal Canadiens and the Seattle Metropolitans to cancel their series tied at 2–2–1, marking the first time the Stanley Cup was not awarded.Podnieks, p. 51
The format for the Stanley Cup championship changed in 1922, with the creation of the Western Canada Hockey League (WCHL). Now three leagues competed for the Cup and this necessitated a semi-final series between two league champions, with the third having a bye directly to the finals.Diamond, Zweig, and Duplacey, pp. 20–21 In 1924, the PCHA and the WCHL merged to form the Western Hockey League (WHL) and the championship reverted to a single series.Diamond, Zweig, and Duplacey, p. 21 After winning in the 1924–25 season, the Victoria Cougars became the last team outside the NHL to win the Stanley Cup.
The WHL folded in 1926, and most of the players moved to the NHL. This left the NHL as the only league left competing for the Cup. Other leagues and clubs have issued challenges, but from that year forward, no non-NHL team has played for it, leading it to become the de facto championship trophy of the NHL. In 1947, the NHL reached an agreement with trustees P. D. Ross and Cooper Smeaton to grant control of the cup to the NHL, allowing the league itself to reject challenges from other leagues that may have wished to play for the Cup.Diamond, Zweig and Duplacey, p. 40. A 2006 Ontario Superior Court case found that the trustees had gone against Lord Stanley's conditions in the 1947 agreement. The NHL has agreed to allow other teams to play for the Cup should the league not be operating, as was the case in the 2004–05 NHL lockout.
Broadcasting
The first television broadcast of the Stanley Cup Final in Canada was in . English-language coverage was aired by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), with Danny Gallivan calling the play-by-play, Keith Dancy providing the colour commentary, and Wes McKnight hosted. The Hockey Night in Canada team of Gallivan and Dancy called the next eight finals. Gallivan called his last championship series in . For decades, Hockey Night in Canada on CBC remained the exclusive English-language broadcaster across Canada, except in when a lengthy NABET strike forced coverage to be instead aired on CTV, and from to when the series was split between CBC and either CTV or Global TV. In , the CBC telecast became a Rogers Media-produced broadcast under a sub-license agreement, with it streaming on Rogers Media's digital platform, and a simulcast on Sportsnet starting in . CBC did not renew the sub-license agreement with Sportsnet after the series, marking the end of 74 consecutive years that the public broadcaster televised the Final.
French-language broadcasts in Canada also began in 1953, with play-by-play commentator Rene Lecavalier and colour commentator Jean-Maurice Bailly on CBC's Télévision de Radio-Canada (SRC) division. SRC continued to be the exclusive French-language broadcaster until when Réseau des sports (RDS) took over. Since 2015, under a sub-license agreement with Rogers, TVA has been the exclusive home of French-language broadcasts in Canada.
The first television broadcast in the United States was in , covered by local Chicago station WGN, while network broadcasts started in on NBC. However, national coverage on American television, like the rest of the NHL season, remained in a state of flux for decades. From 1966 to 1975, NBC and CBS held the rights at various times, but they each only covered selected games of the series. It was then carried on syndication from 1976 to 1979 through the 1970s NHL Network. In 1980, the Hughes broadcast network simulcast CBC's feed before the series was moved to cable. During its time on cable from 1980 to 1993, rights to the series was held at various times by USA, SportsChannel America, and ESPN, but there was no exclusive coverage of games and thus local broadcasters could also still televise them regionally as well. In , Fox signed on to be the exclusive national broadcast network of selected games of the final round, splitting it with ESPN. This splitting of exclusive national coverage between a cable and a broadcast network was then passed to ABC and ESPN in , and then NBC and Versus (now NBCSN) in . Since , the series has been rotated annually between ABC in even years and the cable channel TNT in odd years (with the option for simulcasts on their respective sister cable networks or streaming platforms).
Timeline of national broadcasters CanadaUnited StatesYear English language French languageYear National broadcaster(s) Local/national coverage policy 1953CBCSRC 1953None 1966 1966 NBC (Games 1 and 4), RKO General (Game 6)Local coverage permitted for non-network games.National network telecasts exclusive. 1967 1967CBS (Selected games only) 1972 CTV 1972 1973CBC 1973 NBC (Selected games only) 1976 1976 NHL NetworkNational coverage on syndicated network exclusive, with local announcers of participating U.S. teams being used only in the participating team's markets. 1980 1980 Hughes (Games 1–5), CBS (Game 6) 1981 1981USALocal coverage permitted for all games.National coverage (cable) not exclusive. 1985Split between CBC and CTV 1985 1986 1986ESPN 1987 Split between CBC and Global 1987 1989CBC 1989 SportsChannel America 1993 1993 ESPN 1995 1995 Split between Fox and ESPNNational coverage (network and cable) exclusive. 2000 2000Split between ABC and ESPN 2003RDS 2003 2006 2006Split between NBC and OLN/VS/NBCSN 2015 CBC, produced by Rogers SportsnetTVA 2015 2017CBC/Sportsnet simulcast 2017 2022 2022Rotated annually between ABC in even years and TNT/TruTV simulcast in odd years 2027 Sportsnet 2027
Series format
The championship series began with the interleague "World Series" played in one city. The series alternated between a rink of the NHA and later the NHL and a rink of the PCHA and later the WCHL/WHL. It was not until the demise of the WHL that the final series alternated games between the two finalists' home ice.
The series allowed ties until 1928. As the two and later three leagues differed, the series would alternate using each league's rules. The PCHA continued to use seven-man team play, and games would alternate with six- and seven-man games.
After the NHL became the last remaining league to compete for the Cup, the trophy was then awarded to the winner of the NHL's championship playoff round. This first took place in 1927 between the Boston Bruins and the Ottawa Senators, which was planned to be a best-of-three series, although the series allowed ties. The series ended after four games, when the Senators defeated the Bruins in the fourth game.