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Lightning

Keep your hands off our Stanley Cup

By JOHN ROMANO
Published January 27, 2005

The executives of the National Hockey League, and the leaders of the players' union, should continue their negotiations. That's their duty.

The intermediaries and peacemakers who have gotten involved can even broker a deal for an abbreviated season. That's their prerogative.

But they cannot hand over the Stanley Cup to the winner of the 2005 season. That's our trophy.

We may not have reached the drop-dead date for an NHL season, but we have reached the point where Tampa Bay should tell the league to drop dead.

Because, honestly, this market and that franchise deserve better than some bastardized 18-game home schedule as the defending NHL champions.

The Lightning worked too hard. The fans waited too long. It simply isn't fair that the glory of last season be condensed into an express lane of a regular season in 2005.

We deserve 41 home games with a banner flying in the rafters of the St. Pete Times Forum. We deserve 41 home games with the Lightning introduced as the reigning Stanley Cup champions.

Look at it this way. Since 1992, we've sat through 477 regular-season Lightning home games. Each one of those games was a precursor to last season's playoff run. Each game was building to the crescendo of Game 7 against Calgary.

And now, after all that time, we're supposed to be satisfied with the shortest coronation in NHL history?

Forget it. They can have their shortened season. They can have their diluted playoffs. They just can't have the Stanley Cup.

That trophy is the symbol of the league. It is the one enviable asset in the NHL. No one cares about the NBA's Larry O'Brien trophy. No one gets misty about the NFL's Lombardi Trophy. And I'm not even sure if the World Series trophy has a name.

But the Stanley Cup has history. It has meaning. And it would be a travesty to hand it out after a few months of hurry-up hockey.

So give away a mini-Stanley. Or a plastic cup. Just don't make us send Chris Dingman and Andre Roy to Toronto to liberate the real Stanley Cup from the Hall of Fame.

This is not a selfish stance. Okay, maybe it's a little selfish. But it's also practical. Why diminish the name of the Stanley Cup? Why act as if a dainty regular season deserves a mighty reward?

They wouldn't give the best picture Oscar to a 45-minute movie. They wouldn't give a Ph.D. for an eight-page dissertation. And they shouldn't give the Stanley Cup to a team that endured half as much as the Lightning did. Or, for that matter, any Stanley Cup champion that preceded Tampa Bay.

Go ahead and play a 36-game schedule. Make the postseason less of an endurance test. Praise the team left standing, and let them wear rings as champions of the 2005 season. Just make it clear that the Stanley Cup is too sacred to be part of this cheapened celebration.

Is that possible?

Nah. I don't think the league has enough gumption. I don't believe the big shots have enough integrity.

Example. The NHL and the players are making a big deal about commissioner Gary Bettman and union boss Bob Goodenow stepping away from the table to let others negotiate. As if this is some grand gesture on their part.

From here, it looks pathetic. These are supposed to be leaders? These are supposed to be the best we have? And yet they're so infantile and wrapped up in their own egos that they can't sit down and negotiate a deal.

Look, this market knows better than most the importance of a new collective bargaining agreement. We've suffered through the small payrolls. We've seen the budding stars move on to bigger rewards.

Whether we agree with the concept of a salary cap or not, we can at least appreciate the necessity of a new partnership between management and players.

So we understand the conflict. We acknowledge sacrifices were going to be made. But why does Tampa Bay have to suffer more than most?

We've already lost the momentum and joy of the one bright moment in franchise history. We've already seen the gap close a little on the window of opportunity presented by a young, and mostly inexpensive, roster.

And now we should be expected to lose the season-long stature accorded to the defending Stanley Cup champion?

Heck, the Buccaneers have given us the most anemic follow-up to a Super Bowl in NFL history. But at least they got a fair shot. And at least we had plenty of opportunity to poke fun at them along the way.

This plea is largely, but not completely, provincial. Every past champion should feel the same way. Every true hockey fan should understand the fortunes at stake. Every player should appreciate the sentiment involved.

The NHL has already lost a lot of credibility.

The regular season has lost most of its legitimacy.

Don't diminish the honor of the Stanley Cup, too.

[Last modified January 27, 2005, 17:49:09]