Stanley Cup Shenanigans: XXXXX Marks the Spot

Image credit: Scorpion0422

The Boston Bruins hoisted the Stanley Cup on Wednesday night, which means that players like Patrice Bergeron and Zdeno Chara are going to get their names engraved on the most famous piece of hardware in sports. The trophy has been getting a lot of airtime today, and we can’t see Lord Stanley without thinking of former Edmonton Oilers owner Peter Pocklington’s bit of Cup-related mischief.

When the Oilers won the 1984 Stanley Cup with a loaded roster that included Wayne Gretzky, Paul Coffey, and Mark Messier, Pocklington had every right to be pumped. The team had made the Cup finals the previous season, only to be embarrassingly swept by the New York Islanders. In his excitement, Pocklington decided to pay a unique tribute to his father: he put his dad, Basil Pocklington, on the list of names that would be engraved onto the Stanley Cup.

The league apparently didn’t have a policy of fact-checking the list of names before it went to the engraver, so Basil Pocklington’s name ended up making it onto the Cup. As affectionate gestures go, it was a nice one. The NHL wasn’t too amused, though. When the league caught wind of the rogue engraving, it ordered Basil Pocklington’s name removed from the Cup. The elder Pocklington’s name is now covered with a row of X’s.