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Where's the Stanley Cup Right Now? It's at the United Center!

By Justin Breen | June 15, 2015 4:10pm | Updated on June 15, 2015 10:08pm
 Phil Pritchard with the Stanley Cup attends the 140th Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on May 3, 2014 in Louisville, Kentucky.
Phil Pritchard with the Stanley Cup attends the 140th Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on May 3, 2014 in Louisville, Kentucky.
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Mike Coppola/Getty Images

UPDATE: It's in the United Center!! And it will be with the Hawks for another summer.

 

CHICAGO — The Stanley Cup is in Chicago, but it's not in United Center, according to the man known as the official Cup handler.

Phil Pritchard, who has been part of the on-ice Stanley Cup presenting team for the National Hockey League, said Monday afternoon the Cup and the Conn Smythe Trophy — given to the MVP of the playoffs — are with him at an undisclosed city hotel.

Pritchard said the Cup won't travel with him and fellow NHL employee Craig Campbell to the UC unless Monday night's Game 6 between the Blackhawks and Tampa Bay Lightning is close or with the Hawks ahead near the end of the second period.

The Hawks, up three games to two on the Lightning, have a chance to clinch the Cup for the first time on home ice since 1938.

"When heading to the game, we obviously have to see what happens," Pritchard told DNAinfo Monday afternoon. "Players have superstitions, and last year in Game 4 between [the New York Rangers and Los Angeles Kings; New York won 2-1 to stay alive in the series], we never even got into the building."

Pritchard, the vice president and curator of the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, has been presenting the Cup to winning teams since 1988. That includes giving the Cup to Hawks captain Jonathan Toews in 2010 in Philadelphia and 2013 in Boston. He also gave it to the Pittsburgh Penguins at the old Chicago Stadium when they swept the Hawks in the 1992 Stanley Cup Final.

Pritchard said awarding the Stanley Cup to players on their home ice certainly "is different" than when the champions prevail on the road.

"I'm sure the players can answer that the best, but it's got to be pretty special when you win it in front of 18,000 to 20,000 of your own fans," Pritchard said.

Pritchard also said it's an honor delivering the most famous trophy in sports.

"To work with any organization, it's an amazing process, and it's arguably the most important day of a [player's] professional career," Pritchard said. "This year, the whole Stanley Cup playoffs have been amazing. You never know what's going to happen, and tonight will be no different, and that's why it's the greatest game there is."

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