After the Chicago Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup in 2010, it was an easy call for captain Jonathan Toews. Taking the Cup from universally beloved commissioner Gary Bettman, he handed to Marian Hossa, the former playoff jinx who had been so instrumental in their six-game victory over the Flyers on the Blackhawks roster in the playoffs.
If the Vancouver Canucks win the 2011 Stanley Cup Final in Wednesday night's Game 7, captain Henrik Sedin will be the first to raise the Cup; if it's the Boston Bruins, it'll be lifted by captain Zdeno Chara, and we fully expect sparks to rain down on the ice when it scrapes the rafters.
But who will they hand it off to next?
Since gamblers simply don't have enough frivolous things on which to wager, Bodog had odds on which Canuck or Bruin will be the second man to hoist the Cup after Game 7.
Who are your picks for the Bruins and Canucks? Who deserves it the most?
Boston Bruins
Tim Thomas - 2/5
Mark Recchi - 4/1
Patrice Bergeron - 9/2
David Krejci - 6/1
Milan Lucic - 10/1
Brad Marchand - 15/1
Tomas Kaberle - 15/1
Claude Julien - 20/1
Thomas seems like the natural pick, especially if he wins the Conn Smythe as expected, but we can't recall many goaltenders getting the Cup second. Recchi fills the requisite "old guy" slot. Lucic is an interesting choice based on his being a Vancouver native.
One player not listed: Nathan Horton. And while it would be completely surreal to see the captain give the Chalice to a player that didn't compete in Game 7, it wouldn't exactly shock us, considering Horton's in Vancouver and has loomed large in the emotional dynamic of the series.
Vancouver Canucks
Daniel Sedin -1/2
Sami Salo - 5/2
Roberto Luongo - 11/2
Ryan Kesler - 6/1
Manny Maholtra - 12/1
Alex Burrows - 15/1
Kevin Bieksa - 18/1
Alain Vigneault - 20/1
Say you just won the Stanley Cup, and you have the chance to hand it your brother to celebrate. There's no way that's not happening, is there?
Luongo's the wild card here. If he wins Game 7 and has to watch Thomas take the Conn Smythe, perhaps Henrik hands it over as a show of appreciation and one-upsmanship.
More so than with Boston, we could see the player who scores the game-winning goal for the Canucks getting passed the Cup second.
Aw heck, just hand it to Burrows so he can bite it and we can all have a laugh …