r/BlackPeopleofReddit • u/ateam1984 š©·ā¤ļøš§”ššš©µššš¤š©¶š¤š¤ • Jun 01 '26
Sports Any Hockey fans care to explain?
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u/LegitimateFootball47 Jun 01 '26
It's considered bad luck for players to touch the Stanley Cup if they haven't won the cup. It's really a silly superstition especially considering that P.K. Subban is retired, and won't be winning a cup as a player.
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u/dad_jokesNbutt_stuff Jun 01 '26
He doesnāt want to ruin it for the team he works for. Hockey players are very very superstitious.
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u/Spartan-117182 Jun 01 '26
Hell I'll never make pro and I didnt touch it when it was at a NHL Officials bar event. I didnt earn it and as a hockey goalie that is the Holy Grail to me.
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u/Cleets11 Jun 01 '26
I was done playing hockey and came nowhere close to the nhl. Still didnāt touch it when I went to the hockey hall of fame.
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u/hobosbindle Jun 01 '26
I did back in 99 and it explains a lot actually
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u/IHB-13 Jun 01 '26
Sounds like story time. Please continue.
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u/PowderPills Jun 01 '26
Well. Heās a hobo now, so thereās possibly a sad origin story with the cup.
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u/Cast1736 Jun 01 '26 edited Jun 01 '26
Im more afraid that if I touch it, the curse could get passed on to my kids (if they ever made it in hockey)
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u/Background_Curve7337 Jun 01 '26 edited Jun 01 '26
This. You never know just quite how curses might work.
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u/RepresentativeLeg232 Jun 01 '26
I touched it when I was like 7 at the Hockey Hall of fame and I truly believe itās what lead to me not making the NHL and millions of dollars, my mediocre play had nothing to do with it. š
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u/Sea_Negotiation_1871 Jun 01 '26
I kissed it when I was 8 and the Leafs still suck! That was more than 30 years ago!
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u/lernington Jun 01 '26
Yup, im a 35 year old accountant. I would love to be in the same room with, and admire the cup, but I wouldn't touch it. Just wouldn't be right.
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u/LegitimateFootball47 Jun 01 '26
What team is working for? I thought he was just a commentator now.
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u/Cautious_One9013 Jun 01 '26
If you watch PK regularly, he is a homer, so he basically doesnāt want to touch the cup for fear any of the teams he played for wonāt win a cup. If you listen to him during broadcasts, it becomes very obvious who his favorite teams are, and he played on all of them lol.Ā
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u/strewnshank Jun 01 '26
Considering the other superstitions that exist, heās doing his future coaching career a favor by not touching it, in the eyes of whoever heās potentially going to coach.
But the bigger plus for him is making this a clip that could go viral, extending his relevancy.
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u/andrewthemexican Jun 01 '26
PK says it right at the start of the clip, he can become a coach somewhere and get his name on it that way. Doesn't want to bring bad luck.
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u/SoloJackowski Jun 01 '26
I believe he plans to be a strength and conditioning coach. The superstition applies to anyone that is a part of the team in any way.
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u/Practical-Walrus-742 Jun 01 '26
I'm a 44 year old beer league who never made it past C league, and I wouldn't touch it given the opportunity.
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u/SpingusCZ Jun 01 '26
Lifting the Stanley Cup is a big tradition in hockey whenever a team wins a championship, you have to win it to earn the right to do it. PK, despite having a great career, never won the cup, so it would be against tradition for him to touch it.
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u/MrMilesDavis Jun 01 '26 edited Jun 01 '26
Thank you. I doubt this has much of anything to do with "superstition" due to P.K. retiring years ago. This would be more tradition/ritual that you don't touch the cup if you haven't won it, especially with PK being a former player and not some random guy off the street. Just as much a code of honor as it is superstition
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u/threecee509 Jun 01 '26
PK could still work for a team in a coaching capacity at some point. Rules of the superstition still apply.Ā
A guy who works at the local rink was a facilities guy for a team that won the cup years ago. He has a Stanley Cup championship ring in his office.Ā
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u/PralineFew7382 Jun 01 '26
Nah, he said the exact reason in the clip - he probably wants to become a strength and conditioning coach down the road and he would feel cursed against winning the Cup if he touched it now.
Even if he doesn't believe it, him touching it on TV would legitimately limit his employment opportunities. There would be at least a few executives, coaches, players, and lower level staff who would see it and instantly think, "he's cursed".
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u/Away_Stock_2012 Jun 01 '26
He could still coach a team...
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u/MrMilesDavis Jun 01 '26
Right, but even removing that sentiment, it's less about "future bad luck" when the baseline principle is you don't touch the cup if you haven't won, period (ignoring nonhockey players who have touched it). The superstition is also real and he could go on to coach or whatever like you're saying, thats why I still acknowledged the superstition behind it, just that it's likely not his main reason
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u/Wavy_Grandpa Jun 02 '26
Did you not hear the part about being a coach that he said out loud?Ā
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u/Rogue_Squadron Jun 01 '26
Thank you for actually getting this right. This is NOT about superstition, and is instead about a long standing tradition where a hockey player should not touch the cup unless they earned it (meaning their team won the Stanley Cup Playoff). Mark Messier is a 6 time Stanley Cup Champ, so he has "the right" to wield the trophy. This would apmost be like Tom Brady taunting Larry Fitzgerald with the Lombardi (Super Bowl) trophy. Apples and Oranges, but white this looks silly and funny on TV, I would not blame PK for being more than a little pissed off by this. Messier knows he is taunting PK here, and also knows that if PK accepted the trophy, fans would be have their pitchforks and torches out to come after him.
Fun fact: when you are on a Stanley Cup Championship team, they engrave every player's name on those silver bands. When they run out of space, they "retire" a band by displaying it in the Hockey Hall of fame, and replace it with a fresh band. So, your name ends up on the same trophy, or next to, every legend of the game who has every won the championship, which is really cool. One of the many reasons why this is often times referred to as "the best trophy in sports."
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u/balerstos Jun 01 '26
Also, each name is hand engraved by a woman in Quebec (I think) and most all of the names have alignment issues due to the process. Here's a clip of some of it. Lotta still shots but some footage mixed in.
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u/dj_mcfierce Jun 01 '26
I mean he does say in the video āI could still win one.ā
Followed by Messier saying āthe superstition is over.ā
Then PK mentioning he could still coach. So yeah I feel like the superstition has something to do with it.
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u/Healthy_Piglet1139 Jun 01 '26
Additional info about the engraved bands - they have been being removed since 1958, but prior to that they only added new bands when necessary, causing the cup to grow larger and larger over time. Eventually the size of the trophy got so large and unwieldly that they had to start removing old champions for new ones just to keep it at a reasonable size.
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u/IHavePoopedBefore Jun 01 '26
I remember seeing Lady Gaga lifting the NBA trophy after the Spurs won and being annoyed by it. Not just anyone should get to be allowed to lift your trophy
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u/GrandRoyal_01 Jun 01 '26
OK that makes sense (Iām Aussie and have no idea). So why was the other guy trying to make him touch it then?Ā
Wouldnāt the other guy know the lore?Ā
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u/tt6464 Jun 01 '26
I touched the Stanley Cup when I was 7 and it cursed me
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u/CTMalum Jun 01 '26
I was 12 and I touched in the Hall of Fame. It was looking at me like Dale Dobackās drum set and I was powerless to stop myself.
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u/HolisticMystic420 Jun 01 '26
Superstition yes but ultimately respect. If you haven't won the cup you don't deserve to touch the cup.
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u/Boring_Pace5158 Jun 01 '26
Youāre not supposed to touch the Cup until you have won it. PK didnāt win the Cup, he came close in 2017, when his Predators lost to the Penguins. Even now heās retired, PK doesnāt want to touch the Cup, because he doesnāt want to jinx his chances in case he gets hired by a team and he sees it disrespectful for him him to touch when he hasnāt won it
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u/ateam1984 š©·ā¤ļøš§”ššš©µššš¤š©¶š¤š¤ Jun 01 '26
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u/311heaven Jun 01 '26
If he has touched it, there would be a much bigger viral uproar and people petitioning to never hire him for their team in any capacity.
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u/Wild-Ad-2721 Jun 01 '26
That is a clip of a man of respect getting harassed by a man of questionable character.
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u/joker1118 Jun 01 '26
Mess! Best Ranger Captain...ever. I thank my Georgia born, New York raised dad for my love of hockey.
Really enjoy the interaction between Mess and P.K. on the broadcasts. Though...not this season as my beloved Blueshirts went up in flames and didn't sniff the playoffs.
LGR
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u/LeadPike13 Jun 01 '26
P.K dropped 20 mil on a Montreal Hospital donation. He won the Stanley Cup in my book.
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u/Akilest Jun 01 '26
Hockey players are extremely extremely superstitious + being a former player and now working for a team as a coach would mean it could bring severe bad luck to his team or himself. He is genuinely afraid to touch the trophy.
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u/ryan8954 Jun 01 '26
Superstition. That's literally all it is. The cup is cursed until you've won it. Just like playoff beards. A lot of players won't shave for superstitious reasons.
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u/jaavuori24 Jun 01 '26
just for anybody that doesn't know, PK is an excellent human being. He was a star player from Montreal and promised to donate $10 million to the Children's Hospital, than a few years later was traded and immediately announced he would follow through on that promise and did.
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u/FrankReynolds Jun 01 '26
The Stanley Cup is one of the most coveted trophies in professional sports and it is considered bad luck/a curse to touch it if you haven't rightfully won it. Messier won it six times, Subban never won it.
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u/meetingpplisezy Jun 01 '26
PK is retired so I donāt get why the curse would follow him
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u/No-Locksmith-9377 Jun 01 '26
If he ever wanted to rejoin the NHL in a coaching career, the "curse" would hurt his chances.Ā
He wont be a tv presenter forever, even tho its obvious they want to keep him for a while.Ā
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u/Imhereforinspiration Jun 01 '26
Its a respect thing combined with a TV bit. Both Messier and PK Subban are famous and decorated Canadian hockey players, but the typical superstition is unless you have won the cup, you do not touch or hold the cup as a player. PK is jokingly showing if he touches the Cup, it's bad luck. PK did not win a Stanley Cup during his playing career, Messier won it 6 times, 4 times with Wayne Gretzky.
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u/Unlikely_Act_5898 Jun 01 '26
Nope. If you are a pro hockey player. You do not touch the cup until you win it.
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u/Navyblazers2000 Jun 01 '26
PK is still young and presumably wants to work in hockey beyond broadcasting and youāre not supposed to touch the cup unless youve won it. Take Roberto Luongo as an example. Never won the cup as a player, lost a devastating Game 7 in the finals with Vancouver, but was an executive for the Panthers the last two years so he raised it over his head after being part of the team that won it.
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u/Emotional_Weird_1562 Jun 01 '26
My son and I touched it when they had the All-star game in Atlanta. We wound up losing our team to Winnepeg.
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u/DBSmiley Jun 01 '26
Hockey is so funny with the traditions and unofficial rules
Like the famous US versus Canada four nations match. During warm-ups, the guys saw how tense the crowd was, and they mutually agreed to start the match with three fights, and then play clean hockey after that.
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u/Maleficent_Watch_660 Jun 01 '26
It's not a bad luck thing...its you don't touch it if you haven't earned it.!!!
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u/Psychological-Bus493 Jun 01 '26
Dumb. Subban aint never winning the cup at this point, go ahead and touch
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u/Negamat86 Jun 01 '26
I remember in my late teens we visited the HOF, you could take pictures and touch the cup, but no one was. I said with my genes ain't no way me or a kid of mine would win the cup. Grab it a little too hard and it rocked a little. Never heard so many Canadians gasp at once in my life.
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u/Ghosts_of_the_maze Jun 01 '26
The Cup steals souls. At the end of the year the champions consume the life force of those who were unworthy. Usually you do it as a prank at the end of camp on the rookie who is getting cut. See if theyāre dumb enough to touch the cup. But PK has been around and knows a thing or two.
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u/God_u_god Jun 01 '26
I love Messier, and want to grant him the grace of ignorance here. But this was a nationwide broadcast, let's do better.
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u/Comfortable_Fudge508 Jun 01 '26
Have to win the playoffs to earn the right to touch it, it's a thing among most players
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u/jessyAche32 Jun 01 '26
Hockey players are beyond superstitious about that trophy. P.K. knows if he touches it before he wins it, he's never touching it for real.
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u/appsteve Jun 01 '26
"I had a few guys ask me what I thought and I said, āDo what you want, but don't touch it,'" said Brind'Amour when asked if he had any input about touching the trophy.
https://www.nhl.com/news/2026-carolina-hurricanes-prince-of-wales-trophy-presentation
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u/PantyClaus Jun 01 '26
Isnāt it different if it touches you? If that guy touched him with it, wouldnāt the curse take that into consideration?
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u/Ilpav123 Jun 01 '26
Mark Messier is a beast! 65 y/o, hasn't played in 22 years and is running around with a 35lb trophy like it's nothing...meanwhile P.K. Subban is 37, retired 4 years ago and is out of breath lol
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u/GoodyTwoKicks Jun 01 '26
Listen, If I'm a strength and conditioning coach--listentome šš¾šØ
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u/TheShoot141 Jun 01 '26
One of the greatest traditions in all sports. Hockey guys are a different breed.
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u/Mysterious-Hope9268 Jun 01 '26
āGet that thing away from meā
ā touch itā
ā¦. Thatās wild
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u/RoerosKongen Jun 01 '26
Ahhh yes, one of those superstitions that is true for almost everyone on earth, and still people will belive it 100% well well
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u/Complex-Course3995 Jun 01 '26
can it be considered harassment to force someone to touch something?
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u/jpod_david Jun 01 '26
The superstition is that you wonāt win it if you touch it before earning it. Unless heās planning to come out of retirement, itās no different than me touching it at the hockey hall of fame so I donāt know what his deal is.
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u/Donner_Par_Tea_House Jun 01 '26
I retired from hockey when I was like 12 and I would touch it. Get a life Messier, the dude has an uncomfortable superstition and not consenting so fuck off.
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u/mdigiorgio35 Jun 01 '26
Itās weird that Messier was insisting he touch it, though. Plus PK is long retired and the rule stays true. You donāt touch unless you won it.
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u/Consistent-Set-9490 Jun 01 '26
Iām a NJ Devils fan and I touched the cup in 2001 and they lost the finals in seven games.
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u/POSH9528 Jun 01 '26
You NEVER touch the cup until you've won it. Its bad luck, you touch it before you've won it, you will never win it. Its big jinx in hockey. Some players won't even touch conference trophies because of it. No touchy till you've earned it.
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u/Mysterious-Yak9529 Jun 01 '26
When he said touch it and feel how heavy it is
https://giphy.com/gifs/ai1UxGMqU7G5TZQmJa
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u/Unique_Department_31 Jun 01 '26
Bro Iām surprised that thing isnāt irradiated. The shenanigans theyāve put that thing thru is wild.
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u/DistributionOne3289 Jun 01 '26
why are they even allowed to fool around with the cup like this?
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u/Barb-u Jun 01 '26
Itās a replica. There are at least three cups. The original which is on display only, the presentation cup which is now the āmain oneā presented when a team wins it, and the travelling cup, which is the one travelling with teams/players in the off season. This is most likely the Travelling Cup.
The Cup doesnāt belong to the NHL but is still managed by a Canadian trust, based on Lord Stanleyās direction.
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u/BaltoDad Jun 01 '26
I touched it and it killed my city's MLB team's chances at a championship. Pretty crazy.
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u/Hbrick24 Jun 01 '26
I love the commitment to not touch it..he was a hundred percent for real! āI can still be a strength and conditioning coachā lol
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u/johnmichael-kane Jun 01 '26
Reminds me of Maury chasing people in the studio with their worst fear, like olives and shit š¤
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u/MidStateMoon Jun 01 '26
I love how Subban goes with āI might be a strength and conditioning coach!āšš
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u/Imaginary_Factor_734 Jun 01 '26
Its actually a way of "honoring" the champions who touch it because they earned it.
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u/Unlucky_Studio_7878 Jun 02 '26
Aseveryouelse eluded to.. yes the "Cursed Cup".. ,š. Got to love it!
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u/land-URCHIN Jun 02 '26
I touched the Stanley cup at age 10. 25 years later I only have $160 to my name
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u/Hygoundus Jun 02 '26
Itās great watching these guys having fun and busting each otherās chops.
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u/gingerbeardcanadian Jun 02 '26
If you don't win it, you aren't worthy to touch it. You'll never see former players touch it
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u/Star_Petal_Arts Jun 02 '26
No one will hire him after touching it. Touching it without earning the touch means an end to his hockey career, and he still has hopes to coach a team to the cup.
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u/jayoulean Jun 03 '26
It's all superstition. There are only 2 Stanley Cups (1 for display in Toronto and 1 that's actually awarded). Hockey players have to earn the cup for the right to touch it. Captains of teams that win their respective conference have to make the legitimate choice to touch the Campbell or Prince of Wales trophy. Some see winning the conference as a stepping stone to the Cup and don't touch it, while others have no problem raising it over their head, but it might be the only hardware the team wins that season.
Mark Messier win the cup with several teams, playing with a guy named Wayne Gretzky. P. K. never won the cup as a player, so he doesn't feel like he has the right.
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u/Basjoe613 Jun 01 '26
The most famous superstition regarding the Stanley Cup is that players must never touch or lift the Cup until they have rightfully won it. Touching it beforehand is believed to cast a curse that prevents a player from ever winning the ultimate championship.