St. Louis Blues: If Season Canceled, No Cup Should Be Given

The St. Louis Blues want to defend their Stanley Cup in 2020. However, the league cannot and must not award that hallowed trophy without a playoff.

We all want the St. Louis Blues to be able to defend their 2019 Stanley Cup. Despite our constant need to know what is happening and when and how long things might be going on, the NHL has no need to rush into any decisions.

That said, one decision the NHL should come to immediately is to say that without a finish to the 2019-20 season, no Stanley Cup would be awarded. This will be met with a small backlash, but it is the right thing to do.

This all stems from the rumblings you occasionally see online about what to do with the championship should the NHL be forced to cancel all games, have no playoff and just wait to see if they can start 2020-21. It should be noted that much of that likely comes from Boston Bruins fans, who currently have the most points in the NHL, but there has been murmurings from others along the same lines.

Most of this argument boils down to so much of the season being played. It does seem a shame to not have a champion having played so many games.

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However, it would devalue the Stanley Cup to simply be awarded. The Stanley Cup is earned, not awarded.

This is not the WWE (or WWF for those that haven’t kept up). You don’t just have the commissioner or owners come up with some random formula and hand out the belt…I mean trophy. Teams put their blood, sweat and tears into sixteen grueling wins to earn it. You absolutely cannot cheapen all that effort just to have a champion.

This would not be the first time there was no champion. There was no Stanley Cup handed out in 2005. Yes, that one had no season due to a lockout, but it is a precident.

1919 is even more of a reason to not award a Stanley Cup. In that year, they actually played five games of the championship series before all but three of the Montreal Canadiens fell ill will the Spanish flu.

Montreal’s manager agreed to forfeit the Cup, but Seattle’s coach refused to accept it. Pete Muldoon saw that it was only the catastrophic illness that kept Montreal from playing and knew it would not be right to accept the championship.

That was in the infancy of the Stanley Cup. One would hope, with so much more history behind it now, teams and players would be even more unwilling to accept such a hollow championship.

You can hand out the Presidents Trophy if you want. Nobody is close enough to Boston to argue they could not have that honor even if all games were even.

However, if there is ultimately no way to have a finish of the season or some form of playoff, you simply cannot give out the Stanley Cup. Even casual fans know about the Stanley Cup and regard it as one of the best trophies in all sports.

Some might say this is coming from a place of my team not being in the top spot. Even if the St. Louis Blues had the most points in the league, I would argue this. Blues fans jokingly say they can call themselves champions for another year if no Cup is handed out, but it’s not even about that.

The Stanley Cup cannot be cheapened or tarnished by allowing there to be a “winner” without having to go through all the sacrifices of the past champions.

It is extremely simple. No season, no Cup.