How do you think players feel who win the Stanley Cup very early in their career and never get back?

Cursed Lemon

Registered Bruiser
Nov 10, 2011
11,465
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Dey-Twah, MI
Just a random point of discussion, there are some players who have won the Cup very early on in their careers and spent their whole careers trying to repeat that performance. Examples would include Corey Perry (lol) and Ryan Getzlaf, Jaromir Jagr, Alex Kovalev, Gary Roberts, almost Darren Helm before he won another with Colorado right at the end.

Obviously a professional athlete is going to be upset each year they fail to win a championship regardless of circumstances and obviously a ring is a ring, but do you think these guys have a kind of colored retrospective on winning the Cup before they really came into their own as players and drove the bus to some extent? That doesn't mean they didn't perform in their Cup winning years, but clearly no one is their prime form in their first couple of years in the league.
 

HockeyVirus

Woll stan.
Nov 15, 2020
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Doesn't matter MOD won the cup.

Honestly ideal situation. Already a winner can avoid that narrative and chase the money / location you want and not care about a cup
 
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Figgy44

A toast of purple gato for the memories
Dec 15, 2014
13,587
8,874
Just a random point of discussion, there are some players who have won the Cup very early on in their careers and spent their whole careers trying to repeat that performance. Examples would include Corey Perry (lol) and Ryan Getzlaf, Jaromir Jagr, Alex Kovalev, Gary Roberts, almost Darren Helm before he won another with Colorado right at the end.

Obviously a professional athlete is going to be upset each year they fail to win a championship regardless of circumstances and obviously a ring is a ring, but do you think these guys have a kind of colored retrospective on winning the Cup before they really came into their own as players and drove the bus to some extent? That doesn't mean they didn't perform in their Cup winning years, but clearly no one is their prime form in their first couple of years in the league.

I forget who, but IIRC, I've read interviews about this in the past and the gist was that both were extremely valuable memories but completely different. The player kept both memories separate. IIRC, someone even said it made the second win more meaningful as it tied into their original win where they took it for granted and then the second win really encapsulated and defined that long road back to the cup.

A few players in recent memory said that after you win once, you'd want it again and again (pretty sure it was a few Avs players/interviews I'm recalling).

I honestly cannot recall who these interviews are for though. There's a chance I'm accidentally mixing up situations where it's an interview of a player who won a cup a long time previously, then won it again as part of management of a team they were working for (instead of early + late career).

I'm sure there's a bunch of guys who aren't as hungry for the cup soon after winning it so early and kinda go full mercenary (ie: Jagr, Perry etc.) but I think once they feel the cup is within reach I doubt they mail it in to get it again. If anything, I assume it's a different type of desire that still motivates them to their highest level of performance to get their hands on the cup again.
 
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joestevens29

Registered User
Apr 30, 2009
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It might suck during their careers not to win again, but once they have a chance to reflect and realize there are a lot of people that never won one I think they are probably happy to at least gotten it once.

Heck look at Perry/Getzlaf, they had vets in Selanne, Pronger, Marchant, O'Donnell etc.. that were around for many years and hadn't won one until that year. And never got another. Just need to be thankful they got one

Hear lots of ex-NHLers talk about how their one disappointment/regret is that they never got a cup or even played in a cup final.
 
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joestevens29

Registered User
Apr 30, 2009
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I forget who, but IIRC, I've read interviews about this in the past and the gist was that both were extremely valuable memories but completely different. The player kept both memories separate. IIRC, someone even said it made the second win more meaningful as it tied into their original win where they took it for granted and then the second win really encapsulated and defined that long road back to the cup.

A few players in recent memory said that after you win once, you'd want it again and again (pretty sure it was a few Avs players/interviews I'm recalling).

I honestly cannot recall who these interviews are for though. There's a chance I'm accidentally mixing up situations where it's an interview of a player who won a cup a long time previously, then won it again as part of management of a team they were working for (instead of early + late career).

I'm sure there's a bunch of guys who aren't as hungry for the cup soon after winning it so early and kinda go full mercenary (ie: Jagr, Perry etc.) but I think once they feel the cup is within reach I doubt they mail it in to get it again. If anything, I assume it's a different type of desire that still motivates them to their highest level of performance to get their hands on the cup again.
Look at how happy Lou was to win one as a part of management and I don't even know what he technically did for them.

There is just that desire to win after you put your whole life into something.
 
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wetcoast

Registered User
Nov 20, 2018
24,485
11,450
You literally do what you can in life, why should hockey players be any different?

I think some fans think about this way more than players do and live and die vicariously through it to make up for some void in their own lives.
 

EXTRAS

Registered User
Jul 31, 2012
9,213
5,727
It's gotta feel better than those older great players who go chasing a cup on different teams desperate to get just 1 to cement their legacy, but never manage to get it. Probably large feelings of desperation there...Joe Thornton.
 

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