The Stanley Cup is the championship trophy given to the National Hockey League champions. The Stanley Cup is named after Lord Stanley of Preston, who was the Governor-General of Canada from 1888 to 1893. The Cup was first awarded in 1893 to the Montreal Amateur Athletic Association on behalf of the Montreal Athletic Club.

Stanley purchased a punch bowl made in Sheffield, England for ten guineas, which translates to roughly $1,150 US dollars today. That original Stanley Cup is kept on permanent display at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Lord Stanley never witnessed either a championship hockey contest or his namesake trophy presented to a championship team. Stanley's term as Governor-General was scheduled to end in September 1893, however, in April of that year (midway through the hockey season), Stanley's brother, the Fifteenth Earl of Derby, died. Lord Stanley resigned the Governor-Generalship and returned home to England on July 15, 1893 to become the Sixteenth Earl of Derby.http://www.nhl.com/cup/cupearly.html

In 1910, the Cup was awarded solely to professional clubs. Following the demise of the PCHL in 1927, the Stanley Cup has only been awarded to NHL franchises. For his contributions to the game, Stanley was inducted to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1945, one of fourteen inductions that year.http://www.nhl.com/cup/cupearly.html

In the current playoff format, where eight teams from both the Eastern and Western Conference make the postseason, a team must win four best of seven series in order to claim the Stanley Cup.

Only twice has the Cup failed to be awarded. In 1919, with the series between the Montreal Canadiens and Seattle Metropolitans tied at 2-2-1, the series was put on hold when Montreal's Newsy Lalonde, Joe Hall, Billy Coutu, Jack MacDonald and coach George Kennedy were hospitalized with the flu. Hall died four days later, and the series never completed.http://www.hhof.com/HTML/newsSCbands.shtml The other campaign where no Cup was awarded was of course, the 2004-2005 season, which was completely wiped out by the lockout.

With the 2010 NHL Playoffs getting underway on April 14, the Pittsburgh Penguins, led by Sidney Crosby, are the defending Stanley Cup champions, having upended the Detroit Red Wings in a thrilling seven game series to cap the 2008-09 season.http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1841215/pittsburgh_penguins_parade_secured.html

When it comes to Stanley Cup victories, the Montreal Canadiens have won the most, hoisting the Cup 24 times. Next are the Toronto Maple Leafs with 13, while the Detroit Red Wings have the most Stanley Cup victories among teams based in the United States with eleven.http://www.nhl.com/cup/champs.html

The Stanley Cup is the only trophy in the four major pro sports in North America to use the same trophy every year. In baseball, football and basketball, a new trophy is given to that particular year's winner. In hockey, the trophy is given to the team that wins and remains in their possession until the next champion is crowned.

The Stanley Cup has seen its fair share of bizarre incidents. In 1905, the Ottawa Silver Seven had a contest to see if one of them could kick the Cup into the Rideau Canal. After succeeding, the team left, with the Cup floating in the canal until the next day.

In 1907, the Montreal Wanderers were the champions. After having a photo taken to commemorate the event, they left the trophy at the home of the photographer. The photographer's mother thought that the trophy would be a terrific flower pot, and so it was for several months before it was relocated.

The 1924 Montreal Canadiens left the Cup in a snowbank when the vehicle they were driving to the celebration got a flat. The Cup had been in the trunk, so when they took the spare out, they put the Cup on the side of the road. They managed to remember it and find it still in its location.

The original bowl and collar for the Cup were retired to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1962 after the Maple Leafs won the Cup, only to be stolen in 1970. They were missing for seven years before an anonymous phone call pointed police in the direction of a back room of a Toronto cleaning store. There, the collar and bowl were located.

The Cup was nearly stolen in 1977 by a group of men who, when their vehicle was inspected, were found to have detailed plans of the Hall and a list of the equipment needed to pull off the job.

Then in 1996, Colorado Avalanche defenseman Sylvain Lefebvre christened his child in the bowl of the Cup following his team's win.http://www.hhof.com/legendsofhockey/html/silver_stTales.htm

These are just some of the zanier tales in the storied history of Lord Stanley's chalice.

• Montreal Canadiens: 24
• Toronto Maple Leafs: 13
• Detroit Red Wings: 11
• Edmonton Oilers: 5
• Boston Bruins: 5
• New York Islanders: 4
• New York Rangers: 4
• Ottawa Senators: 4