Lord Stanley’s Cup is coming to town.
Local hockey product and Chicago Blackhawks defenceman Kyle Cumiskey tasted ultimate victory earlier this month and told the News he will be bringing the cup to Abbotsford some time this summer.
Every member of a Stanley Cup-winning team gets one day with the cup to do what they please. Players have previously taken it on fishing trips, to the top of mountains and to backyard barbecues, among other adventures. Cumiskey said a date for his day with the cup is still to be determined.
The 28-year-old Cumiskey played 16 games for the Blackhawks this past season, including nine in the playoffs and three in the Stanley Cup final series.
“I was excited and nervous the night before,” Cumiskey said of Game 1 of the final series. “I hadn’t played in an NHL game for a little bit.”
While Cumiskey didn’t play in the cup-clinching game, he got to skate the cup around the ice at the United Center following Chicago’s Game 6 win at home against the Tampa Bay Lightning, something he said was remarkable.
“It’s what every player dreams of,” said Cumiskey. “It was a pretty special moment for me.”
Brad Bowen, who runs Bo Knows Hockey, a local skills and development program that Cumiskey and Blackhawks teammate Brent Seabrook were once part of, was in attendance at Game 6 to see his long-time student hoist the hardware.
“It was cool,” said Bowen, who ventured to ice-level when the cup was presented. “The anthem was second to none … [and] we had good seats thanks to Kyle.”
Cumiskey said the post-victory celebrations were also memorable.
“It was a lot of fun going around the city. The support from the fans was just amazing,” Cumiskey said.
An extended parade was followed by a rally at Soldier Field, Chicago’s historic downtown stadium, where 60,000-plus fans crammed into the bleachers, with an additional 10,000 on the field. Tickets for the rally were reportedly sold out in about 15 minutes. To describe the setting Cumiskey used a one-word descriptor: “surreal.”
Cumiskey first broke into the NHL in 2006 with the Colorado Avalanche, but injuries put the brakes on his career. In 2012, he left North America to suit up for Swedish hockey club Modo. After two productive seasons in Europe, he signed with Chicago last summer hoping to give the NHL “one more shot.”
After spending the bulk of the 2014-15 season with Chicago’s’ minor league affiliate, Cumiskey was called up in the spring after injuries struck Chicago’s blue line.
