Shea Weber and the Montreal Canadiens kept their hands off the Clarence S. Campbell Bowl after on Thursday advancing to the Stanley Cup Final, and even rookie Cole Caufield had no interest in touching it.
“Obviously there’s a bigger one out there that we’re chasing, so I think that’s the only thing on our mind right now,” Caufield said following their semi-final series-ending win over the Vegas Golden Knights in Game 6. “It’s good to enjoy it. We’ve come a long way to get here, but the job is not finished.”
Montreal are in the final for the 35th time in the franchise’s history and face the defending champions, the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Photo: Jean-Yves Ahern-USA TODAY
Not only do the Canadiens not celebrate second-place finishes, but perhaps it is best that Weber avoided the semi-final trophy typically given out to the Western Conference champions, because Campbell is not well liked in Quebec.
Campbell was the league president who suspended Maurice “Rocket” Richard for the remainder of the season and playoffs for hitting a linesman during a game in March 1955, leading to riots in Montreal. The Canadiens had never captured the trophy named for Campbell in their history — they have won the Prince of Wales Trophy a record 25 times — but in this reformatted season, that was the case on Thursday.
Now the focus turns toward the Stanley Cup and there is no such hatred toward namesake Lord Stanley.
“We got another series coming up,” said Weber, who is to play in his first Cup final at age 35. “We’ve got to win four more games, but definitely proud of everybody in that locker room right now and what we’ve accomplished so far. But definitely still work to be done.”
Three-time Cup winner Patrick Sharp, now an NBC Sports analyst, expected Montreal to lose every round. Only after watching Canadiens goaltender Carey Price and his teammates frustrate Vegas did he realize he and so many others were just wrong.
“We should’ve known better,” Sharp said. “It’s a team that’s got some belief, no question about that, and those teams are often the most dangerous this time of year.”
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