After winning the Stanley Cup in 2020, the Tampa Bay Lightning added more hardware to their team facility in 2021 by going back-to-back as champions of the National Hockey League. On Thursday, the 2020-21 Tampa Bay Lightning received their Stanley Cup Championship rings, which are equal parts glitzy and a recap of some of the notable parts of their latest run to the title.
The ring is crafted in 14-karat white gold with 338 diamonds, 52 genuine sapphires and 31.67 carats of gemstones.
The inside of the ring features a number of notable team mantras and comments, including “#1 BS” — a reference to a now-infamous championship press conference by right winger Nikita Kucherov in which he unloaded on Vezina Trophy voters for passing on Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy.
“Vasy was outstanding — MVP. I was telling him every day, ‘Vasy, you’re MVP. You’re the best player.’ And then they gave it to whatever the guy in Vegas, Vezina. And then last year they gave Vezina to someone else,” Kucherov said. “Number one bull—-. Number one bull—-. Vasy took both Cups, and then he took MVP. “
Other inscriptions within the championship ring include “Last Day of School,” which represents the players’ feelings knowing that their playoff games would be their last as a group, and “Cup, Parade, Repeat,” the locker room mantra of head coach Jon Cooper prior to Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Finals.
The Lightning defeated the Florida Panthers, Carolina Hurricanes and New York Islanders on their way to the Stanley Cup Final, where they defeated the Montreal Canadiens, 4-1 in the series. The results of their playoff rounds are contained within the ring, as is a mention of Vasilevskiy’s record-setting five-straight series-clinching shutouts.
