Devils Lose At Winning The Cup

What at first seemed like a very quick ending and anti-climatic Stanley Cup final series was suddenly one headed for the record books through the effort of a determined and somewhat outmatched New Jersey Devils team. It has been 70 years since any NHL team has come back to win the famed trophy after being down three games to none in the final seven-game series. But the surprising Devils fought back tooth and nail to win games 4 and 5 and began to believe that they could accomplish the nearly impossible. They wore new T-shirts in the locker room saying, “Why not us?”

But that all abruptly ended in game six. It was primarily due to a somewhat stupid penalty early on in period one sending the offending Devils forward to hockey’s so-called ‘sin bin’. The major infraction left his team short-handed for five long minutes against a team they were struggling to match up with at even strength alone. The seemingly eternal power play turned the now nervous L. A. Kings into sharks smelling blood. When completed, it allowed them to score three times thereby putting the dream of a fourth New Jersey Cup on the back burner.

Lord Stanley’s prize is given to the winner of the hockey playoffs each season and is the oldest professional sports trophy in North America. It was given for the first time in 1893 to a Montreal franchise In 1915, After a series of league mergers and folds, the Cup became the de facto championship trophy of the NHL in 1926. The Cup became the NHL championship prize in 1947. Since the 1914–15 season the Cup has been won a combined 94 times by 17 active NHL teams and five defunct teams. The New York Yankees of hockey, the Montreal Canadians, have won the Cup a record 24 times.

The Cup has an amazing and storied past. It may be the most coveted, and the most unique, of all sporting awards. The major reason for this distinction is something that is done at the end of the annual playoff run. It is like no other. Once the brutally hard and marathon-like victory on the ice is achieved, every member of the winning team has his name inscribed on the precious hardware. Almost every kid who loves the game dreams of the amazing honor of seeing their name placed there. And this special practice does seem a way to gain real life hockey immortality and helps explain the unparalleled passion and sacrifice given by those who play the world’s fastest and most physically demanding, sport.

The Bible speaks of something similar to the Cup and its special practice of having individual names placed on the sport’s ‘Holy Grail’. Revelation 21:27 refers those who are “written in the Lamb's Book of Life.” These are the souls who have trusted the ‘Lamb’, Jesus Christ, as their personal Savior at some point in the earthly contest. They alone are allowed to spend eternity with Him in their Heavenly home. (John 14:2-3) These who are by faith a part God’s redeemed team, the church, possess the truest form of immortality. It is a future of blessings and rewards far beyond any human comprehension as recorded in numerous passages like Revelation 22:3-5.

“And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him. They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads. There shall be no night there: They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light. And they shall reign forever and ever.”

The New Jersey Devils were defeated this time around. But in October of 2013 they will begin a fresh season and a new quest with high hopes of having their names become part of the elusive Cup. But all whose names appear forever on the pages of Lambs special are done – forever! Their victory is sure, permanent and complete. Their adversary, the Devil, was like the hockey Devils defeated  - but for eternity when Christ cried from the cross with just three profound words revealing His total victory over sin.

“It is Finished” (John 19:30)

Bill Breckenridge