I love the folk art feeling of David Brinley's work, which is well suited for today's illo. The Stanley Cup is such an over-the-top object—it looks like a beer keg with a loving cup sprouting from it. To see its image is to think of the display of pagan-like ritual abandon that happens when a team wins it. Brinley reverently paints the cup with other hoary symbols of hockey (the rink markings, the helmet, sticks and puck, Lord Stanley I presume... as a non-hockey fan I'm sure I don't know the exact signficances of these icons, but that's kind of the point), matching the sentiment of Anil Adyanthaya's article asking the trustees of the Cup to award it to the winning AHL team this year. Adyanthaya makes me wish more sports had objects like the Cup, owned by no one person, passed around by winners, with a patina of wear and stories that have accreted over decades. I have no idea whether the Cup has the power to make hockey transcend the NHL's economic paralysis, but Adyanthaya's argument is impressive. As he puts it, "Hockey has a prize larger than any league. What other sport can say that?"
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