The Clarence S. Campbell Bowl sat alone on a podium on one end of the rink long after the Vegas Golden Knights had moved their celebration from the ice to the locker room after clinching the Western Conference title with a 2-1 win over the Colorado Avalanche at T-Mobile Arena on Tuesday night.
Nobody associated with the Knights organization was going to dare touch it.
“Our ultimate goal is to win the other one,” captain Mark Stone said. “We want to win the Stanley Cup. That’s the ultimate goal, and that’s the reason behind (not touching the conference championship trophy). We still have four more wins we want to accomplish.”
Call it superstition. Call it tradition. Call it silly if you must. But there was no chance anyone was going to tempt fate. There was a group photo with the trophy as a centerpiece but nobody so much as breathed on it.
The Knights mocked the hockey Gods by celebrating with the trophy in their inaugural season when they made an improbable run to a Western Conference championship.
Then they lost the Final in five games to the Washington Capitals.
When the Knights made it back to this point in 2023, the directive was to stay away from the trophy.
The result was a Final victory over the Florida Panthers.
“You go with what works,” said forward Cole Smith, who scored the eventual game-winner. “The guys who have been here before said they didn’t touch it last time, so we weren’t coming close to it. That’s for sure.”
It has become almost cliche for conference champions to not touch the trophy despite the league putting on an elaborate on-ice presentation, though there is no long-term evidence of bad luck.
Only three teams touched the Campbell Bowl since 2007.
The Knights, who openly celebrated with it in 2018, lost their series. The Oilers hoisted it last year before dropping the Final to the Panthers, but they left it alone the previous year when they also lost to Florida.
Colorado, however, lifted the trophy in 2022 before defeating the Lighting to win the Final.
The Campbell Bowl has been awarded to the Western Conference champion since the 1993-94 season, except for when the Montreal Canadiens, an Eastern Conference team, won a modified playoff semifinal series in 2021 due to COVID. They didn’t touch it for the record, and lost in the Final.
In the past 19 seasons, the 16 teams that did not touch the Campbell Bowl went on to win the Stanley Cup nine times.
So the jury is still out.
Don’t try to tell Knights forward Nic Dowd there is no such thing as bad luck, however.
“Hell yeah,” he said of whether he believes touching the trophy is a curse. “I believe in that. Definitely.”
Dowd has often been called quirky by his teammates, so some of his idiosyncrasies may go beyond just not touching the Campbell Bowl.
“Some of my buddies might laugh if they see this because they know I’m one of the most superstitious guys on the team,” Dowd said, laughing.
He was more serious about what the team actually accomplished Tuesday.
Dowd was incredibly proud of making it to this point even if he didn’t get a chance to touch the trophy his team was awarded for doing so.
“I don’t think there’s ever a thought that you’ve earned it,” he said. “I’ve been playing for 10 years and I had only won one playoff series before this. And I’ve played with some really good teams and some great players. It’s hard to win.”
Now they will try to win the trophy they can actually enjoy.
The Knights will have some time off to enjoy what they have accomplished and rest up with the Eastern Conference series still ongoing.
Carolina leads Montreal 2-1 with Game 4 set for Wednesday.
Stone’s focus is on a Final that is likely to start in the first week of June.
“We’re happy with where we’re at,” he said. “We put ourselves in a spot to ultimately compete for (the Stanley Cup). Couldn’t be happier for the guys and be more proud. We’ll enjoy it for sure, then get right back to business.”
Hopefully, somebody will have removed the Campbell Bowl from the ice by the time T-Mobile Arena hosts Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final.
It certainly won’t be one of the players.
Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AdamHillLVRJ on X.
