What superstition? Panthers enjoy getting handsy with Prince of Wales Trophy

This was an amazing moment that was improved by the team hoisting the Prince of Wales Trophy.

Awarded to the Eastern Conference’s representative in the Stanley Cup Final, this trophy has taken on a mystique that has kept some fingerprints away. Superstition says that there is a more important trophy — the Stanley Cup — and winning teams should wait to hoist that instead of the conference award.

In recent history, though, there is little to suggest that touching the trophy results in not winning the Stanley Cup.

The Tampa Bay Lightning touched it each of the last three seasons and took home two Cups. The Pittsburgh Penguins held on tight to the Prince of Wales Trophy in 2009, 2016 and 2017 and have three rings to show for it.

Since the lockout in 2004-05, nine of the 17 teams to win the Eastern Conference have touched the trophy. Six of those teams went on to win the Stanley Cup. On the other side, only two teams in that time span have not touched the Prince of Wales and won the Cup.

It’s hard to win even one round in the Stanley Cup playoffs, let alone the three needed to reach the Final. The Panthers were the last team to qualify for this year’s postseason. In the first round, they stunned a Boston Bruins team that had the best regular-season record in league history.

As they awaited the winner of the Dallas-Las Vegas Western Conference Final, they wanted to celebrate their achievement in a way all hockey players dream of and more teams in the East should do: raising a well-earned trophy with their teammates in front of their fans.

“The last thing that we’re going to do is be superstitious about not touching it,” Matthew Tkachuk said postgame, after scoring the series-clinching goal. “Like, nobody said we were even going to make the playoffs. I think it’s pretty cool to touch it, carry it around and take pictures with it. We earned that thing.”