It’s tradition, if you’re a Stanley Cup winner, to get your own time with the Cup itself and have some of those moments that you can cherish forever — such as putting your baby in the Stanley Cup! Vladimir Tarasenko, do your thing.
It turns out, though, that Tarasenko was feeling a little more confident than he initially let on while taking this photo. You see, he put his baby in the Stanley Cup before the Cup was even his. The blasphemy!
As he tells NHL.com:
St. Louis led the best-of-7 series 3-2 and was one win away from its first championship when Tarasenko's wife, Yana, gave birth to Artem, the couple's third child (all sons), on June 7. The following day the Cup visited the maternity ward of the hospital where Yana and Artem were recovering.
With the Blues having a chance to win the Cup in Game 6 at Enterprise Center on June 9, Yana wasn't sure what to do when she was offered a chance to have a photo taken of Artem in the bowl. The last thing she wanted to do was spoil the Blues' chances of winning.
"They were going into the rooms visiting newborns and she asked me, 'Should I take a picture or no?'" Tarasenko said. "I was like, 'We were last in the League four or five months ago and we either win or lose not because you take the picture.' So, she took the picture before Game 6 of the baby in the Cup. We were just hoping we were going to win, and we win."
Wait, so now we’re confused about the superstition. If Tarasenko’s baby touches the Cup before he wins it, does that jinx Tarasenko and the Blues, or rather, Tarasenko’s baby’s future NHL chances? Obviously, things turned out just fine for the Blues in the end, so does that mean Tarasenko just made sure his son will never be a NHL champion?
Our tinfoil hats are working overtime right now. What’s next, are you going to tell us that Brayden Schenn also took this photo before winning the Cup and put an end to his dog’s hopes of ever winning a NHL championship?
h/t NHL.com
