Toews treats Winnipeg to Stanley Cup show
Winnipeg doesn't have an NHL team anymore, but the Canadian city got a close-up look at the Stanley Cup on Sunday courtesy of Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews.
It was Toews' day with the Cup and he took it home to Winnipeg, where he was cheered by hundreds of fans during a rally at city hall and parade.
"You can't come home and experience that type of thing during the season, you're so busy," Toews said. "To see it and experience it is something different altogether. I didn't expect this. I thought it would be an hour with the mayor just to hang out."
Earlier in the day, Manitoba Premier Greg Selinger officially named a lake after Toews in a remote part of the province.
Toews said he planned on going to the remote lake near Flin Flon, Manitoba, at some point this summer.
"I don't want to go there alone," Toews said. "I guess there's no roads there. We were joking about that earlier - we're going to have to build one."
Toews also made his first public comments since Hawks general manager Stan Bowman began getting rid of many of the players that made the Stanley Cup possible because of salary cap issues.
"He (Bowman) and everyone in the front office are trying to do the right thing for the future, but it is out of our (players' control)," Toews told the Tribune. "We know he knows how special that team was, and he would do anything he could to keep it together.
"It hurts, but it would hurt even more if we had lost the Stanley Cup Final."
Now the Stanley Cup heads to British Columbia, where five present and former Hawks will get their days with it.
Colin Fraser, now with the Edmonton Oilers, gets the Cup first on Wednesday and he'll bring it to his hometown of Surrey, British Columbia.
On Thursday it's Troy Brouwer day in North Delta, B.C., according to the Vancouver Sun.
Brent Seabrook gets the Cup on Friday and is planning a private party in Tsawwassen, B.C.
Duncan Keith's day with the Cup is Saturday in Penticton, B.C, and the Sun reported he will take it the children's ward of the Penticton Regional Hospital. The community will bus in people with special needs for that portion of the event.
Finally on Sunday, ex-Hawk Andrew Ladd, now with Atlanta, gets the Cup and will bring it to his hometown of Maple Ridge, B.C.
When Ladd won the Cup with the Carolina Hurricanes in 2006, he brought it to Maple Ridge for a celebration that more than 5,000 people attended.
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