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The Chronicles of Stanley: Party fouls and angering hockey gods

The Chronicles of Stanley is an occasional series this summer that tracks the Pittsburgh Penguins as they each get their special alone time with the Stanley Cup. For more about the travels of the Chalice, visit the Hockey Hall of Fame's Stanley Cup journal.

The annual summer tradition of the Stanley Cup making it way around the globe is well underway. It's been about a month and a half since the Pittsburgh Penguins added a third Cup to their trophy case and began stuffing the NHL's pockets with post-championship merchandise sales. I was in the NHL Store (Powered by Reebok, of course!) earlier this week and as soon as I walked in there was Penguins Cup goodies bombarding me. As a Pens fan, it was glorious.

A championship will boost a franchise's profile tenfold and in the Penguins case, a hundred. The city of Pittsburgh took to its Stanley Cup champions just as much, if not more, than they did when the Steelers won their second Super Bowl this decade last February.

Each player's day is special and through its first few appearances this summer, the Cup isn't showing any signs of jetlag:

Tyler Kennedy(notes) was the first member of the Penguins to spend time with the Cup. According to Keeper of the Cup, Walt Neubrand, one of the stops was Boston Pizza where Kennedy and pals drank beers from the bowl. If this photographic evidence above shows Kennedy and friend drinking alcohol from a straw, then that's a big party foul.

During a boat trip to the family's camp, Kennedy's cousin caught a snake and proceeded to let it chill out in the bowl, which likely means that Kris Draper's(notes) daughter won't have to feel alone about being the only one to poop in the Cup.

When his time with the Cup was over, Kennedy and teammate Kris Letang(notes) spent time practicing for their careers after hockey by doing the local weather forecast.

More Cup travels after the jump.

In the midst of celebrating with Philippe Boucher(notes), former Dallas Stars teammate Stephane Robidas(notes) (who's yet to win the Stanley Cup) mistakenly touched the Cup and despite the superstitious nature of hockey players, embraced the great trophy by saying, "'Ah, this feels really good. I could learn to like this when Dallas wins the Cup this year,' he said to derisive taunts from the Penguins' fans in attendance."

You don't mess with the hockey gods. Don't bet on the Dallas Stars being part of next summer's 'Chronicles of Stanley'.

We all know how those Staal boys can get when they get a chance to party, but when Jordan's day with the Cup came this past week, the Penguins forward managed to keep things low-key and do the usual hospital/local arena visit and family party in his native Thunder Bay, Ontario.

Of course, brother Marc and Jared, who've yet to taste a championship in their young careers were happy on-lookers hoping to follow in the footsteps of their two siblings. Staal's parents must be getting used to having a summer celebration every few years.

Coming soon: Penguins captain Sidney Crosby(notes) will be bringing the Cup to his hometown of Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia on August 7th, his 22nd birthday, and celebrate with a street hockey game between friends. Quite the step up from using a garbage can growing up as a kid.