Stanley's Cup

This article is about the South Park episode. For the hockey trophy, see Stanley Cup.

Template:Infobox South Park episode "Stanley's Cup" is episode 1014 (#153) of Comedy Central's South Park. It originally aired on November 15, 2006. This is the 10th season finale of South Park. The episode name is a play on the name of the Stanley Cup, the championship trophy of the National Hockey League (NHL). Stan Marsh is the main character of the episode.

Plot

Template:Spoiler Stan's bike is towed for parking tickets, which is a problem, since he needs the bike for his newspaper route (which is how he earns money). He finds an opportunity to get his bike back, by coaching the Park County Pee-Wee hockey team. He quickly runs into a whole host of problems — one of the kids has cancer and the team from Adams County are all jerks. His father becomes shocked that Stan would take such a job, and thinks that he's trying to "make up" for what happened when Stan was four, when he missed a shot that resulted in a tie for the big game. (Stan can't even remember the event.)

Nelson, the boy with cancer, takes a turn for the worse, and asks Stan to win a game for him. However, his team isn't very good — though neither is the Adams County team (despite Adams team having far better dicipline) — and the team ties, 0-0, following a montage played to the tune of Song 2 by Blur. This makes Nelson's cancer "not better, but not worse, sort of putting him into a cancer limbo." The team is then invited to play against Denver County, which is a very good team, at the Pepsi Center, with the same basic promise — the idea being that if Stan wins, Nelson will have enough hope to survive. Thinking about all the various movies, the team decides to believe in themselves and get a good player — and recruit Ike, based solely on the fact that he's Canadian (which actually does result in him being a better player than the others). Stan's father confronts Stan about playing at the Pepsi Center — the same place where Stan didn't win his game years ago, while he still can't remember it — and while he initially says he won't be there to watch Stan "destroy himself," he then decides (without any actual prompting from Stan) to go anyway.

When they get to the Pepsi Center to play in the intermission of a professional game, the other team doesn't show up, and Stan worries that since they can't play, it could result in Nelson's death — but the Colorado Avalanche let the Pee-wee team play the final period of their game against the Detroit Red Wings because they went through a lot of "emotional stuff". The period starts with the score tied 2-2, and the game ends with the Red Wings winning 32-2 and the South Park team bloody and incapacitated. A member of Stan's team, who is bleeding from the mouth, tells Stan "I hate you coach" before the Red Wings lift the trophy to the song "We Are the Champions."

The episode concludes with Nelson whispering "No hope... no... hope..." as his heart stops beating.

Trivia

• Two references to the death of Steve Irwin are made in response to the controversies started over Irwin's "cameo" in Hell on Earth 2006.
• At the beginning of the episode Mr. Jarvis has three framed news paper clippings. They are titled: 'What is Scuzzlebutt??', 'Local inventor hits big!!' and an obscured view of what can be assumed to be 'Smug Alert!' These are all references to the episodes Volcano, The Entity and Smug Alert!, respectively.
• The episode heavily parodies The Mighty Ducks.
• The style used to narrate Stan's life is the same style used in the trailer voice-overs of Rob Schneider's films in The Biggest Douche in the Universe.
• In the game against the Red Wings, one of the players is wearing the number 9 jersey. That number has been retired for Gordie Howe since 1972.
• The audio clip when the Pepsi Center is shown as the Pee-Wees come to play their game is the "battle won" theme from Heroes of Might and Magic III.
• Stan has a poster of The "Street" Warrior in his room.
• The chant "Let them play! Let them play!" is a reference to the movie "The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training"
• The outfits that Stan and Adams County Team's coach wear, as well as the hair styles are reminiscent of the outfits of the "Miracle on Ice" coaches Herb Brooks and Viktor Tikhonov at the time of the 1980 Winter Olympics.
• Stan's team is actually playing Tyke level hockey, not Pee-wee level. Pee-wees are aged from 11 through 13 years old. Tykes are aged from 5 through 6 years old.
• According to depictions of both the Detroit Red Wings and the Colorado Avalanche players, none of the players shown are Canadian (Canadians in South Park have semicircular heads that detatch at the body and jaw as they talk). In real life, however, as of November 15th in the 2006-2007 NHL season the Detroit Red Wings have 6 Canadian players and the Colorado Avalanche have 14 Canadian players.
• In the game against Adam's County, when Stan is talking to the coach, one of the kids isn't holding a hockey stick but the floor is making noises of hockey sticks being slammed.