What Rod Brind’Amour Did with the Stanley Cup When Hurricanes Won It in 2006

When Rod Brind'Amour finally got his hands on the Stanley Cup as a player in 2006, he didn't do anything wild with it. He brought it home to his kids.

As the captain, Brind'Amour explained, the tradition back then let him take the Cup home the night of the celebration. He'd been at the rink all night, but he still carried it back, walked into his sleeping children's bedroom, and set it down so they'd wake up to it the next morning and realize what they had. Then he got his full day with it, taking it back to where he grew up for a small community celebration and letting the people who helped him along the way share in it. Nothing over the top.

He marveled that today's players go bigger. His current group had already spent three days with the Cup and were rolling into a fourth, climbing onto a bus to keep the party moving. Brind'Amour loves that they do it, because the thing is so hard to win.

For Brind'Amour, the quiet version made sense, because hockey is a family sport and everyone sacrifices. He didn't get to bed that night in 2006, but plopping the Cup down in his boys' room and then hosting everyone at the house was exactly the celebration he wanted.

The conversation also got to the famous physique. Rich pressed "Rod the Bod" on the shirtless celebration photo making the rounds, and Brind'Amour blamed social media and a player who ripped his shirt off in the locker room, at which point it was go time. As for cheat days, he insisted he's boring. He doesn't have many, eats whatever his four kids leave lying around, cookies included, and figures that's exactly why he has to take care of himself.