"Will he touch it?"

With Vancouver up 3 games to 1 on San Jose and Boston leading Tampa Bay 3-2 the yearly question arises, will the captain of either team pick up the conference championship trophy? This year that decision will likely fall on Henrik Sedin of the Canucks and Zdeno Chara of the Bruins, but does evidence show that maybe they should embrace the moment and dance with the Clarence Campbell Bowl or Prince of Wales Trophy?

Here's a chart

Teams that refuse to touch the conference championship trophy are 5-6 in the finals. In years when one team picks up the trophy and the other doesn't, the team that celebrated with the trophy is 4-3. I'd embrace the moment and party with the trophy while I had the chance. Carpe diem. Seize the trophy.


Updated: Neither Henrik Sedin or Zdeno Chara picked up their respective conference trophy. Taking a page from the 2006 Hurricanes, the Bruins took a team picture surrounding the Prince of Wales Trophy, but not a single player touched it. Incidentally, both captains are European. Meaning, for just the second time ever a European captain will lift the Stanley Cup. Nik Lidstrom of the Detroit Red Wings was the first.