Darryl Sutter brings Lord Stanley’s Cup back home to Viking

The Stanley Cup visited Viking last weekend but unlike its visit of two years ago, it was a much smaller, more personal affair.

Although it was common knowledge among many Viking and area residents that the Cup was going to be on display, the only pre-advertising of the event came in two street display boards set up on main street by the town and about a dozen posters displayed by local businesses.

As a result, the crowd which turned out to have photos taken with the Cup was much smaller than in 2012 and consisted mainly of local area residents.

Los Angeles Kings Head Coach Darryl Sutter carried the Cup into Viking Carena Complex and met with fans from from 9 a.m. until 12 noon on Saturday, August 16.

The Cup was then moved to the Sutter farm for a private celebration.

This is the second time in three years local fans watched as Darryl Sutter coached the Kings to a Stanley Cup win.

Sutter stepped in mid-season of 2011-12 and coached Los Angeles team to its first ever Stanley Cup by defeating the New Jersey Devils four games to two to give LA its first Stanley Cup in the 45-year history of the franchise.

This year, Viking area residents watched closely as game five played out on Friday, June 13 at the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles.

The Kings scored in double overtime to defeat the New York Rangers 3-2 winning a second Stanley Cup in three years.

All summer the Cup has been on the move across Canada, the USA, Sweden, Slovakia, and Russia, visiting the towns and cities of all the players and coaching staff of the winning team, a tradition which began in 1995

Even though last Saturday’s event was much more low-key than in 2012, fans could not hide their excitement at being able to meet with Coach Sutter and have their picture taken with him and Lord Stanley’s famous cup.

See more photos and coverage in the August 19, 2014 edition of the Weekly Review! On newsstands now!

Lorraine Poulsen
Editor