Stanley's Cup

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Not to be confused with the Stanley Cup, a hockey trophy.

“Stanley's Cup”
South Park episode
Stan and his team learn they will be playing in a professional hockey game.
Episode no.	Season 10 Episode 153
Written by	Trey Parker
Directed by	Trey Parker
Original airdate	November 15, 2006
Season 10 episodes
South Park - Season 10 March 22, 2006 – November 15, 2006
The Return of Chef Smug Alert! Cartoon Wars Part I Cartoon Wars Part II A Million Little Fibers ManBearPig Tsst Make Love, Not Warcraft Mystery of the Urinal Deuce Miss Teacher Bangs a Boy Hell on Earth 2006 Go God Go Go God Go XII Stanley's Cup

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List of South Park episodes

"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, and features Stan Marsh. The episode parodies The Mighty Ducks.

[edit] Plot

The episode begins as Stan's bicycle is towed away for parking tickets. This is a problem, since he needs the bike for his newspaper route (which is how he earns money). He is given an opportunity to get his bike back, but to do so he must do community service by coaching the Park County Pee-Wee hockey team.

As coach, he quickly runs into a whole host of problems — foremost, one of the kids has leukemia, which has already spread to his bone marrow. His father becomes shocked that Stan would take such a job, and thinks that he is 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, though he claims to remember "going to Shakey's afterwards.")

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 are their opponents, the Adams County team (despite Adams team having far better discipline) — 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 the superior Denver County team, at the Pepsi Center, with the same basic premise — the idea being that if Stan wins, Nelson will have enough hope to survive. Thinking about all the various underdog movies, the team decides to believe in themselves and get a good player — 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 changes". 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, due to the Red Wings beating up the South Park players. 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" in a scene reminiscent of many sports movies. The episode concludes with Nelson whispering "No hope... no... hope..." as he flatlines and dies.

[edit] Cultural references

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". The first is the doctor telling Stan that if they lose 'the big game' Nelson will "go out faster than Steve Irwin in a tank full of stingrays." The latter, approximately 30 seconds after, occurs when Stan's team expresses scepticism over how long Nelson was going to live. When Stan tells them that the other team wouldn't kill them, the boys cynically reply "that's what Steve Irwin said about the stingrays."
This episode doesn't feature Cartman or Kenny. Kyle is briefly shown in two scenes: a flashback and during training after Stan recruited Ike.
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.
The entire episode is a close parody of The Mighty Ducks.
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.
The Detroit Red Wings and Colorado Avalanche have a long, and sometimes brutal, rivalry. The best example would be the Red Wings-Avalanche brawl 1997.
The episode is dogged by a county official with a turntable record player, who comments on the changing situation in a way that is reminiscent of Adam Sandler or Rob Schneider movie trailers (cf. "The Biggest Douche in the Universe").
When the crowd begins to chant, "Let them play! Let them play!", it is a reference to The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training from 1977. In the film, the little league game, played at the Houston Astrodome, runs late and the kids are told they have to leave to allow the Major League game to proceed. At which point, they begin the chant to enable the game to finish.
A Red Wings' player wears number 9, but it has been retired for Gordie Howe, also another player wears Sid Abel's retired number 12 and another one, Ted Lindsay's retired number 7. This is a reference to the character Charlie Conway in The Mighty Ducks.
The Wings are visiting the Avs', but the Wings play in red while the Avs are in white. Since the 2003-04 NHL Season, it is supposed to be the home team wearing their coloured jersey and the visitors in white.