- Taylor Hall spent his day with the Stanley Cup in Muskoka, Ontario on Thursday
- He opened at a Bracebridge Tim Hortons and closed with a cottage party on Lake Muskoka
- Read below for Hall’s own words on why he picked his “adopted home”
Taylor Hall started his day with the Stanley Cup at a Tim Hortons and ended it on a steamship.
The Carolina Hurricanes forward spent Thursday with the trophy in Muskoka, Ontario. Philip Pritchard, the Hockey Hall of Fame’s Keeper of the Cup, caught him hauling hockey’s holy grail across a wet parking lot in Bracebridge before the two of them walked in for coffee.
Here’s the stop that kicked everything off:
From there Hall carried the Cup into the Muskoka Lumber Community Centre, where hundreds of fans stood in the rain waiting on him. Wearing his black No. 71 Hurricanes jersey, he signed autographs, posed for photos and told kids to touch it. That went on for more than 90 minutes.
Hall grew up in Calgary and moved to Kingston as a teenager, so a rink two hours north of Toronto is a curious pick. He told MuskokaTODAY.com why he went with it anyway.
“Muskoka has become my adopted home this summer. So I wanted to try and give back any way I can.”
He trains in Bracebridge with former NHLer Sam Gagner’s Muskoka Hockey program and lives on the lake all summer.
Asked whether he had eaten breakfast out of the Cup that morning, Hall admitted the thing had barely been in his hands.
“I just got it 5 minutes ago.”
Then came the rest of the itinerary.
“We’re gonna go on the Wenonah II. Then we’re going to do a little cruise, and then we’re gonna just party at my house.”
The Wenonah II is a steamship out of Gravenhurst. It pushed off around 12:30 and ran about two hours, stopping at Hall’s dock along the way.
Per NHL.com, the night finished with a cottage party for family and friends, Wild forward Nick Foligno among them. Foligno and Hall were teammates in Boston and Chicago.
Gagner got his hands on it later that evening:
Hall earned the day the hard way. He scored the goal that won Game 6 against Vegas on June 14, 16 years after Edmonton took him first overall in 2010.
Seven franchises and 16 seasons later, the Cup spent an afternoon tied up at his dock on Lake Muskoka.
