Stanley Park officials hope to schedule a Stanley Cup Day featuring the trophy and some Bruins' players.
Robert C. McKeanWESTFIELD – A friendly wager over the Stanley Cup finals will benefit Stanley Park here with a new park bench but it also resulted in making friends for Stanley Park director Robert C. McKean and his counterpart in Vancouver.
“Stanley Park will reap benefits of the Boston Bruins win over the Vancouver Canucks and during this friendly wager we have made some great friends in the Northwest,” McKean said Friday.
His wager was with Malcolm Bromley, general manager of the Parks and Recreation Vancouver-BC-CA which also has a Stanley Park.
Immediately following Thursday’s Bruins win, Bromley emailed McKean “Terrific game and series, Bob. The Bruins really deserved to win with consistently solid play. thanks for initiating our friendly wager and hope we can do it again next year. We will be sending that well-deserved bench, enjoy it with pride!”
“It was a lot of fun,” McKean said of the electronic communications back and forth during the past several weeks.
“We haven’t decided on where to place the park bench but we will find a nice place for it,” said McKean said. He said he expects delivery within the next two weeks.
McKean said he plans to submit a request to the Boston Bruins to bring the Stanley Cup to Stanley Park. “I’m hoping to convince them to do that and to send one of two players to meet with Westfield area residents,” he said.
In return for the bench, McKean is planning to acquire a “hockey stick, have as many people here sign it as possible and send it to Stanley Park in Vancouver.”
Despite the rioting reported in Vancouver following the Bruins win, McKean said communications between Stanley Park officials here and Bromley and his representatives “was very cordial. There was no sniping between us. The aftermath, what happened in Vancouver, takes away from the game.”
“This was a great experience and staff at both Stanley Parks are to be commended. the wager was made, and accepted, in the spirit of sportsmanship and good will,” McKean said.
McKean noted that Vancouver’s Stanley Park is named for Lord Stanley “as in Stanley Cup while Stanley Park of Westfield is named after Frank Stanley Beveridge who was originally from Nova Scotia, Ca.