Clarence S. Campbell Bowl
Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox sports award The Clarence S. Campbell Bowl,<ref name="NHL" /> or simply the Campbell Bowl, is a team award presented by the National Hockey League (NHL). Named after Clarence Campbell, who served as president of the NHL from Template:Nhly to Template:Nhly, it has been awarded for different accomplishments throughout its history, serving as a counterpart to the Prince of Wales Trophy since the 1967 NHL expansion by using the same criteria in the opposite competitive grouping. The Campbell Bowl has been awarded to the West Division regular season champions (1967–1974), the Campbell Conference regular season champions (1974–1981), the Campbell Conference playoff champions (1981–1993), and the Western Conference playoff champions (1993–2020, 2022–present).<ref name="NHL">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Due to a modified playoff format held in 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Campbell Bowl was awarded to the Montreal Canadiens after they defeated the Vegas Golden Knights in the Stanley Cup semifinals.
History
The Clarence S. Campbell Bowl was donated by the NHL's clubs in recognition of the contributions and services of its namesake, the League President at the start of the Modern Era expansion. Throughout its history it has been a parallel to the Prince of Wales Trophy, using the same criteria in the opposite competitive grouping. From its inception in the Template:Nhly season through to Template:Nhly it was awarded to the first-place finisher in the West Division during the regular season.<ref name="NHL" /> With NHL realignment in 1974–75, it was given to the team with the best regular season record in the Campbell Conference (the successor to the West Division) through the Template:Nhly season.<ref name="NHL" /> Beginning with the Template:Nhly season, it switched to the Campbell Conference playoff champions, and since the Template:Nhly season, when the Campbell Conference became the Western Conference, the trophy has gone to the Western Conference playoff champions.<ref name="NHL" />
A traditional superstition that is prevalent among many of today's NHL players is that no player should either touch or hoist the Campbell (Western Conference champion) or Prince of Wales (Eastern Conference champion) trophies after they have won the conference playoffs; these players feel that the Stanley Cup is the true championship trophy and thus it should be the only trophy that they should be hoisting. Instead of touching the conference trophy, the captain of the winning team merely poses (usually looking solemn) with the trophy, and sometimes, the entire team poses as well. There have been other teams, however, that have ignored the superstition and hoisted the conference trophy and then went on to win the Cup anyway.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }} Template:Dead link</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
The NHL temporarily suspended the conferences and re-aligned the league into four temporary divisions for the 2020–21 NHL season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, the semifinal round of the 2021 Stanley Cup playoffs was contested between the winners of the divisional playoffs and they were seeded according to their regular season record. Initially the trophy was not going to be awarded,<ref name="NHL2021">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> but it was later decided that the Campbell Bowl would be awarded to the winner of the Stanley Cup semifinals between the North and West divisions. Eventually, Montreal Canadiens (the only Eastern Conference team in that half of the "bracket") defeated the Vegas Golden Knights to win their first and (barring a further change in the playoff format) only Campbell Bowl in their history.<ref name="SCS2021">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Winners
- Key
- Template:Dagger – Eventual Stanley Cup champions
West Division regular season champions (1967–1974)
Campbell Conference regular season champions (1974–1981)
Campbell Conference playoffs champions (1981–1993)
Western Conference playoffs champions (1993–2020)
Stanley Cup semifinals (2020–2021)
| Season | Winner | Win # |
|---|---|---|
| Template:Nhly | Montreal Canadiens | 1 |
Western Conference playoffs champions (2021–present)
| Season | Winner | Win # |
|---|---|---|
| Template:Nhly | Colorado Avalanche Template:Dagger | 3 |
| Template:Nhly | Vegas Golden Knights Template:Dagger | 2 |
| Template:Nhly | Edmonton Oilers | 8 |
| Template:Nhly | Edmonton Oilers | 9 |
See also
References
External links
- Clarence S. Campbell Bowl history at NHL.com Template:Webarchive
- Clarence S. Campbell Bowl profile at Legends of Hockey.net