How a group of Vail firefighters received an unexpected photo op with the Stanley Cup

The Stanley Cup was in Vail on July 2, courtesy of Colorado Avalanche general manager and former star Joe Sakic.

And among the Vail locations the cup traveled was Meadow Drive, via dolly, where it had to roll right past a trio of on-duty firefighters at Station No. 2.

A Joe Sakic sighting in Vail isn’t terribly uncommon, he’s been known to frequent the area, but seeing Sakic in Vail with the Stanley Cup in tow is right up there with a once-in-a-lifetime experience. It’s worth a try to say something to him in the moment to create a memory.

Those were some of the thoughts flashing through firefighter Josh Hebrew’s head as Sakic and the Stanley Cup dolly rolled down Meadow Drive in front of him.

Firefighters, like any first responders, are required to have a degree of situational awareness while on duty. Seeing what’s happening around them, and pointing out those observations to each other is part of the job.

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Hebrew said the trunk where the Stanley Cup is stored was fresh in the minds of his colleagues at Station No. 2 after watching the Stanley Cup finals.

“We watched them on TV taking the Stanley Cup out of the box that carries it, it’s a large black box that has stickers on it, so when we saw the case coming down the road, we recognized the case,” Hebrew said. “It was one of those things where we were like ‘That looks like the Stanley Cup,’ and then pretty quick we recognized Joe Sakic right away, and it kind of dawned on us that we were looking at the Stanley Cup inside of the case.”

There’s not a whole lot to say in the moment, but what they came up with sufficed.

“We just said ‘Nice job guys,'” Hebrew said with a laugh.

There was a small entourage surrounding Sakic and the cup.

“They recognized that we were the fire department,” Hebrew said, and one of the people in the group asked if they wanted to take a picture.

“Instantly all of the three of us that were here very authoritatively said yes,” Hebrew said.

According to the National Hockey League, the Stanley Cup — in its varying forms — has stood as the symbol of excellence in the game of ice hockey since 1893, and the league champions get to keep the cup for a year following their win.

In 1995, “a new tradition was started: Making sure every Stanley Cup-winning player has a chance to have the Cup for a day,” according to an NHL.com story from 2007. Gone are the days of players “kicking the Stanley Cup into Ottawa’s Rideau Canal after a night of carousing.”

Sakic is now the team’s General Manager; he’s best known for scoring 120 points in 82 regular-season games and leading the Avalanche to a Stanley Cup championship during the 1995–96 season. It was the franchise’s first year in Denver.

“When the Avalanche came to town way back when I was a fairly avid hockey fan, I really watched them for those first few seasons,” Hebrew said.

Hebrew’s colleague Airek Streetz is also a hockey fan and attended one of the NHL finals Game 2 in Denver in June.

“So it came full circle for (Streetz) to see the cup in Vail and actually get to touch it,” Hebrew said.

While he watched only the late-season games this year, Hebrew said after his experience with the cup will he’ll likely go into next season as excited to watch games as he was following Sakic’s historic 1995-96 season.

“I guess I’m more of a hockey fan again now,” he said. “It was a neat experience that will certainly be once in a lifetime for us.”