DENVER (KDVR) — A Denver couple got the surprise of a lifetime when the Stanley Cup was mistakenly delivered to their doorstep.
Kit Karbler and his husband were at their home Tuesday when they noticed a vehicle stopped outside their house.
“It looks like a contractor or something,” Karbler told Nexstar’s KDVR. “I didn’t know. And a fella comes to the door. He’s got long, kind of gray hair, parted and he’s very friendly … And he comes right in and they’re looking, the truck is backed up and they’re looking to bring in the trophy.”
They were looking to deliver the Stanley Cup trophy, that is.
“He opened it up all the way, said, ‘Go ahead.’ I lifted it up. I couldn’t believe how heavy it was. I ran my fingers over the engraving,” Karbler said.
The one thing he did not do was take a bunch of pictures.
“It happened so fast and they were so nice. I could have taken lots more photos and maybe one with the dog and the Cup. One with me. But I wasn’t thinking that way,” Karbler said.
Because, after all, the special delivery was not meant for him.
“They were looking for Landeskog,” he said.
Apparently, Colorado Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog’s residence has a similar-looking address.
“I couldn’t believe it! All my thoughts were wide open because how could that be? Because I knew that we had Avalanche players that lived in the neighborhood but I didn’t know how close,” Karbler said.
KDVR interviewed the Hockey Hall of Fame’s Keeper of the Cup, Philip Pritchard, Wednesday morning and he confirmed the mix-up.
“We stopped there. We couldn’t really see the number of the house, so I said, ‘We’ll just go up and knock, what’s the worst thing? They say, ‘Hi, who are you guys?’ Sure enough, I knock, ‘Hi, who are you guys?’” Pritchard said.
The Cup’s path since the Avalanche won it
The Avs beat the Lightning in six games to win the Stanley Cup for the first time in 21 years and very quickly dented it after it was in their possession. The team brought it back to Denver on Monday and it was passed around as they deplaned. The Stanley Cup even got some photo ops with the Denver Fire Department and other employees at the airport.
The cup will make an appearance before the Colorado Rockies game at Coors Field on Wednesday night in a ceremony for the Avalanche players and staff.
The holy grail of hockey will be on display around the streets of downtown Denver on Thursday morning for the official Stanley Cup celebration parade. And the streets of Denver will be painted burgundy and blue for the parade route.