Stanley Cup visits Las Vegas before NHL playoffs

At the end of a long NHL season, Mike Bolt is the guy you want to see.

The Stanley Cup’s longtime keeper is a welcome sight for many weary players, because after months of games he gets to give them the ultimate reward. Bolt, who travels with the trophy about 200 days a year, brings the Cup around the world each summer when each member of the winning team gets to spend a day with it in his community.

There’s hope one stop might be Las Vegas in a few months with the Golden Knights close to starting their playoff run, but with the team in Canada the Cup was brought far away from their prying eyes and to The Westin on Friday. If superstitions are to be believed, that’s a good thing for the Knights.

“Players will usually not touch the Cup until they win it,” Bolt said. “Some guys don’t even want to go near it.”

Bolt, who has chaperoned the 3-foot, 90-pound prize innumerable times the last 18 years, knows all about the traditions and superstitions surrounding the Cup, which has served as the NHL’s championship trophy since 1926. He’s with it most of the time for media events, corporate gatherings and team celebrations, though it actually spends around 330 days a year on the road.

He’s there for the Cup parade and for many of the summer show-offs in players’ local communities. That doesn’t just include the U.S., as Bolt’s stops include Russia, Northern Sweden and recently Slovenia with Los Angeles Kings forward Anze Kopitar.

“The country was beautiful, the food was great and the beer wasn’t too bad either,” Bolt said of Slovenia.

The Golden Knights player who’s seen Bolt the most is undoubtedly Marc-Andre Fleury, who’s already had three days with the Cup as part of three title-winning Penguins team. Fleury’s name also appears on the Cup three times, as the champions get their names engraved into the surface of its five rings each September.

The goaltender will be looking to get his name on there one more time when the playoffs start next week, while Bolt already will be thinking about this summer’s itinerary. He has visited Las Vegas plenty of times, including with Tampa Bay Lightning goaltender John Grahame in 2004, but he’s noticed a lot more excitement for hockey in town this year.

His message to Golden Knights fans: Strap in.

“If people in Las Vegas think the regular season was exciting, they ain’t seen nothing yet,” Bolt said. “The playoffs are awesome.

“I’d like to challenge any sports fan who thinks the Stanley Cup playoffs are not the most exciting type of playoff sport in the world. It’s end-to-end action, edge-of-your-seat action.”

Contact Ben Gotz at bgotz@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BenSGotz on Twitter.