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www.insidehalton.com |OAKVILLE BEAVER |Thursday, July 27, 2017 |30 Kevin Nagel, Oakville Beaver Sports Editor, knagel@burlingtonpost.com Sports "Connected to your Community " Stanley Cup brings joy Penguins'W ilson shares his day w iththe Cup w ith Oakville By Herb Garbutt Oakville Beaver staff It had been a tough w eek for Amanda Deveaux and Brian Simo, not to m ention the new est member of their family. Aidan Simo was born at hom e, as had been planned. The birth w ent sm oothly but over the next couple of days, Aidan developed a fever. W hen it persisted, his parents brought their son to Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital. As the medical staff at the hospital tried to pinpoint the source of the fever, Aidan was poked and prodded. "H e' s been like a pincushion," Deveaux said as she cradled her son in her arms. "It' s hard to see the little guy in pain." After som e sleepless nights, the couple could finally begin to relax w hen his fever finally broke. Then came som e more good new s w hen hospital staff stopped by their room last Thursday to see if they w ould m ind a visitor. Minutes later, in walked Scott W ilson with the Stanley Cup in his hands. The two hockey fans and their hockeyfan-in-training couldn't believe what was happening. They posed for family photos with W ilson and the Cup for a few minutes before Simo finally built up the courage to ask, `Can w e put the baby in the Cup?' "Sure," W ilson responded, before cautioning the excited dad about the Stanley Cup superstition of not touching the Cup if you hope to w in it one day "If h e' s like his dad, he shouldn't have to worry," Simo said. "I think the risk is low." And so eight-day-old Aidan settled into the bowl of the iconic trophy for som e baby pictures he w on't m ind his par ents show ing off 15 years from now. "In his little life so far, this has been the best thing that' s happened," Deveaux said. "It' s been a rough w eek," Simo added, "so this was that thing w e needed to give us a bit of a lift." That' s the kind of power the Stanley Cup commands. Dur ing its two-and-half hours at the hospital with W ilson, it drew crowds like m oths to a flame. At one point, W ilson was waiting for an elevator with the While most people encountering the Stanley Cup last Thursday at Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital were pretty excited, one-week-old Aidan Simo was a little too tired to appreciate his napping location. During his day with the trophy, Oakville's Scott Wilson (left) of the Pittsburgh Penguins brought the Stanley Cup to the hospital where he surprised parents Brian Simo and Amanda Deveaux. (Below) Sadie Doran poses for a picture with Wilson and the Cup. | Nikki Wesley - Oakville Beaver Cup perched on a trolly. As the door to an elevator across the hall began to close, a voice from inside excitedly asked, `Is that the Stanley Cup?' as an arm shot forward to stop the door. "It was fun to walk around the hospital and see som e of the shocked faces," W ilson said. "There' s not one person in Canada w ho w ouldn't know what it was. They can't believe it' s right there and they always ask if they can touch it. It' s like the Holy Grail." "It' s so cool what h e' s doing for the kids and the staff," said hospital em ployee Wade Green. "That' s all anyone has talked about for the last couple of days. Everybody was really excited about it." Wherever it w ent, the Cup had the same effect on fans young and old alike. Cliff Harbour' s favourite team is Mon treal, but he says he' s a hockey fan first. "W hen m y team gets knocked out, I keep w atching," the 76-year-old says. Though he admitted to cheering for Nashville during the final -- he wanted to see former Montreal defenceman P.K. Subban w in the Cup -- last Thursday he was pretty happy the Penguins prevailed. "I've been a hockey fan since 1949," Harbour said, "but this is the first time I've seen (the Cup) up close." Jase Lachowiez, w ho describes him self as a diehard Pen guins fan, came into work with his m om for a chance to m eet W ilson and get an autograph. "It' s pretty cool to see som eone from Oakville being a Stan ley Cup cham pion," the 12-year-old said. "W hen m y m om texted me and said he was bringing the Stanley Cup to the hospital, I started freaking out." "So m any superstars have touched that trophy," said his friend Michael Laktos. "It' s the hardest trophy to w in." And the numbers do back it up. A recent study found that just one in 938 hockey players in Ontario ever make it to the NHL. Of those w ho beat the odds, only approximately 16 per cent of NHL players w ill ever w in the Cup. W ilson does recognize his good fortune. "The young guys on our team are pretty spoiled. Some guys play 20 years and never get to w in it, so it' s super rare. W e've been fortunate to have a really good team." That is also w hy he makes a point of sharing the joy a visit from the Cup can bring. Prior to the hospital, W ilson signed autographs at Sixteen Mile Sports Complex and gave hockey fans a chance to take pictures with the Cup. "Seeing the kids in the Oakville Rangers stuff and how excited they are for me to be able to bring the Cup -- I was in those kids' shoes 10 years ago." W ilson said this second w in is a little more special. Last year an ankle injury cut his season short after just 24 games and sidelined him for the entire playoffs. That left him short of qualifying to have his name engraved on the Cup. N ot so this year after playing 78 games, plus 20 more in the playoffs. W ilson will also have a special distinction when that happens. The Penguins will occupy the final spot on the lower band of the trophy. W ith players names engraved in alphabetical order, W ilson' s name will be the final one en graved on the current band. That will happen in September, by which time he and his Penguin teammates will be gearing up to defend their title. In a way, for W ilson, his day with the Stanley Cup marked the end of one season and the beginning of preparations for the next. "It was a crazy day," he said. "It goes by so fast. You just try to cherish every m om ent." Those he shared it with certainly did. "He only has it for a day, so for him to bring it to the hos pital, that was a really generous thing to do," Deveaux said.