Every hockey fan has pictured the moment: the Cup in your hands, the noise all around you, and that first sip from the most famous trophy in sports.
For Long Island native and diehard Islanders fan Andrew Metelitz, that fantasy turned into a very real night in Las Vegas - and he was doing it in an Islanders hat.
Metelitz and his friend were in town for the Stanley Cup Final between the Carolina Hurricanes and Vegas Golden Knights, but they didn’t just watch Carolina win hockey’s top prize. By the end of the celebration, they had worked their way into the middle of the Hurricanes’ party, including a moment where Metelitz drank from the Stanley Cup.
According to a story from News 12, Metelitz and his friend have made a habit of going to the Stanley Cup Final every year and trying to get as close to the Cup as possible. Last year, they managed to talk their way outside the Florida Panthers’ locker room celebration after the championship was won.
This time, they took the stunt to another level.
After spotting that Hurricanes players’ family members were getting onto the ice with yellow wristbands, Metelitz improvised by folding a yellow streamer from the pregame festivities into a fake bracelet, slipping it under his watch, and walking past security.
It worked. For about 20 minutes, Metelitz was right there in Carolina’s on-ice celebration, taking photos and mingling with players, coaches and family members as if he belonged there.
The night got even stranger later on when he and Riedel ran into the Hurricanes again during the Stanley Cup parade down the Las Vegas Strip. Instead of hanging back, they joined the group and walked with the team.
That led to Caesars Palace and the after-party, where the moment every hockey fan dreams about finally arrived. Someone handed Metelitz the Stanley Cup, and he took a drink from it.
"I genuinely felt as if they took me in as their own," Medalist said. "They shared the best moment of their life with me."
Islanders fans have waited more than four decades to see one of their own celebrate with the Stanley Cup again. That didn’t happen here. But for one night, a young man from Long Island in orange and blue got to party like he had won it himself.
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