The Stanley Cup Finals are the championship series to determine the winner of the Stanley Cup, emblematic of the professional club championship of ice hockey. The original Stanley Cup Final originated as a 'World Series' between the National Hockey Association (NHA) and the Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA). Today, the Final is contested as the championship series of the National Hockey League (NHL).

It is a best-of-seven series played between the champions of the Eastern and Western Conferences. The Stanley Cup had been won and contested since 1893, when the Montreal Hockey Club was the first winner, for winning the 1893 AHAC season. The Cup winner would then have to defend its championship both through league championships and challenge games or series organized by the Stanley Cup trustees.

This changed in 1914 with the inauguration of the first "World Series" of ice hockey, a series between the Stanley Cup and league champion Toronto Blueshirts of the National Hockey Association (NHA) and the Victoria Aristocrats, champions of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA). Since the Aristocrats never formally submitted a challenge, the Cup trustees viewed the series as illegitimate. However, the controversy was moot as Toronto successfully defended the Cup by sweeping a best-of-five series.

This was the start of the end of the influence of the Stanley Cup trustees on the challengers and series for the Cup. Victoria vs. Toronto

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