When a team wins the Stanley Cup, the players are immediately handed hats and T-shirts emblazoned with “Stanley Cup Champions” and their logo.
Moments later, those shirts and hats, along with other merchandise, are available for fans to purchase.
The thing is, for all of that to happen so quickly, they have to make all that merchandise well in advance. That means they also have to make that merchandise for the team that loses.
What happens to al…