The Gardiner Cup honors the life of Scotsman Charles Gardiner, who was one of the sport’s top goalies during the 1920's and 1930's. Born in Edinburgh, he moved to Canada and eventually became an NHL star with the Chicago Blackhawks.  Gardiner played for the Blackhawks from 1927 – 1934, helping Chicago win its first Stanley Cup in his final year with the team.  He was the first Scotsman to be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.  The tournament is named for Gardiner and was intended as a celebration of Scottish hockey, and an effort to further promote the sport to the Scottish public.



A special effort was made to have Canadian clubs compete with the British clubs (due to the cultural similarities between Scots and Canadians, Canada's status as the world epicenter of hockey, and Charles Gardiner's history) and the American Hockey League complied.   

The host team was the EIHL’s Edinburgh Capitals, who faced off against the AHL’s Toronto Marlies on the tournament’s first day, September 26, 2009.  The other EIHL representative was Northern Ireland’s Belfast Giants, who played against the AHL’s Hamilton Bulldogs on day one.  The Marlies are the top farm club of the NHL’s Toronto Maple Leafs, while the Bulldogs are the top farm club of the NHL’s Montreal Canadiens.

Prior to the game, Edinburgh’s General Manager Scott Neil was asked if he thought his club or the Giants could play at the level of the AHL clubs.  Neil replied that while he felt the EIHL teams’ top lines would be competitive, he believed that the AHL teams have far more depth than the EIHL clubs.  He admitted that he didn’t expect to upset the AHL teams, but vowed that the Capitals would play as hard as they could.

Edinburgh was defeated by the Toronto Marlies 6-1 in a lopsided affair.  Edinburgh had a breakaway ten seconds into the game that was stopped, and it was all Toronto after that. Hamilton routed Belfast 7-0 in the second game, a contest which saw the Bulldogs outshoot the Giants by a 52-14 count. The all-AHL final game saw the Hamilton Bulldogs defeat the Toronto Marlies by a 3-1 score to capture the first Gardiner’s Cup.  The hometown Edinburgh Capitals were defeated by their EIHL leaguemates, the Belfast Giants, by a 6-2 score.