My daughter was 13 the last time her country could brag about winning the Stanley Cup and, while always a hockey fan, she doesn’t really remember it as a “where-were-you-when-it-happened?” moment. After all, teenage girls have other things on their minds, as she knows with her own 13-year-old hockey fan daughter.
Last week, as we watched the Montreal Canadiens play the Vancouver Canucks, the discussion ranged from the two teams to the state of hockey to playoff possibilities. Unrehearsed, out of my mouth came a prophecy that fell just short of a prediction. Such prophecies emerge every 10 years or so, and are usually long forgotten by the time they don’t come true.
“Maybe,” I said, “this will be the year.”
“What year?” she said.
“The year a Canadian team wins the Stanley Cup. With everything going on between Canada and the U.S., with all our patriotism, you never know.”
The perfect prophecy, perhaps?
While the Habs were not the first Canadian team to win the Cup, they were the best (24 times) and the last (1993), and it’s time for this 32-year drought to end. The Canadiens were third in their division in 1992-93, but fourth overall, and of the four playoff teams they ousted, only Quebec had more points: two.
Montreal went 16-4, winning 10 times in overtime, still a record. The star was goaltender Patrick Roy, who played all but 18 minutes, and other than Guy Carbonneau and maybe Mathieu Schneider, you’d be hard-pressed to find an All-Star among Roy’s supporting cast.
The Canadiens have only had a sniff of Stanley Cup champagne once since then, reaching the fifth game of the Covid Cup Final four years ago. Of their Canadian cousins, only Edmonton and Vancouver have reached the Final twice, losing each time in Game Seven. Calgary also lost the seventh game (2004), and Ottawa was out in five in these Senators’ lone Final appearance (2003). Ironically, the most-favoured Canadian teams this season — Toronto and Winnipeg — are looking for their first opportunity to end the drought that has dogged the nation’s hockey loyalists since 1993.
Just how long ago is that?
The U.S. has had six presidents since 1993, and Canada’s new Prime Minister — hockey fan Mark Carney— was in England getting his Masters degree in economics, while the-then “new” PM was Jean Chretien, now 91. It was the year the Backstreet Boys appeared and Czechoslovakia disappeared, the year Ariana Grande was born and Andre The Giant died, the year you could buy a dozen eggs for a dollar and a gallon of gas for less, and the year of the first “smartphone.”
In 32 years, Canadian teams have reached the final just seven times. Six of the seven teams from this season’s crop of Canadiana are still in playoff contention. That means “Canada” — on paper — could have a higher percentage of its teams than the U.S. in the playoffs (85.7 per cent to 78.1 per cent), and almost half its teams still alive when the regular season ends.
It may still be a stretch, but it would be Canada’s best opportunity in April to end this spring scourge in June.
Yes, indeed, this could be the year.
