Canadian Drought Continues, as ’93 Cup Remains Emblem of Past Era
Following the Vancouver Canucks Game 7 loss, the Canadian Stanley Cup drought continues, 27 years removed from its last champion via the Montreal Canadiens.
Where were you when the Montreal Canadiens won their last Stanley Cup?
Well, I wasn’t around, as it’s been 27 years since the Habs last championship, eight years older than myself. However, just because I wasn’t there physically doesn’t mean I don’t understand what that Cup run entailed, and what it means for Canadian sports today.
In a 1992-93 season many consider to be the best in NHL history, the Canadiens came out on top seemingly out of nowhere, defeating a similar underdog Los Angeles Kings team in five games in the Stanley Cup Final.
Led by a core group of consistent performers like Eric Desjardins, Vincent Damphousse, and Patrick Roy, as well as rookies like Paul Dipietro and Kevin Haller, Montreal won ten straight games in overtime on their way to their 24th and, as we speak, last Stanley Cup.
In the time since then, no Canadian team, let alone Montreal, has managed to hoist the Cup, as the drought continues following an exciting day of NHL hockey on Friday. Heading into the second round of this year’s playoffs, the Vancouver Canucks were the only Canadian team left, led by a talented group of topflight rookies and overall great offensive depth.
After falling behind 3-1 to the Vegas Golden Knights in their second-round series, Vancouver rallied behind 24-year old backup goaltender Thatcher Demko, who stopped 126 of the 128 shots he faced overall as Vancouver forced a game seven. Despite this, the Canucks only managed 15 shots on net in the deciding game, as Knights defenseman Shea Theodore fired a wrister off a face-off which beat Demko late in the third. Two empty netters later, and the only hope for a Canadian cup contender is gone once again.
The Montreal Canadiens entered these playoffs as the 24th and final team heading into the qualifier, whereupon they upset the heavily favoured Pittsburgh Penguins in four games, who continued their dreadful regular-season stretch of play before the season was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the first round, the Habs put up a great fight against a talented Philadelphia Flyers team, but the calls and bounces simply didn’t go their way, falling in six games. While not a sign that Montreal is ready to compete for the Cup, it did at least give a glimpse into the potential this team has when they play solid hockey.
While a 27-year drought doesn’t look good on paper, in practice, or in conversation, there are still reasons to be hopeful for the future of Canadian hockey. Teams like the Edmonton Oilers and Toronto Maple Leafs possess game-breaking stars like Connor Mcdavid, Leon Draisaitl, Auston Matthews, and Mitch Marner, but continue to be brought down by more broad issues related to their lineups.
Edmonton’s lack of true depth and goaltending proved to be their downfall, falling in the qualifier to an underdog Chicago Blackhawks team who were without their best goalie this year in Robin Lehner. The Leafs have now gone four straight years with first-round playoff exits, as they fell to a John Tortorella led Columbus Blue Jackets team in five games, continually marred down by their similar lack of depth and personality issues regarding their star players.
Rookies Nick Suzuki and Jesperi Kotkaniemi looked promising in the playoffs for Montreal, with Suzuki seemingly on track to becoming a centrepiece of the Canadiens franchise in future years. Kotkaniemi’s improved size enabled him to battle along the boards much more and subsequently made him more difficult to knock off the puck.
Even lesser prospects like Jake Evans showed promise in their respective roles, and the experience these playoffs bring to these rookies, to me, makes up for the chance at the first overall pick the Canadiens could have had, should they have lost in the qualifier.
For yet another year, the NHL playoffs will continue with American teams at the forefront, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t good hockey left to be played. There are still some great storylines to come out of both the Dallas Stars and Golden Knights, who are now set to face each other in the Western Conference Final.
Dallas hasn’t been to the Stanley Cup Final in 19 years, and Vegas would be in the final for the second time in their three years of existence – an unbelievably impressive, unheard of achievement in expansion hockey.
In the days where the Toronto Raptors and professional tennis players like Bianca Andreescu have become symbols of Canadian pride, a Stanley Cup Championship is something that has been sorely missing from a country that essentially founded the sport of hockey as we know it today.
The NHL has come a long way from the early days of the Joe Malone’s and Georges Vezina’s of the past, but it seems as though we find ourselves tied back to those glory days whenever the present fails to live up to them. Despite the struggles, I truly believe this drought will end soon enough; however, whether it’s the Montreal Canadiens or Edmonton Oilers remains to be seen.
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There’s a lot of NHL hockey left to be played, and even if it’s without a Canadian team, fans from all over the country will be watching, for the local players, local stories, and just plain good hockey, as the hope for a Cup continues, 27 years removed, from its last taste of glory.