If a sports publication in Canada needs a quick and dirty article, they usually write something about the chances of bringing the Stanley Cup back to Canada.
The latest was by Stephen Whyno of the Canadian Press, published by CTV. In the article, they quoted that online sportsbook Bodog.com gave the Montreal Canadiens an 18-1 chance at winning Lord Stanley’s mug, 15 better than the second place team Vancouver at 33-1. Toronto sat at 40-1, Edmonton 50-1, Ottawa and Winnipeg at 66-1 and the Calgary Flames far behind on a 75-1 odds. Poor Jonas Hiller.
The last time the Stanley Cup was won by a Canadian team? 1993 by the Montreal Canadiens. Last time the Stanley Cup was played between two Canadian teams? 1989 between Montreal and Calgary. Last time a Canadian team got close to the Stanley Cup? 2011 by Vancouver. Last time there was only one Canadian team with a shot at the Stanley Cup? Well, last year actually. Montreal says hello again.
The problem with the whole “Bring the Cup back to Canada” statement is that the only time the Cup doesn’t come back home is with a parade involved. Canadian players can be found in abundance on any NHL team and when American based hockey clubs like Los Angeles or Chicago get their name engraved, the Stanley Cup is always coming back when they have their day with it. Sidney Crosby even once had the Cup used for a street hockey tournament when he had his day in Nova Scotia. Heck, the Cup lives in Toronto on its off days.
But what about those poor teams? You know, the ones that have millions of fans who pour their heart and soul to the teams. Who spend inflated prices on watered down beer to pay inflated prices on watered down tickets to pay an inflated cost of attention to watch watered down NHL teams. Canada has gladly traded an overzealous level of entitlement in order to make excuses for NHL teams that just constantly disappoint them.
All sports fans are different, but it’s rare to not talk to a Canadian NHL team fan and hear the excuses just ooze about why they continue to fail. The perpetually depressed fans of the Toronto Maple Leafs are still going to put it aside for Brendan Shanahan to promise that changes will be made when the GM and head coach of the team that missed the playoffs by a fair margin are still intact. Vancouver Canucks fans in the face of their core getting too old or disappearing are fine with paying Ryan Miller too much money when he played great last year in Buffalo and they were still a basement dweller. Same goes to the Winnipeg Jets, whose ownership has hung onto the worst starter in the league and rarely ever makes a trade to impact the team, let alone has never made an NHL player or NHL player trade. Jets ownership seems quite fine living with the same team they had back when they were the Atlanta Thrashers. The Edmonton Oilers will be great someday. At least that’s what I hear every year. I have my doubts on any team paying Benoit Pouliot and Andrew Ference a combined $7.25M becoming great but stranger things have happened before.
Ottawa Senators fans deal with the horrible truth that no matter how many games they attend, their ownership still has artificial spending limit on an already imposed cap that may help them get great priced contracts for the players that want to stay, but it certainly limits them on anyone who needs a little more incentive than, “You are Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s third favourite hockey team”. Harper’s second in Calgary? I don’t know if their fans even remember the 2004 run anymore. You finally have the Montreal Canadiens, closer than anyone, but still a team that seems to call it quits after their usual series with the Boston Bruins. The last time Montreal won a playoff series after beating the Boston Bruins in the playoffs? 1989. With the NHL’s new “fight through your division” format, the chances of them not playing the Bruins is as low as the chance of them winning a series after. Not very good.
So you have seven teams constantly underachieving (with a sprinkle of overachieving in the 2000s) in a country that cares more about hockey than net neutrality, G-20 riots and the Canada-China FIPA treaty. This country obsesses over the Stanley Cup, even though a sizeable portion of Canadian hockey fans today weren’t even alive in 1993 to see a Cup taken down in a parade. I was born in 1985 and while I have been alive for seven Canadian Cup winners, I can really only remember one of them: 1993.
I could suggest things like not going to games, but a lot of people don’t go to the games anyway. They either can’t afford it or can’t get a ticket. Doesn’t change a thing. I could suggest complaining online, but even when you complain online about a team, they can sell those analytics to continue making more money. I could suggest throwing waffles on the ice, which is easily the greatest form of edible protest known to man, but I guess that’s illegal now. So I guess I’ll go a little bit out of the box.
This is the Canada Cup (I know it’s a half maple leaf and not a Cup, but come on, look at that beauty!). Made of 120lbs worth of Sudbury, Ontario nickel, it was awarded to the winner of the Canada Cup tournament. That tournament was competed during off years from the Winter Olympics and involved professional players, unlike the Olympics at the time. With tournaments in 1976, 1981, 1984, 1987 and 1991, it was dominated by its namesake of Canada (with exception to 1981, when the Russians trounced the Canadians 8-1). The trophy and tournament was replaced by the 1996 “World Cup of Hockey”, which was soon shelved for seeing pro players in the Olympics in 1998.
Why am I showing you the Canada Cup trophy? Because with talk of there being expansion in the NHL coming up soon, and the possibility of Quebec City or Toronto getting a team (another team, technically), it gave me an idea. Over in North American soccer there’s the Amway Canadian Championship, competed between Major League Soccer teams Toronto FC, Vancouver Whitecaps FC and Montreal Impact as well as North American Soccer League teams FC Edmonton and Ottawa Fury FC. The tournament has been run since 2008. What if the NHL Canadian teams did the same? When all seven (or more) teams are eliminated from the NHL Playoffs, no longer able to compete for the Stanley Cup, why not just have them run a one game elimination tournament against each other for the Canada Cup?
Now I’m sure some of you will say, “I absolutely refuse to see my team compete for any other championship! The Stanley Cup is the one goal and only goal!” but if you’re a fan of the Vancouver Canucks, Winnipeg Jets or Ottawa Senators, you have never seen your team win that Cup. If you’re a fan of a team in Alberta, it has been at least 25 years since you’ve experienced it. Montreal hasn’t seen it in 20, and the Toronto Maple Leafs? Tim Horton was still a hockey player and not a coffee shop.
If the tournament was held last summer, Montreal could have received a bye for actually making the post-season. Sounds fair if you ask me. That leaves the other six to compete for a chance to make the semi-finals. A final four of Canadian supremacy, followed by one final game between the best Canada has to offer! All for the right to lift the Canada Cup trophy high!
As more teams enter the NHL by way of Canada, you can continue expanding the tournament. Maybe a Round Robin? Maybe expand the amount of games played. Maybe disqualify teams that actually made the playoffs and let the teams who couldn’t make it play for the bragging rights. After all, any bragging rights that don’t include the Stanley Cup are really just temporary gloating. Like pre-season wins.
I doubt this will be a popular idea. I don’t see it gaining much traction. But the idea of a second championship for Canada is attractive for a few reasons: it should push you to ask a couple more questions about your favourite team than you likely do. It should make you also ask why you’re so faithful to a franchise that has no problem making it harder for you to ever see them live without any true proof of results. It should make you wonder why Chicago and Boston can live in heavy pressure to win and they do it while Canadian teams just can’t get anything done other than Cinderella stories and artificial powerhouses. It should make you wonder if you should be hanging those Conference championship banners or retiring the numbers of players that never touched a Stanley Cup in your uniform.
It should make you ask when the reasons stop being excuses.
Or maybe you like the idea of being a three time Canada Cup champion. That trophy is pretty beautiful. Would be sad to see it build up dust without a purpose.
