30 years without a cup for Canadian teams: why?

[TageGod]

7 teams.

whoops.

 

[No Fun Shogun]

Just bad luck.

Case in point, the NBA just had a Western Conference team not from California or Texas win their championship for the first time since 1979. That's a group of eight teams not winning for over forty years.

Sometimes, flukes just happen, and this one is just noticeable due to the droughts being Canadian.

 

[ewfwgfwahbger]

The other day I was wondering if the fact that Montreal not having any offensive star power for so long had a correlation with the decline in Quebec high-end talent. Like if the kids can't watch elite players on TV maybe it can have an effect. Montreal had elite dman with Markov-Subban and there's a few interesting young dman. But Quebec also took a dive in goalie prospects even with Price playing for Montreal, there's Levi but it's not on the same level as back in the days.

 

[Voight]

Shitty owners probably the biggest reason. Canadian teams just typically refuse to do a proper rebuild. And sometimes when they finally do, it's way later than they should have.

Took Toronto a decade of straight failure and mediocrity before the owners finally green lit a rebuild.

Calgary should have started rebuilding after gaudreau and Tkachuk left. Vancouver been a mess the past decade with no clear direction.

& one of the sparks for that was fan outrage was an all time high. MLSE finally woke up when people threw their jerseys on the ice.

 

[vancityluongo]

no one has mentioned this yet?

 

[ahmedou]

The best Canadians hockey players are playing with non-Canadian teams. They're the majority nationality of their teams as Stanley Cup champions. For 18 straight season. 2007 to 2024.

 

[Arthur Morgan]

NHL doesn't want a Canadian team in the finals. if they make it there and win they need to beat the team they play and beat all the bad calls. I know refs cant always be perfect and it happens to American teams as well, just seems to happen more often against Canadian teams.

Canadian teams in the finals doesnt help grow the game in the USA, same thing applies to the MLB or NBA, Im sure people will disagree with me but thats my thought on it

 

[Xspyrit]

The poll results show exactly what is the problem in today's society. It should be 100% "some conspiracy"

Unfortunately too many sheeple.

 

[Dirty Mind]

Every Canadian knows why. That’s all I’ll say.

But can’t stop Canada from winning internationally.

It’s OUR game.

 

[bobbyking]

because crosby was drafted to Pittsburgh

 

[WPGDEVILS]

I don’t know why this is always such a big deal.

I don’t want any Canadian team other then the Jets to win.

Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Calgary they can all wait another 30 years.

Maybe let the oilers get one just for McDavid

 

[Rowlet]

Canadian teams don't feel the need to make good teams because fans still attend games.

If you're in America and you aren't winning, nobody is coming to games, just look at what happened in Edmonton and Toronto for a decade, teams that were garbage but continued to sell out seats.

 

[End on a Hinote]

Bad luck is a huge factor.

1994 - Canucks hit post in dying moments of game 7
2003 - Bad turnover led to NJ beating Ottawa in final moments of game 7 ECF (Probably would have beaten Anaheim)
2004 - Gelinas no goal
2006 - Dwayne Roloson injury, Oilers blowing commanding game 1 lead as result
2011 - Canucks probably faced the only team that could beat them. If Montréal beat Boston in game 7 OT in round 1, possibly a different story
2017 - Ottawa losing to Pittsburgh in game 7 OT (Probably would have beaten Nashville)

Also, and this is pure speculation, maybe they choose not to invest in the best and priciest players because they know the fans will show up, anyway.

 

[JTToilinginToronto]

The vast majority of it comes down to bad management, which encompases the first three options on the poll.

A little bit of bad luck. I think the Alberta teams lost three Stanley Cup game 7s if my memory serves correct. Odds are that if you magically could re-play all three of those games, the Oilers/Flames win at least one of them.

And Winnipeg probably has some difficulty in retaining players / getting quality UFAs.

 

[Soundwave]

Bad management and some of it is bad luck.

Four Canadian teams have been in a game 7 of Cup Finals since 1993.

The interesting thing is in four game 7s the Canadian has never had the lead. Not even once, not even for 1 second of play.

That's a really bizarre statistical aberration, even in the NHL if you had the worst team in the league play the best team in the league 4 times, at some point the worst team would at least have a lead most likely.

For whatever reason Canadian teams get no bounce, no "lucky deflection goal" or anything like that in a game 7 of a SCF.

 

[JKG33]

Canadian teams don't feel the need to make good teams because fans still attend games.

If you're in America and you aren't winning, nobody is coming to games, just look at what happened in Edmonton and Toronto for a decade, teams that were garbage but continued to sell out seats.

This. And the fact that 48% here attribute it to bad luck means they're so delusional they don't realize their teams aren't that good.

A good chunk of Leafs nation still worships the ground the muskoka 4 walk on, they can do no wrong no matter how many first rd exits they have. Every single year it's "the best Leafs team ever"

 

[NOTENOUGHRYJOTHINGS]

Conspiracy against Toronto and Edmonton.

Vancouver imploded their cup contending teams each time (and cheating Boston refs).

Montreal decided to draft Kotkaniemi instead of an impact player. Then spent the next decade cackling with glee that they "tricked" Carolina into taking Kotkaniemi off their hands. 4D chess turning a 3rd overall into Christian Dvorak.

The other Canadian teams aren't worth mentioning. You don't need a league wide conspiracy to stop the Ottawa Senators. They shoot themselves in the foot on a regular basis. And it's not Gary Bettman that makes Winnipeg undesirable.

I'm forgetting one Canadian team but to be honest they aren't worth mentioning.

 

[bobbyking]

obviously Edmonton will end that

 

[Rowlet]

This. And the fact that 48% here attribute it to bad luck means they're so delusional they don't realize their teams aren't that good.

A good chunk of Leafs nation still worships the ground the muskoka 4 walk on, they can do no wrong no matter how many first rd exits they have. Every single year it's "the best Leafs team ever"

Yep, there's like one instance I would attribute not winning the cup to bad luck and it's the Canucks losing in the finals in 2011 after getting destroyed by injures, plus a generational goaltending performance, but even then, the Canucks didn't trade their 1st round pick that year, despite being the best team in the league the entire season, they should have gone all in.

That was probably the only truly elite Canadian team over the past 30 years, their hardware and dominance that year was insane, plus their depth at every position.

Canadian fans have to stop supporting their teams when they're bad, otherwise there's no incentive for those teams to win. Canucks fans have taken heat from fans of teams who supported their teams for decades while being terrible, but it wouldn't have taken decades to turn the team around if they stopped selling out arenas while getting back to back 1st round picks.

 

[Bounces R Way]

Lots of factors as you've listed in the poll but quite simply they just haven't been good enough.

 

[HockeyWooot]

Top 3:

-Taxes, weak CAD
-Attracting UFA who want to deal with the stress of playing in a Canadian market. Lifestyle of smaller Canadian cities.
-Less tolerance for a full rebuild

 

[NyQuil]

That was probably the only truly elite Canadian team over the past 30 years, their hardware and dominance that year was insane, plus their depth at every position.

Give me a break.

Ottawa in 2003 had fewer goals against and more goals for when they also won the President's Trophy.

That year, they didn't blow a lead for the entire regular season.

 

[Oilslick941611]

theres 32 teams in the NHL and only 7 are canadian and of those 7 teams only 1-2 Canadian teams are ever good enough to considered among cup favourites at any given time.

one team wins it every year, the teams who win it tend to win it more than once lately in the span of a few years, and there have been a few minor dynasties in that time frame, Redwings won it 4 times in 10 years, the blackhawks won it 3 times in 4 years, multiple teams won it 2 times in the span of 3-4 years.

Not everyteam is going to win a cup in any given timeframe. I think it comes down to the simple fact that league has a lot of teams and there is a gulf between the good and bad teams. THe economics of hockey in the mid 90s and 2000s played a large roll since most canadian teams were just trying to survive in that time frame. Theres no anti Canadian conspiracy keeping canadian teams from winning the cup. Its a numbers game.

 

[Rowlet]

Give me a break.

Ottawa in 2003 had fewer goals against and more goals for when they also won the President's Trophy.

That year, they didn't blow a lead for the entire regular season.

Pretty sure the Canucks didn't either, they also had the #1 PP, #2 PK, they won the Jennings trophy for least goals allowed, and scored the most goals in the league.

Sure, the Senators scored one goal more, but still didn't lead the league in scoring, and they allowed 3 less, but again didn't lead the league.

 

[NyQuil]

Pretty sure the Canucks didn't either, they also had the #1 PP, #2 PK, they won the Jennings trophy for least goals allowed, and scored the most goals in the league.

Sure, the Senators scored one goal more, but still didn't lead the league in scoring, and they allowed 3 less, but again didn't lead the league.

To say that the Canucks were the only elite Canadian team in 30 years is a falsehood.

Yep, there's like one instance I would attribute not winning the cup to bad luck and it's the Canucks losing in the finals in 2011

Yeah, there's definitely a theme developing here.