It’s been nearly 30 years since a Canadian team won the Stanley Cup. It’s their national sport, and their cup. The Stanley cup was created to be given to Canada’s top amateur hockey team. Eventually though, it became the trophy for the NHL. The last team to bring the cup home was the Montreal Canadiens in 1993. They’re back in the finals for the first time since that championship team. Canada has had 5 other teams reach the finals in that time, but not since the 2011 Vancouver Cannucks pushed it to 7 games has a Canadian team been this close.
Sometimes sports give unbelievable stories that turn into movies only because it happened in real life – no writer would make a script so farfetched. This is lining up to be one of those stories. There’s no curse out there, at least nothing being dubbed a curse yet. But this story would still be a great one. 25 years that the most legendary trophy in all of sports has been left out of its home country. The last team to win the cup is the one that breaks the streak. The team that’s won it the most, is the team that brings it back.
At this point it’s looking like a tall task. Tampa Bay gave the Canadiens (and Canadiens) a beatdown in game one. A 1-0 series deficit isn’t much to crawl out from. A 5-1 beatdown in a playoff game is a tough one to forget – especially for a goalie. Normally when you see a score as lopsided as that you’ll see a goalie change. Montreal didn’t do that. They left their guy in net the whole way. It’s a big gamble, seeing the puck hit the net that much, with so much at stake can ruin any player’s confidence.
The Lightning though are a tough team, they’re on a path to repeat as champions. They seem to be firing on all cylinders this postseason. Sure they went 7 games against the Islanders, but against the NHL’s and TV Network’s wishes they pulled out a 1-0 win on the road in game 7. They hit the ground running (or ice skating I guess?) in game 1 and found the back of the net early and often.
To be honest, I don’t think Canada cares this year if Montreal wins. If it were one of the other 6 teams in the country would be going wild and jump on the bandwagon. There’s too much disdain, history, and rivalry for these die-hard fans to change allegiance to the most successful team in NHL history. For me though, I’m torn, of all the sunbelt teams Tampa Bay is my favorite. I don’t have a hatred towards the Canadiens though, they’ve never been relevant in my time following hockey. If they do pull it off, I’ll enjoy celebrating the cup returning to Canada. But if Tampa Bay pulls off the back to back I’ll be celebrating with my die-hard Lightning fan friends. The sentimentalist in me, and my love of fairytale endings sports can produce want Montreal to win.