Made worse, for Canadians at least, is that so many of the Cups in intervening years have been won by "non-traditional" hockey markets - the markets that only have teams because the best player of all time left Edmonton. Those dastardly warm weather teams won in 1999 (Dallas - admittedly a relocation team), 2004 (Tampa), 2006 (Carolina, again relocation), 2007 (Anaheim), 2012 (Los Angeles), 2014 (Los Angeles), 2020 & 2021 (Tampa) and of course, maybe worst of all last year (Vegas), where a team that only existed for six years won a Cup.
All this leads to teh series that will be kicking off in a few days. There has maybe never been a better set-up for drama, with Edmonton, the most northernly Canadian team, with of course the leagues best player, trying to break the streak against Florida, maybe the most stereotypical example of the "non-traditional market" (at least since Phoenix is no longer with us). Granted, we've had the Canadian Hope against Non-Traditional Market in 2004 and 2006, but both of those years the Canadian team was the significant underdog, Cinderella team. Edmonton is no Cinderella, and I hope to God they win.
I'm not Canadian, though through different work projects have spent a lot of time in Canada, but in this series I am. For a few reasons, but maybe none more than that their crazy, ridiculous, color-coordinated fans, are what made me love this sport so much. I wrote a Nostalgia Diaries years ago about growing up sneaking my way into watching late nigth Western Conference games, specifically those played in Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver (shout-out to San Jose, Colorado, Anaheim, etc.). Those crowds. The chants, the energy, the colors. The way they had the crowd sing O Canada - I can pull Youtube clips of the Edmonton crowd in 2006 singing O Canada and get myself energized. That is fandom.
That excitement just exploded out of the TV screen and into a young, impressionable hockey fans living room and heart. Sure, I was a Devils fan first and foremost, and their long semi-dynasty from 1995-2012 kept my interested always at a baseline, but following their 2003 Cup win, they generally were knocked out early in the playoffs. It was those Western Conference Canadian crowds, from the Red Mile in Calgary 2004, the the white-outs in Winnipeg, to the deep, bellowing goal horn of the Canucks, that got me back in and cemented hockey as my second favorite sport (granted, that alternates with baseball almost weekly). We saw it this past series in Edmonton - I've never heard a crowd come across louder through the screen than the 3rd period of that game.
That is hockey, the best distillation of it. New Jersey was not really cold enough to have the frozen ponds and what not, but even then the mythology of the backyard makeshift rinks in some Canadian farm town - that is what this sport is more than anything else. It's their time.
I want Detroit fans to experience a Super Bowl win, or Cleveland fans. The country of Canada, from 1993 to now, is basically a country of Lions fans when it comes to winning the one thing that is their national identity. The Stanley Cup is named after the old governor general of Canada, for christsakes (the one bit of Colonialism I can get behind).
And this in reality is the right team to break the streak. Granted, the 2011 Canucks would've been a perfectly great team to do so as well, with the lovable Sedins and the rest, but then they went and played that whole series as if the weight of a country was on them. I truly hope Edmonton doesn't do that. Even aside from teh Canada thing, I've long proclaimed my staunch belief that every all time great deserves at least one ring, and Connor McDavid is very much that. Leon Draisaitl not too far behind him. The rest of that team is full of interesting stories and legacies as well - my pet favorite being Adam Henrique, the guy who had two series winning OT goals as a rookie for the magical 2012 Devils, a playoff run I'll never forget. He didn't win the Cup that year, but he;'s old enough to be the Oilers nominal OGWAC. The stories are all there.
Not that I would be sad if Florida wins - they have a bunch of great stories as well, and they are genuinely an excellent team that all things said are slight favorites in my mind. Seeing them bounce back from losing the Final last year has been great to watch. But really guys, Canada may just burn to the ground if this Edmonton team loses to Florida. But God willing that won't happen. Canada deserves this, and more than that, I just want it for them.
