This afternoon, the Winnipeg Jets fell 2-1 to the Vegas Golden Knights in Game 5 of the NHL Western Conference. Understandably, most of the attention has been on the fact that an expansion team is going to the Stanley Cup facing the winner of the NHL Eastern Conference series between the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Washington Capitals.
But it is also worth noting that no Canadian based NHL team has won the Stanley Cup in 25 years. In 1993, the Montreal Canadiens bested a Wayne Gretzky led Los Angeles Kings team to win their 23rd Stanley Cup. Since then the Cup has been on this side of the 49th Parallel. Until this present drought, the longest a Canadian team had gone without winning the Stanley Cup was between 1936 and 1941.
It must be remembered that the Stanley Cup was bequeathed to Canada by its sixth Governor General Lord Stanley, the Earl of Derby, in 1892. I don't think it's much of an exaggeration to say that the Stanley Cup is to Canada what the Declaration of Independence is to the United States.
This drought will end one day. But will that day come soon. The Chicago Cubs' rendezvous with the World Series came in 2016 after 108 years without a championship. The Cleveland Indians are entering their eighth decade without a World Series.
But here it isn't a single team going through a drought but seven teams. Aside from the Jets and Canadiens, there are the Vancouver Canucks, Edmonton Oilers, Calgary Flames, Ottawa Senators and the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Leafs, of course, are in the midst of a 51 year drought themselves. Whichever of these seven teams wins the Stanley Cup not only guarantees a celebration in that city but in all of Canada from coast to coast to coast.
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