The Tampa Bay Lightning avoided having to return to La Belle Province for a deciding Game 7 and gave the Montreal Canadiens the coup de grace with a 4-1 victory in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Semi Final on Tuesday. Nikita Kucherov, Ondrej Palat and Steven Stamkos scored on presumptive Hart Trophy winner Carey Price, who gave the Canadiens a chance to win in spite of their lackluster offense.
Ironically that final score is the same as Game 5 of the 1993 Stanley Cup Final that gave the Bleu, Blanc et Rouge their 24th Stanley Cup Championship over the Los Angeles Kings and the last title won by a Canadian-based NHL franchise.
In the nearly 22 years since Patrick Roy and his teammates raised the Cup, the Leafs have lost in the Conference Final three times, the Jets have moved out and back to Winnipeg, the Senators were trampled by Brian Burke and Randy Carlyle’s Anaheim Ducks in 2007 and Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton lost four deciding games in the Cup Final to New York, Boston, Tampa Bay and Carolina.
There are many theories on why this drought has perpetuated. Everything from financial issues related to the strength of the Canadian dollar to the increased attention and pressure from the media and hockey-mad fan bases, but what might be more accurate is the fact that Canadian franchises have not been able to acquire enough top talent through the draft, free agency and trades over the last two decades.
That is not to say that Dany Heatley, Daniel Alfredsson, Jason Spezza, the Sedin twins, Jarome Iginla and Chris Pronger were not impact players, but recent US-based Cup winners have been built strong teams around top picks like Drew Doughty, Patrick, Kane, Jonathan Toews and Sidney Crosby.
Montreal would appear to be the team closest to breaking the streak, with Price and PK Subban being among the league's best at their respective positions and just entering the prime years of their careers, but GM Marc Bergevin must add a few quality top 6 forwards to the group that includes Brendan Gallagher, Max Paciorretty and Alex Galchenyuk. Being completely reliant on Price to stand on his head could get them to the Final as Buffalo did in 1999 with Dominik Hasek, but in the end the Sabres did not have enough to win it all.
Edmonton once again reaped the rewards of winning the NHL draft lottery and will be adding Connor McDavid to a young group that includes Taylor Hall, Jordan Eberle, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Nail Yakupov. The task before new GM Peter Chiarelli is to solve the ongoing problem of Edmonton's subpar goaltending and find top pairing talent on the blueline, otherwise their embarrassment of offensive riches will go to waste.
Calgary took remarkable strides this season getting to the second round of the playoffs with defensemen Mark Giordano and TJ Brodie, young forwards Sean Monahan and Johnny Gaudreau leading the way, but they will have to continue adding talent(like Sam Bennett) to find a long term solution in goal to become a consistent playoff participants.
Winnipeg made the playoffs for the first time since returning to Manitoba and boasts an extremely talented young roster and perhaps the most impressive collection of prospects in the league, but the Jets face a decision with defenseman Dustin Byfuglien and team captain Andrew Ladd, who will be unrestricted free agents at the end of next season.
Vancouver is a club whose core group is mostly made up of the group that got to the finals in 2011, but players like to see Deans, Alexandre Burrows, Kevin Bieksa and Dan Hamhuis are likely not going to get any better, which means that a rebuild could be on the agenda in the next couple years.
Toronto is in full rebuild mode, with Phil Kessel, Dion Phaneuf, Tyler Bozak, Joffrey Lupul and others likely to be moved in the near future. That realistically makes the idea of contending for the Stanley Cup in this decade a long shot at best, as it will take time to accumulate and develop enough young talent them to turn the fortunes of the franchise around. The club does have the benefit of the financial might of MLSE behind them and appears to finally realize that the patchwork fixes of the last four decades have not worked.
In spite of their Cinderella run to a playoff spot this season, Ottawa could be the team that has the toughest road back to the Stanley Cup Final. The club has one of the best defenseman in Erik Karlsson and has been successful at developing young quality players like Mark Stone and Mike Hoffman, but the lack of financial commitment of billionaire owner Eugene Melnyk makes it tough for the club to retain their home grown talent and be willing to spend the money to add more.
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