Many
NHL players were either not yet born or too young to remember the last time a Canadian team hoisted the Stanley Cup. That trend will continue for a 25th NHL season after all three Canadian teams were eliminated in the opening round of the 2018-19 playoffs.
The
Boston Bruins defeated Toronto 5-1 in Game 7 of their Eastern Conference quarterfinal on Tuesday, sending the Maple Leafs to join the Calgary Flames and Winnipeg Jets among the post-seasons early exits. The Ottawa Senators, Montreal Canadiens, Edmonton Oilers and Vancouver Canucks did not qualify for the playoffs.
The last Canadian team to win the Cup was the 1993 edition of the Montreal Canadiens. The inauspicious streak has been threatened a few times — Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver each made it to Game 7 of a Cup final before being eliminated, while Ottawa also made it to a final series — but this season will mark the eighth straight time two American teams will compete for the iconic trophy.
The only time an American team hasn’t been awarded a Cup after the 1993 final was the lost 2004-05 season that was scrapped due to a lockout.
The lowest point of Canada’s sad streak came in 2016, when not a single one of Canada’s seven NHL teams qualified for the playoffs.
It initially looked like the Canadian curse was in danger of being lifted when these playoffs commenced. Calgary entered the post-season as the top team in the Western Conference. Winnipeg and Toronto struggled in the last stage of the regular season, but the Jets were playoff-tested coming off a Western Conference final appearance last season, and the Maple Leafs boasted a deep offence that added John Tavares to a group already including Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner.