So there it is. Another year passes and once again, no Canadian-based NHL team enters the winner's circle.
This marks the first full decade (2000-09) since the NHL was formed in 1917 that a Canadian team won't have won the championship.
It's been 16 years since the Montreal Canadiens last won the Stanley Cup in 1993, and based on recent performance, things are going to get worse rather than better in the near term.
Canada's last and best hope in 2009, the Vancouver Canucks, fell on Monday to the Chicago Blackhawks, 7-5, for a discouraging second-round exit.
Chicago is an up-and-coming team that gives their fan base a reason to be excited.
They have two young recognizable stars in Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane, along with a tough supporting cast that demonstrates how shrewd drafting and player management can turn around a previously moribund franchise.
Is there such a team operating somewhere in Canada, poised for a breakthrough, ready for greatness?
Statistically, the Canucks were Canada's strongest team in 2008-09, posting a 100-point regular season that edged Calgary for the top spot in the Northwest Division in the final week of the season. The Canucks had enough things going for them -- sturdy goaltending, an excellent record over the final one-third of the season -- to possibly challenge for a championship.
But the Canucks were overmatched by the Blackhawks in virtually every department: speed, skill, strategy and even in goal, where Roberto Luongo had been expected to hold an edge over Blackhawks counterpart Nikolai Khabibulin.
For the 'Hawks, the best may be yet to come. For the Canucks, the best could easily be behind them.
The Sedin forwards, Daniel and Henrik, can be free agents this off-season. Luongo's future, too, will be up for discussion as his contract expires at the end of next season. The Canucks regime, headed by general manager Mike Gillis, believes strongly in asset management and Luongo, the team captain, could exit stage left should he determine his best chance of winning a Stanley Cup lies elsewhere.
Therein lies the rub -- not just for Vancouver, but in Calgary and Ottawa, too.
The Flames and Senators qualified for the Stanley Cup final in 2004 and 2007, respectively, but are now seeing their windows of opportunity closing. The Edmonton Oilers are rebuilding, but showing few signs of turning the corner any time soon. Montreal faces many of the same issues as Vancouver, with core players positioned to walk as free agents this summer.
Weirdly, that leaves the rebuilding Toronto Maple Leafs with potentially the best chance of any Canadian team to get back in the winner's circle within a reasonable time frame. It depends how GM Brian Burke plays his cards over this summer and next season.
When he ran the Canucks, Burke drafted the Sedins and could go after them again. His primary assistant, Dave Nonis, was responsible for tweaking that Vancouver roster by signing their defense corps for modest salaries, and stealing Luongo from the Florida Panthers.
Casting the Leafs as the emerging Canadian team presupposes that Jim Balsillie fails in his bid to land the Phoenix Coyotes and relocates them in Hamilton, Ontario. In terms of putting together Chicago-like pieces of the rebuilding puzzle, the Coyotes -- young, skilled and cheap -- are further along the rebuilding curve than any of Canada's current six franchises.
And wouldn't that be the ultimate irony if the franchise shift ever did occur: That the next legitimate Canadian Stanley Cup contender ends up being a team that began its life in Winnipeg?
(Contact Eric Duhatschek at eduhatschek@globeandmail.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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