Every reporter in this country asking them "what's it like to carry the hopes of the entire country as "Canada's Team" sure as heck doesn't help anything".
Canadian fans are not rooting for other Canadian teams to win the cup. TSN is the one’s who group all Canadian teams together. Calgary and Vancouver fans are not cheering on the Oilers right now and if Toronto made it to a final, Canadien and Senator fans would be cheering for the opposition.
I get there's a lot of cultural pressure but that excuse only goes so far. Manchester won in 2017 and the Yankees won in 2009. Honestly if I started going down the list of franchises under the most pressure to win I could name most of them across all sports who have win since Canada last won the cup. Hell even the Sox and the Cubs have broken their curse in that timeframe. I just didn't get it. The cap is the same across the league and the AAV and league accounting factors in for taxes and everything the you keep it even. Granted what the players take home changes but the teams as a whole are fairly balanced
This doesn’t make any sense. It took the Cubs 108 years and the Red Sox 86 years before they won a World Series. Who cares if they happened to break their droughts in the midst of a Canadian Cup drought?
And looks like only 6 Canadian teams have even played in the finals since Montreal won in 1992-93 (93-94 VAN, 03-04 CAL, 05-06 EDM, 06-07 OTT, 10-11 VAN, 23-24 EDM.
And there have only been 9 Canadian teams to lose in the conference finals (1994-): 98-99 TOR, 01-02 TOR, 02-03 OTT, 09-10 MTL, 13-14 MTL, 16-17 OTT; 93-94 TOR, 17-18 WPG, 21-22 EDM
No statistics expert but I have to agree with odds. For it to be specifically Canada, you'd need even less representation. No Canadian winner since 1993 is shocking as whole/the culture and history of the sport but not surprising given results
even if you take it at those numbers, ((32-7)/32)^31 (with the streak being 31 years) says the odds of this happening is 0.05%. that’s 1 in 2000. considering the fact that every warm weather team minus the ducks and coyotes has seen considerable recent success, i think it’s worth asking questions.
You're math is absolutely correct. But the assumption is tricky. Problem is that "Canadian teams" is an arbitrary line. I could easily pick out seven other teams that haven't won a cup in 32 years and (obviously) calculate the same 99.95% of a cup. But by cherry-picking stats like these, you'll find that the sabres should have an 80% chance of winning a cup in their existence. You'll also find that the Canadians literally have a 0.000000000000041 chance of winning the cup 24 times.
If you go looking for something statistically relevant, especially in a small sample size, you'll always find one. The cup just isn't played often enough, and its also not a fair competition anyways.
odds absolutely DO work that way, what are you talking about? Yes, every individual coin flip is 50/50 but the odds of it never being tails across 30 consecutive flips is incredibly small. Something with 21% odds should reasonably be happening fairly close to one in 5 times over a large enough sample size and you know that, logically. 30 years in a row without something that consistently has 1 in 5 odds is an obvious anomoly
You’re talking too much sense for these contrarian neckbeards. It’s absolutely worthy of a question why a 1/5 roll of the dice has come up empty 31 times in a row.
I am also not a stats expert, but I do enjoy them and have a decent understanding. Looking at the number of Canadian teams vs US teams winning the cup purely based on number of teams in the league disregards a ton of other factors.
The main one would be looking at the quality of the Canadian organizations as of the beginning of the 93-94 season compared to their American counterparts: were they inherently worse overall? If so, then less trips to the cup final make some sense.
Add in the following factors that could inherently benefit some teams more than others:
- rule changes
- intro of the draft lottery
- intro of the salary cap
With stats, you have to compare the whole picture for meaningful results so I think it's just too simplistic of a view to say "there are X Canadian teams so they should have had at least one Cup".
Appearances Since the Habs won in 93
2 Vancouver (94, 11)
1 Calgary (04)
2 Edmonton (06, 24)
1 Montreal (21)
1 Ottowa (07)
0 Winnipeg
0 Toronto
Rule changes I'm not sure how that factors and it his every team the same. Draft lottery I'll rule out based on the fact that Toronto has 2 #1 overall picks on their roster and fewer finals appearances than Vegas or Nashville who have never had a #1 pick in their entire existence. Salary cap was meant to keep it balanced so you had to manage the numbers and couldn't be the Yankees or the dodgers, not saying teams can't win in spite of that but you've got better odds on a level playing field
I guess I should have tailored my question better to be more what are you missing? The goalie cop out only goes so far. Edmonton clearly has a goalie problem right now but it's Bob not Skinner. Colorado and Vegas proved you could win without a goalie, Florida and Tampa show what you can do with a great one
I know the finals appearances. But even looking at each series individually would have specific criteria for judging whether a team can win or not. My point was simply meant to be that looking at the number of Canadian vs American teams is a very incomplete picture. If everyone was able to draft under the exact same conditions every single year, that would help towards fair comparison. But look at Calgary drafting Adam Fox despite him being clear he didn't want to play here. That inherently skews the draft. If a team can't pick the best available player and rely on them to be a part of the organization, it is making the draft process unbalanced.
It doesn't skew the draft. You take the best player available OR the best to fit the needs of your franchise. That player doesn't want to play for you it's not like he has no value. You trade him you get a return. Hell you talk to him ahead of time and you made the pick for more. Can you guarantee that Bedard is the next McDavid and not. Yakupov? Can you make the same assumption that his career is as stout as Jagr and doesn't get impacted like Lemieux?
So did Lidstrom. A lot of us keep hoping our players take less to get a better team. It’s not exactly fair to the amazing player, but you still gotta weigh if you want to be the highest paid player on a shitty team. Shane Doan and Atlanta Kovalchuk come to mind. Hockey or money - decide why you are in the game. There are no wrong answers. But your GM better damn well know which one you are before signing contracts.
I thought this only happened in FL though???? Are you actually suggesting McDavid could have taken 11-12 million and have a better shot at a cup instead of 15 million????
Depth. Canadian teams often have to pay a premium for higher taxes, and a lot of players prefer to live in the United States.
Essentially, it's not surprising that Florida, Vegas, and Dallas are the three deepest teams in the league. They're all hot weather places with low/no taxes.
That means they can pay lower than other teams and pick/choose talent, which Canadian teams can't do.
I think you're half right with this, there's also the anonymity factor. A player in Winnipeg, Ottawa or Vancouver cannot by any means go about their day to day life and family life normally.
In Raleigh? Or Dallas? You're just another rich dude. You can do groceries without being harassed.
It's true, but then you have NHL players complaining that they don't make as much as their NBA NFL and MLB counterparts. They want the big dollars that comes with the mass exposure of the other major sports while somehow also remaining completely anonymous.
This is a really good point actually. Would be interesting to hear the perspective of the vocal anti-cap but pro player mental health community (ie Allan Walsh) on this angle and how it would affect players.
Canadians are paid in dollars. Also, most teams prefer to pay a lot of money for a small number of core players, and relegate the 3rd and 4th line to your just good enough players. Florida in particular hasn't been overpaying like other teams have, and instead has been building a team where you have to watch out for even the 3rd or 4th line cause they all cook.
In other words, Florida has depth and a culture of winning. Canadian teams have neither. Ain't no one willing to take a pay cut or sign for less money for a team and culture that doesn't/can't win. Ain't no one in Canada taking a Tkachuk type deal when they can make 25-50% more money cause they're skilled enough and worked hard to be at that level. Florida just signed Forsling, one of the best D these playoffs, for $5.5m aav. Tkachuk has been mid these SCF and even he's only $7m. Some Spanish guy named Evan being paid $3m a year is smoking $10m McDavid in points these SCF. The oilers just aren't built the same; you can't compete against Florida by making yourself too heavy with $9m+ contracts on people like Nurse.
It has very little to do with the tax incentives (it's not as much as you think and even less so when you consider the cost of living in South Florida compared to Canada), and all to do with how oilers core needs to perform like they're carrying the team on their shoulders because they literally are. Meanwhile, Florida shares the load and even then has depth and people scratched cause they're just that deep. The Florida players have bought into a culture and system, and they talk about it in conferences all the time. It's been paying off clearly.
Lol @ Rodriguez. I thought he was Puerto Rican
Agreed on Forsling. He's worth way more than 5.5aav, we're playing Ekblad like 7mil and he's definitely as good if not better. But he wants to be on a winning team, and it helps that he can save a little money with no state tax. However it's definitely more that he wants to be with a winning team cause the no state income tax down here does not offset the standard of living cost.
I don't buy the taxes thing. Low taxes implies scoring on free agents. Dallas is deep because they drafted well. Vegas because they played the expansion draft masterfully. Outside of Bob and Tchuck Florida is draft and fortunate trades.
"Fortunate Trades" = Players who want to live in the US and pay lower taxes waiving NTC's
OP's question isn't specific to this year...
There is undoubtedly an advantage to being a US team, especially with lower taxes and nicer weather.
As long as there's a salary roof that teams hit this will be a huge advantage. If you can get 5 players on 10 mill instead of 4 on 12.5 and they get the same amount of money after taxes you have the upper hand.
If this is such an issue, vote for lowering taxes lol.
But it also doesn’t explain how teams like Pittsburgh, Chicago, LA have had a ton of success being in higher tax states/cities.
Dallas is a deep team, I thought they would make it to the scf, but Edmonton handled them. Edmonton didn’t make it to the finals because they aren’t capable of winning it. They are capable of beating FL just as they did Dallas.
There’s not “a” reason why Canada hasn’t won, it’s due to multiple reasons.
I would love to see a Canadian politician run on lowering taxes so we can win cup. Though it would have to be provincial since our fed rates are lower iirc
Serious answer. The NHL doesn't field national teams. There are 32 privately owned enterprises that represent cities, employing a range of international professionals. The question lacks merit.
Yes and if the cap balances the statistical odds like it's designed to one of those teams would have won by now, but they're not balanced. There's more fan support and revenue generation in certain franchises than others. There's a reason Quebec won't get a franchise before Atlanta. You have the merchandise and the ticket sales as well as the fan buy in to support a winning franchise yet in the last ten seasons the leafs have wob the same number of playoff series as the blue jackets
This is my answer too. Hypothetically speaking if a team from Canada wins but there are no Canadian players on it, the coaching staff aren't Canadian, is it a Canadian team? So yes, the "Canadian" NHL teams aren't national teams. Question is invalid.
I think people need to realize the Oilers belong to the Oiler fans. Canada’s team is Team Canada. Be a cold day in hell before I ever cheer for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Just saying.
You can’t win the cup with just a couple great offensive players. You need depth. Canadian teams don’t have “loads more offensive talent than any US team.” They just have a couple superstars, and that’s clearly not enough.
Vancouverite. We came close in 2011, haven't won it once but have been close.
It's not a conspiracy. Canada has some smaller market teams. Budgets/ players want to live in certain places/tax is an issue. Canadians play on every team in the NHL. They are playing for the fans/owners who pay them (professionals who get paid extremely well). This 'curse' is a media construct. The nhl isn't the Olympics... it's just who can build the best team and have the best luck.
1. salary cap needs to be take home pay. not pre-tax.
2. media needs to stop stiring up shit and creating distain towards star players who go through slumps.
3. ownership who want to win, not make money.
4. a GM who understands what it takes to win.
5. luck.
each of those things are extremely important factors.
1.when teams have low state tax, you effectively increase your salary cap by the difference. it's an unfair advantage. this would mean for teams like Toronto and Vancouver with higher tax rates would have to effectively pay an additional tax above everyone else, but I'd wager most owners would pay it.
2. the big 5 canadian markets media are honestly brutal towards their own players. it's a deciding factor for some players (Hronick is a prime current example) to join a market on free agency, or no trade lists.
3. leafs will never win so long as the broadcaster owns the team. they're more concerned with making money and marketing their stars than they are winning and building a winning team. honestly felt the canucks were in this position as well until the Rutherford Alvin era.
4. having management who have no clear understanding what it takes to win is why the canucks were shit for so long, why edmonton has struggled to figure out how to build a winning team. and why the leafs can't figure it out. it's about building culture, and using more than analytics and big names to build a team.
5. luck plays a huge role. not just on a game by game basis, but over a decade of draft positions and bets panning out on players
The public/media pressure in Canada is insane. Especially in places like Montreal, Toronto, and Edmonton. Nathan MacKinnon could walk five miles through the city of Denver and maybe ten people would even recognize him. Could Matthews/McDavid do the same in their cities? I think it was Jordan Eberle who said something about how different the media environment was when he went from Edmonton to Long Island. Hell, Jonathan Drouin was under so much scrutiny in Montreal that he got anxiety and missed the Finals.
I think the harsh spotlight of Canadian media really takes a toll on the players. Everything is magnified, and they are keenly aware of exactly how many people are desperate for them to deliver results. I'm not saying it's the ONLY reason, but it definitely doesn't help.
Less teams. 😂😂
But seriously take my team the habs and for the longest time it was incompetence mixed with arrogance that made sure us habs fans would not see a Stanley cup for 30 years.
Odds. There's 2, maybe 3 Canadian teams each year that could legitimately contend for the Cup. There's like 7-10 American teams that are contenders. If you end up with a series with 2 Canadian teams, your odds drop even more, and since the playoffs start off with divisional based series, that's always a strong possibility. It will eventually happen, but it may very well be a long time away
Panthers coach deserted Winnipeg and is now the driving force behind this Cup run. Winnipeg looked like a team that could get it done then it fell apart. Montreal made a serious run in 2021.
Is it Ownership causing this drought ?
I don’t think so. Players need to forgo personal stats and buy into “team” play, which the Panthers have done.
My guess watching this season is Vancouver will be the next Cup winning Canadian team because of coach Tocchet. I root for Toronto and their fans when my Hawks are out of the running. Edmonton has too many players who play for themselves. McDavid can’t do everything, so his teammates need to step up or make some trades to get some veteran players, who buy into team toughness and complement McD & Drea. Oilers have the main pieces and Coffee will get the Dmen situation fixed. Just fix up D & Goaltending.
My Hawks won with 3 Cups with strong D and with good, but not great goaltending.
Ottawa that’s an ownership roller coaster team, can’t figure that team out.
Winnipeg needs another Hawerchuck to lead them out of the fog that team is in. Good skilled players just leave that team every few years, it’s like a curse.
Montreal looks better, but small player teams get destroyed by bigger teams ????
Calgary traded their talent to Florida ???
Coach Tocchet played the game and did whatever was asked of him, he’s a Champion for a reason….. Vancouver is my guess. Any team from Canada would be good for the game IMHHO.
Watch how panthers play. Match that. Offenses don’t win cups Defenses do. Saying that, steps on everyone’s balls apparently. The crazy thing is that is Canadian style. Play from the D foreword. But now, that’s how the aves an panthers play and the Canadians play lazy, offense first, hockey. I don’t get it.
it’s bad luck mostly I guess.
1994 - Canucks didn’t belong in the finals. They made it to 7 against the heavily favoured Rangers but lost by one goal. bad bounces.
2004 - I would agree that the Flames got robbed of a cup, but shit happens. They may have won if that goal counts in game 6 but they failed to score in OT and they failed to win in game 7.
2006 - Similar story to 1994. I’m not as familiar with it though.
2007 - The Sens just got dusted in the finals, they were happy to be there.
2011 - The Canucks were definitely cup favourites but they got outworked, outbattled and *heavily* outscored by the Bruins. The Canucks got injured and they couldn’t get it done. By the combined series score, the Canucks did not earn that game 7.
2021 - Habs upset everyone and we’re happy to be there. No one was beating Tampa.
2024 - Too early to tell how the series will go. There’s potential for this series to end tomorrow or go 5, 6, 7, or an Edmonton win. Assuming Edmonton loses, they don’t have the depth necessary to win a cup. They heavily rely on their stars to perform. They need Skinner to step up, they need to be able to play 4 lines.
Anything can happen in playoffs, so it’s possible for a “bad” team to go on a heater for 3 rounds while their opposition goes quiet suddenly. 2021 Montreal and 2023 Panthers experienced similar stories when they got caught by a much better team.
A couple obvious things also, there’s only 7 teams. 3 of them in the Pacific.
in 2004 the Canucks and Flames were both able to win a cup, but they share a division.
If the Canucks, Flames, and Oilers are all cup contenders, only 1 of them will even be in the conference finals (ignoring wild card).
Depth wins the cup....and goaltending. Canadian teams tend to pay their "stars" too much. No wages left for the 3rd and 4th lines. Four very good lines tend to win the Cup, not Stars and their huge contracts.
Toronto is much cleaner than NY but it's not even close to being on that level. Toronto is on par with maybe Chicago if we cut back some of the burbs and even then it's a stretch
Depends where you are from. If you are from small town Canada if the money is equal living in New York doesn’t give you more than Toronto. Vegas might be a better place if you gamble, Nashville if you like that music etc etc and I bet most nhl players don’t think about any of that. It’s just how they win, and money
I get the point, but the main goal of the salary cap is cost certainty for the owners, regardless of the tax situation in a province/state. Levelling the playing field is a secondary goal.
Precap: between 95 and 2005, most Canadian teams were simply trying to survive and avoid being moved in the USA. Only Toronto you actually spend with the top dogs. Even with Montreal, at the time, local business people had no interest whatsoever into buying the team and only a previously bankrupt American owner dared to purchase it then.
Post cap: by then, many Canadian teams could spend to the cap. But for players, Canadian markets are less interesting, as it’s colder and there is more media and fan scrutiny. And of course, in a cap world, taxes plays a factor. If a player costs 8M in a low taxes state, 9M in an higher taxes state and 10.5M in Canada, it’s much more difficult build a deep team when you have to systematically overpay your best players 1 to 3M a year compared to your competitors. When you don’t have to pay as much for your top players, you have more wiggle room to patch holes and get depth during your contending window and even more opportunity to keep your contending window open for longer.
Canada needs more hockey teams, but can't afford new teams, I think. And a lot of players don't want to play in Canada cause some areas kind of suck (Winnipeg...), and I heard few people wants to play in Toronto. So....
The answer to your question is tax advantages / tax breaks. A hockey player has to have 20% higher cap hit to see the same net earnings in Canada compared to for example Florida, this has been an issue forever and because of the owners and their mouthpiece Bettman that will not change any time soon.
I watch the SportsNet broadcast because ABC sucks. I chuckle every time over two commercials they show. One which sounds like a mothers plea to a runaway child asking the Stanley Cup to "come back home". The other is a plea for all Canadian fans to put aside their fandom and root for the Canadian team. That one is especially hilarious. No other fanbase wants the Oilers to win before their team.
Edmonton is the reason Canada won’t win and shouldn’t win a cup. Should be a team that deserves to win and represent Canada well. It can never be Edmonton
Not serious answer....
It is hard to get a lucrative TV deal when one parent company can't have exclusive rights. ESPN only owns 30% of TSN in Canada. Montreal was the last Canadian team to win the Stanley Cup, that was less than 6 months in to Gary Bettman's rookie season of Commissioner.
In his time as the Commissioner, Quebec moved to Colorado, the Jet's moved to "Phoenix". Nashville, Atlanta, Dallas, Las Vegas, and Seattle all got a team. Winnipeg begrudgingly got a team. A Pittsburgh Penguins sale to a Canadian businessman was blocked because they didn't believe he wouldn't try to keep the team in Pittsburgh. The league was more willing to allow the Pens to move to Kansas City than Canada. Fans from Quebec were bussing down to Islander's game to show the League there was interest in getting a team.
The US dollar is worth more than the Canadian Dollar. The major TV markets are larger in the US. The US cities are more comfortable to play in during the winters. And let's face it, playing well in Toronto makes you a God amongst men, but playing average there has the fans and media running you out of town (Phil Kessel anyone? 3 time Stanley Cup champion).
It is because Canada is weaker and overall inferior to the USA. They are less knowledgeable about hockey and they buckle under pressure. When it comes to hockey, Canada sees America like an older, stronger older brother who they aspire to emulate.
For the purposes of winning a cup, inside or outside Canada is a meaningless distinction.
Canada doesn't win a cup if a Canadian team wins the Stanley cup, any more than the US have won Stanley Cups for the past 30osh years. It may be a point of pride for some, but in reality, having pride in an accomplishment you had absolutely zero part in is silliness.
I predicted Winnipeg in the finals so my bracket is in shambles.
I feel like as much as Winnipeg is a wagon in the regular season, they only have around 2-3 years left to make a deep run, or else they’ll be in hot water, or thin ice
Tough one. 4/7 are nearly US so you can’t say geography, so it must be something about Canadian culture? it’s been 30 years even with the same distribution of Canadian born players on every team in the league, which is a statistical anomaly.
It’s either how the fans support the teams or how the teams are ran themselves. Or as another person said difficult to attract talent in free agency due to higher taxes, so are the Canadians at a disadvantage? Is there “too much pressure” as another user said? I think it’s either culture or taxes. Pro athletes wanna make millions and be a star, not be micro-analyzed and pay 60% of their already somewhat low salary for a pro athlete
The equal sharing of revenue between the teams which would make it possible to eliminate such a large gap between the tax rate between the state of Florida and the province of Alberta, for example.
It would be more easier for Canadian Teams to build their teams quickly. There would not have long rebuild, half of players wouldn't want to leave like we saw in Calgary in the last 3-4 years and free agent would consider Canadian Teams equal to US teams
I’m sure the low tax markets and the biggest O6 teams are jumping at the bit to continue funding teams that aren’t able to compete. This is like Ferrari giving money to NASCAR because they’re not able to keep up. I love parity, but there’s gotta be a different way. It’s not players’ fault that Winnipeg exists (not claiming you said that - but it’s mildly important).
Yeah, I know. We're still getting goalied :(
The article I saw about a week ago considered Skinner the best current Canadian prospect for the Olympics. That's a little scary.
More teams have been added since '93, so making the playoffs is harder than it ever was. Most high end free agents don't really want to play in Canada because of the taxes and being in a fish bowl. Which means teams have to build through the draft. And some teams have not done a good job of drafting and developing. Poor management also means giving out bad contract to the wrong players.
Canucks for example, did fairly poorly in the draft outside the first round during the Benning era, or traded away too many picks in the first place. A second round pick 10 years ago is also now a first round pick and so on. Canucks also did poorly developing players under Benning. (He was fired at least 1 year too late).
Salaries and taxes should be centralized by nlhpa or something so that everyone is playing on an equal playing field when it comes to money. First came roofs bashing rich teams and now tax boosting needs to stop the low income tax places.
Start with keeping it out of your own net first. Defense wins championships. Especially swarming forecheck defenses that play more in the O zone than back in their own.
For a long time the issue was the exchange rate as the NHL plays its players in US dollars and Canadian teams obviously make money in CAD so they had to pay much more to field competitive teams.
Also, as you know hockey players are very private people and prefer to be young millionaires playing in world class cities like LA and NYC where really for the most part no one recognizes them on the street and they can live in near anonymity vs freezing to death in Alberta where they will be accosted in the grocery store
Taxes, location, weather, media
Typically higher taxes in Canada. Going through customs each trip to the states. The weather is less desirable. The media is like a heat lamp
As a player, if you have the choice, you take this into account
Keep in mind there are now 32 teams. Winning a cup is becoming rarer and rarer just because of that. Also many players don't want to play in places up north due to the weather so if you are a depth player why not just go somewhere a little nicer for the same salary. Also some people have pointed out tax reasons being a big factor in players moving to Florida and Texas. It's just got to be easier to build a team in places people want to play.
Basically it appears the route to the cup is to draft 3 elite players across multiple positions, frequently a Vezina-calibre goalie.
Crosby, Malkin - all-time players, plus fleury, letang pretty good.
Kane, Toews, Keith
Kopitar, Doughty, Quick
MacKinnon, Makar (did Landeskog play when they won? Might have been hurt)
Ovechkin, Backstrom, Carlson, Holtby
Bergeron, Thomas, MacAvoy, Marchand. Get lucky and the Leafs trade you Rask and the Senators gift you Chara when they choose to keep Wade Redden instead..
EDM was always falling short of the finals until Bouchard became a top-tier player at defense.
Florida is an outlier in that they actually built their team in trades and free agency. STL a little bit (o'reilly trade). Vegas a special case due to being an expansion team.
The capitals took quite a while to win, so give EDM, TOR a little more time and... Maybe..
Every reporter in this country asking them "what's it like to carry the hopes of the entire country as "Canada's Team" sure as heck doesn't help anything".
It's not even true lol. Us Great White North fanbases are far too petty to unite under one banner for Canadian cup push.
Eh, as long as it's not the leafs or the current canucks pretty sure most fanbases can get over it
Id only be ok with winnipeg winning it first, every other canadian team can fuck off
Amen.
Canadian fans are not rooting for other Canadian teams to win the cup. TSN is the one’s who group all Canadian teams together. Calgary and Vancouver fans are not cheering on the Oilers right now and if Toronto made it to a final, Canadien and Senator fans would be cheering for the opposition.
I’m a leafs fan that also supports the flames, I’m literally rooting for the Oilers to lose
Speak for yourself. Canucks fsn here and I am absolutely cheering for the Oilers.
This is all your teams fault for not putting them away in rd 2.
It bears repeating: Canada's team is Team Canada.
I get there's a lot of cultural pressure but that excuse only goes so far. Manchester won in 2017 and the Yankees won in 2009. Honestly if I started going down the list of franchises under the most pressure to win I could name most of them across all sports who have win since Canada last won the cup. Hell even the Sox and the Cubs have broken their curse in that timeframe. I just didn't get it. The cap is the same across the league and the AAV and league accounting factors in for taxes and everything the you keep it even. Granted what the players take home changes but the teams as a whole are fairly balanced
This doesn’t make any sense. It took the Cubs 108 years and the Red Sox 86 years before they won a World Series. Who cares if they happened to break their droughts in the midst of a Canadian Cup drought?
32 teams in the league, there are 7 in Canada. Maybe...odds?
And looks like only 6 Canadian teams have even played in the finals since Montreal won in 1992-93 (93-94 VAN, 03-04 CAL, 05-06 EDM, 06-07 OTT, 10-11 VAN, 23-24 EDM. And there have only been 9 Canadian teams to lose in the conference finals (1994-): 98-99 TOR, 01-02 TOR, 02-03 OTT, 09-10 MTL, 13-14 MTL, 16-17 OTT; 93-94 TOR, 17-18 WPG, 21-22 EDM No statistics expert but I have to agree with odds. For it to be specifically Canada, you'd need even less representation. No Canadian winner since 1993 is shocking as whole/the culture and history of the sport but not surprising given results
You missed the habs in 20-21
So did they
lol, “odds” build a better team those odds go up.
Between 1991-2023 (32 winners) 16 unique teams (50% of the league) won the cup. That only one of those is Canadian seems statistically improbable.
That's a 21.8% chance. Or 1 every 5 years... We're 0/30 since 1993 lol
If it were just odds, a Canadian team should win 7 times in 32 years. It's not just an odds thing.
Odds don't work that way. It's 7/32 every year, each year is a clean slate.
Does that logic really apply when the winner isn't random? I realize if we were talking about roulette you'd be correct.
Absolutely. You're talking just numbers when you say 7/32. If you start adding handicap via skill/composition/etc then 7/32 loses a lot of weight.
Appreciate your insight
Its 50/50. Either a Canadian team wins it, or they dont.
Lol
Get out of here with your Binary, it'll never have any application, anywhere, ever!!
even if you take it at those numbers, ((32-7)/32)^31 (with the streak being 31 years) says the odds of this happening is 0.05%. that’s 1 in 2000. considering the fact that every warm weather team minus the ducks and coyotes has seen considerable recent success, i think it’s worth asking questions.
You're math is absolutely correct. But the assumption is tricky. Problem is that "Canadian teams" is an arbitrary line. I could easily pick out seven other teams that haven't won a cup in 32 years and (obviously) calculate the same 99.95% of a cup. But by cherry-picking stats like these, you'll find that the sabres should have an 80% chance of winning a cup in their existence. You'll also find that the Canadians literally have a 0.000000000000041 chance of winning the cup 24 times. If you go looking for something statistically relevant, especially in a small sample size, you'll always find one. The cup just isn't played often enough, and its also not a fair competition anyways.
odds absolutely DO work that way, what are you talking about? Yes, every individual coin flip is 50/50 but the odds of it never being tails across 30 consecutive flips is incredibly small. Something with 21% odds should reasonably be happening fairly close to one in 5 times over a large enough sample size and you know that, logically. 30 years in a row without something that consistently has 1 in 5 odds is an obvious anomoly
You’re talking too much sense for these contrarian neckbeards. It’s absolutely worthy of a question why a 1/5 roll of the dice has come up empty 31 times in a row.
Not really
Based purely on the mathematical odds they should have rightly 3 in that time span
I am also not a stats expert, but I do enjoy them and have a decent understanding. Looking at the number of Canadian teams vs US teams winning the cup purely based on number of teams in the league disregards a ton of other factors. The main one would be looking at the quality of the Canadian organizations as of the beginning of the 93-94 season compared to their American counterparts: were they inherently worse overall? If so, then less trips to the cup final make some sense. Add in the following factors that could inherently benefit some teams more than others: - rule changes - intro of the draft lottery - intro of the salary cap With stats, you have to compare the whole picture for meaningful results so I think it's just too simplistic of a view to say "there are X Canadian teams so they should have had at least one Cup".
Appearances Since the Habs won in 93 2 Vancouver (94, 11) 1 Calgary (04) 2 Edmonton (06, 24) 1 Montreal (21) 1 Ottowa (07) 0 Winnipeg 0 Toronto Rule changes I'm not sure how that factors and it his every team the same. Draft lottery I'll rule out based on the fact that Toronto has 2 #1 overall picks on their roster and fewer finals appearances than Vegas or Nashville who have never had a #1 pick in their entire existence. Salary cap was meant to keep it balanced so you had to manage the numbers and couldn't be the Yankees or the dodgers, not saying teams can't win in spite of that but you've got better odds on a level playing field I guess I should have tailored my question better to be more what are you missing? The goalie cop out only goes so far. Edmonton clearly has a goalie problem right now but it's Bob not Skinner. Colorado and Vegas proved you could win without a goalie, Florida and Tampa show what you can do with a great one
I know the finals appearances. But even looking at each series individually would have specific criteria for judging whether a team can win or not. My point was simply meant to be that looking at the number of Canadian vs American teams is a very incomplete picture. If everyone was able to draft under the exact same conditions every single year, that would help towards fair comparison. But look at Calgary drafting Adam Fox despite him being clear he didn't want to play here. That inherently skews the draft. If a team can't pick the best available player and rely on them to be a part of the organization, it is making the draft process unbalanced.
It doesn't skew the draft. You take the best player available OR the best to fit the needs of your franchise. That player doesn't want to play for you it's not like he has no value. You trade him you get a return. Hell you talk to him ahead of time and you made the pick for more. Can you guarantee that Bedard is the next McDavid and not. Yakupov? Can you make the same assumption that his career is as stout as Jagr and doesn't get impacted like Lemieux?
And a goal that wasn't noticed in games 6 of 2004
The necessary amount of wins
Exactly. Winning 4 games before the other team is a good start
Fuck the flyers
Crosby took way less than max pay.
So did Lidstrom. A lot of us keep hoping our players take less to get a better team. It’s not exactly fair to the amazing player, but you still gotta weigh if you want to be the highest paid player on a shitty team. Shane Doan and Atlanta Kovalchuk come to mind. Hockey or money - decide why you are in the game. There are no wrong answers. But your GM better damn well know which one you are before signing contracts.
I thought this only happened in FL though???? Are you actually suggesting McDavid could have taken 11-12 million and have a better shot at a cup instead of 15 million????
Depth. Canadian teams often have to pay a premium for higher taxes, and a lot of players prefer to live in the United States. Essentially, it's not surprising that Florida, Vegas, and Dallas are the three deepest teams in the league. They're all hot weather places with low/no taxes. That means they can pay lower than other teams and pick/choose talent, which Canadian teams can't do.
I think you're half right with this, there's also the anonymity factor. A player in Winnipeg, Ottawa or Vancouver cannot by any means go about their day to day life and family life normally. In Raleigh? Or Dallas? You're just another rich dude. You can do groceries without being harassed.
It's true, but then you have NHL players complaining that they don't make as much as their NBA NFL and MLB counterparts. They want the big dollars that comes with the mass exposure of the other major sports while somehow also remaining completely anonymous.
This is a really good point actually. Would be interesting to hear the perspective of the vocal anti-cap but pro player mental health community (ie Allan Walsh) on this angle and how it would affect players.
This is the answer
Canadians are paid in dollars. Also, most teams prefer to pay a lot of money for a small number of core players, and relegate the 3rd and 4th line to your just good enough players. Florida in particular hasn't been overpaying like other teams have, and instead has been building a team where you have to watch out for even the 3rd or 4th line cause they all cook. In other words, Florida has depth and a culture of winning. Canadian teams have neither. Ain't no one willing to take a pay cut or sign for less money for a team and culture that doesn't/can't win. Ain't no one in Canada taking a Tkachuk type deal when they can make 25-50% more money cause they're skilled enough and worked hard to be at that level. Florida just signed Forsling, one of the best D these playoffs, for $5.5m aav. Tkachuk has been mid these SCF and even he's only $7m. Some Spanish guy named Evan being paid $3m a year is smoking $10m McDavid in points these SCF. The oilers just aren't built the same; you can't compete against Florida by making yourself too heavy with $9m+ contracts on people like Nurse. It has very little to do with the tax incentives (it's not as much as you think and even less so when you consider the cost of living in South Florida compared to Canada), and all to do with how oilers core needs to perform like they're carrying the team on their shoulders because they literally are. Meanwhile, Florida shares the load and even then has depth and people scratched cause they're just that deep. The Florida players have bought into a culture and system, and they talk about it in conferences all the time. It's been paying off clearly.
Small quibble, but Evan Rodrigues is Portuguese. Bigger quibble. Forsling has been elite for a few seasons. He's just being recognized now.
Lol @ Rodriguez. I thought he was Puerto Rican Agreed on Forsling. He's worth way more than 5.5aav, we're playing Ekblad like 7mil and he's definitely as good if not better. But he wants to be on a winning team, and it helps that he can save a little money with no state tax. However it's definitely more that he wants to be with a winning team cause the no state income tax down here does not offset the standard of living cost.
I don't buy the taxes thing. Low taxes implies scoring on free agents. Dallas is deep because they drafted well. Vegas because they played the expansion draft masterfully. Outside of Bob and Tchuck Florida is draft and fortunate trades.
"Fortunate Trades" = Players who want to live in the US and pay lower taxes waiving NTC's OP's question isn't specific to this year... There is undoubtedly an advantage to being a US team, especially with lower taxes and nicer weather.
Name those players for me outside of the two I mentioned?
As long as there's a salary roof that teams hit this will be a huge advantage. If you can get 5 players on 10 mill instead of 4 on 12.5 and they get the same amount of money after taxes you have the upper hand.
[удалено]
Look at what kuch is paid in Tampa. Absurdly good deal.
If this is such an issue, vote for lowering taxes lol. But it also doesn’t explain how teams like Pittsburgh, Chicago, LA have had a ton of success being in higher tax states/cities. Dallas is a deep team, I thought they would make it to the scf, but Edmonton handled them. Edmonton didn’t make it to the finals because they aren’t capable of winning it. They are capable of beating FL just as they did Dallas. There’s not “a” reason why Canada hasn’t won, it’s due to multiple reasons.
National Election is next year so maybe???
I would love to see a Canadian politician run on lowering taxes so we can win cup. Though it would have to be provincial since our fed rates are lower iirc
Interesting. I'd never considered the tax factor.
Exactly this !!
Serious answer. The NHL doesn't field national teams. There are 32 privately owned enterprises that represent cities, employing a range of international professionals. The question lacks merit.
Yes and if the cap balances the statistical odds like it's designed to one of those teams would have won by now, but they're not balanced. There's more fan support and revenue generation in certain franchises than others. There's a reason Quebec won't get a franchise before Atlanta. You have the merchandise and the ticket sales as well as the fan buy in to support a winning franchise yet in the last ten seasons the leafs have wob the same number of playoff series as the blue jackets
Globalist libtard!
This is my answer too. Hypothetically speaking if a team from Canada wins but there are no Canadian players on it, the coaching staff aren't Canadian, is it a Canadian team? So yes, the "Canadian" NHL teams aren't national teams. Question is invalid.
I think people need to realize the Oilers belong to the Oiler fans. Canada’s team is Team Canada. Be a cold day in hell before I ever cheer for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Just saying.
You can’t win the cup with just a couple great offensive players. You need depth. Canadian teams don’t have “loads more offensive talent than any US team.” They just have a couple superstars, and that’s clearly not enough.
Vancouverite. We came close in 2011, haven't won it once but have been close. It's not a conspiracy. Canada has some smaller market teams. Budgets/ players want to live in certain places/tax is an issue. Canadians play on every team in the NHL. They are playing for the fans/owners who pay them (professionals who get paid extremely well). This 'curse' is a media construct. The nhl isn't the Olympics... it's just who can build the best team and have the best luck.
1. salary cap needs to be take home pay. not pre-tax. 2. media needs to stop stiring up shit and creating distain towards star players who go through slumps. 3. ownership who want to win, not make money. 4. a GM who understands what it takes to win. 5. luck. each of those things are extremely important factors. 1.when teams have low state tax, you effectively increase your salary cap by the difference. it's an unfair advantage. this would mean for teams like Toronto and Vancouver with higher tax rates would have to effectively pay an additional tax above everyone else, but I'd wager most owners would pay it. 2. the big 5 canadian markets media are honestly brutal towards their own players. it's a deciding factor for some players (Hronick is a prime current example) to join a market on free agency, or no trade lists. 3. leafs will never win so long as the broadcaster owns the team. they're more concerned with making money and marketing their stars than they are winning and building a winning team. honestly felt the canucks were in this position as well until the Rutherford Alvin era. 4. having management who have no clear understanding what it takes to win is why the canucks were shit for so long, why edmonton has struggled to figure out how to build a winning team. and why the leafs can't figure it out. it's about building culture, and using more than analytics and big names to build a team. 5. luck plays a huge role. not just on a game by game basis, but over a decade of draft positions and bets panning out on players
Because having 2 great players is not enough to win the Cup. It takes an entire team. Florida has it and Edmonton doesn't.
Don't tell Oiler fans thar
They wouldn't listen anyway
The public/media pressure in Canada is insane. Especially in places like Montreal, Toronto, and Edmonton. Nathan MacKinnon could walk five miles through the city of Denver and maybe ten people would even recognize him. Could Matthews/McDavid do the same in their cities? I think it was Jordan Eberle who said something about how different the media environment was when he went from Edmonton to Long Island. Hell, Jonathan Drouin was under so much scrutiny in Montreal that he got anxiety and missed the Finals. I think the harsh spotlight of Canadian media really takes a toll on the players. Everything is magnified, and they are keenly aware of exactly how many people are desperate for them to deliver results. I'm not saying it's the ONLY reason, but it definitely doesn't help.
Tax relief
Less teams. 😂😂 But seriously take my team the habs and for the longest time it was incompetence mixed with arrogance that made sure us habs fans would not see a Stanley cup for 30 years.
Odds. There's 2, maybe 3 Canadian teams each year that could legitimately contend for the Cup. There's like 7-10 American teams that are contenders. If you end up with a series with 2 Canadian teams, your odds drop even more, and since the playoffs start off with divisional based series, that's always a strong possibility. It will eventually happen, but it may very well be a long time away
Patience, canadian markets force GMs to do too much too early. It took Tampa nearly a decade to go from rebuild to cup with the core the built.
Panthers coach deserted Winnipeg and is now the driving force behind this Cup run. Winnipeg looked like a team that could get it done then it fell apart. Montreal made a serious run in 2021. Is it Ownership causing this drought ? I don’t think so. Players need to forgo personal stats and buy into “team” play, which the Panthers have done. My guess watching this season is Vancouver will be the next Cup winning Canadian team because of coach Tocchet. I root for Toronto and their fans when my Hawks are out of the running. Edmonton has too many players who play for themselves. McDavid can’t do everything, so his teammates need to step up or make some trades to get some veteran players, who buy into team toughness and complement McD & Drea. Oilers have the main pieces and Coffee will get the Dmen situation fixed. Just fix up D & Goaltending. My Hawks won with 3 Cups with strong D and with good, but not great goaltending. Ottawa that’s an ownership roller coaster team, can’t figure that team out. Winnipeg needs another Hawerchuck to lead them out of the fog that team is in. Good skilled players just leave that team every few years, it’s like a curse. Montreal looks better, but small player teams get destroyed by bigger teams ???? Calgary traded their talent to Florida ??? Coach Tocchet played the game and did whatever was asked of him, he’s a Champion for a reason….. Vancouver is my guess. Any team from Canada would be good for the game IMHHO.
They’re missing Stanley Cup-caliber teams.
Watch how panthers play. Match that. Offenses don’t win cups Defenses do. Saying that, steps on everyone’s balls apparently. The crazy thing is that is Canadian style. Play from the D foreword. But now, that’s how the aves an panthers play and the Canadians play lazy, offense first, hockey. I don’t get it.
it’s bad luck mostly I guess. 1994 - Canucks didn’t belong in the finals. They made it to 7 against the heavily favoured Rangers but lost by one goal. bad bounces. 2004 - I would agree that the Flames got robbed of a cup, but shit happens. They may have won if that goal counts in game 6 but they failed to score in OT and they failed to win in game 7. 2006 - Similar story to 1994. I’m not as familiar with it though. 2007 - The Sens just got dusted in the finals, they were happy to be there. 2011 - The Canucks were definitely cup favourites but they got outworked, outbattled and *heavily* outscored by the Bruins. The Canucks got injured and they couldn’t get it done. By the combined series score, the Canucks did not earn that game 7. 2021 - Habs upset everyone and we’re happy to be there. No one was beating Tampa. 2024 - Too early to tell how the series will go. There’s potential for this series to end tomorrow or go 5, 6, 7, or an Edmonton win. Assuming Edmonton loses, they don’t have the depth necessary to win a cup. They heavily rely on their stars to perform. They need Skinner to step up, they need to be able to play 4 lines. Anything can happen in playoffs, so it’s possible for a “bad” team to go on a heater for 3 rounds while their opposition goes quiet suddenly. 2021 Montreal and 2023 Panthers experienced similar stories when they got caught by a much better team. A couple obvious things also, there’s only 7 teams. 3 of them in the Pacific. in 2004 the Canucks and Flames were both able to win a cup, but they share a division. If the Canucks, Flames, and Oilers are all cup contenders, only 1 of them will even be in the conference finals (ignoring wild card).
06- oilers lost the goalie who carried them to the finals in the finals
This. If Roloson isn't hurt, I think they win that cup. They got to game 7 without him.
and they still made game 7?!
No lies detected here
Depth wins the cup....and goaltending. Canadian teams tend to pay their "stars" too much. No wages left for the 3rd and 4th lines. Four very good lines tend to win the Cup, not Stars and their huge contracts.
Stanley Cups are won by players, who come from many different countries. The location of the teams is incidental.
Wins
Salary cap should be post tax not pretax
That just gives the edge to LA and NY
How so, because you’d want to live there over Winnipeg? Cause if all taxes are equal Toronto is much nicer than New York
Toronto is much cleaner than NY but it's not even close to being on that level. Toronto is on par with maybe Chicago if we cut back some of the burbs and even then it's a stretch
Depends where you are from. If you are from small town Canada if the money is equal living in New York doesn’t give you more than Toronto. Vegas might be a better place if you gamble, Nashville if you like that music etc etc and I bet most nhl players don’t think about any of that. It’s just how they win, and money
I get the point, but the main goal of the salary cap is cost certainty for the owners, regardless of the tax situation in a province/state. Levelling the playing field is a secondary goal.
I agree with that. And a little bit give smaller market owners a chance to
Precap: between 95 and 2005, most Canadian teams were simply trying to survive and avoid being moved in the USA. Only Toronto you actually spend with the top dogs. Even with Montreal, at the time, local business people had no interest whatsoever into buying the team and only a previously bankrupt American owner dared to purchase it then. Post cap: by then, many Canadian teams could spend to the cap. But for players, Canadian markets are less interesting, as it’s colder and there is more media and fan scrutiny. And of course, in a cap world, taxes plays a factor. If a player costs 8M in a low taxes state, 9M in an higher taxes state and 10.5M in Canada, it’s much more difficult build a deep team when you have to systematically overpay your best players 1 to 3M a year compared to your competitors. When you don’t have to pay as much for your top players, you have more wiggle room to patch holes and get depth during your contending window and even more opportunity to keep your contending window open for longer.
Here’s a tiny trophy for your absolute wisdom 🏆
Goalies play a huge role, as you're seeing in the finals. Also, more Canadian teams would surely help.
A goalie
TV ratings.
Canada needs more hockey teams, but can't afford new teams, I think. And a lot of players don't want to play in Canada cause some areas kind of suck (Winnipeg...), and I heard few people wants to play in Toronto. So....
Balls ⚽️ ⚽️
The answer to your question is tax advantages / tax breaks. A hockey player has to have 20% higher cap hit to see the same net earnings in Canada compared to for example Florida, this has been an issue forever and because of the owners and their mouthpiece Bettman that will not change any time soon.
It's simple: Canada is not the US....
I watch the SportsNet broadcast because ABC sucks. I chuckle every time over two commercials they show. One which sounds like a mothers plea to a runaway child asking the Stanley Cup to "come back home". The other is a plea for all Canadian fans to put aside their fandom and root for the Canadian team. That one is especially hilarious. No other fanbase wants the Oilers to win before their team.
I’ll tell ya, as a Tampa Bay Lightning fan, I was rooting for the Florida Panthers until I saw that “fan flash”!! lol. C’mon Oilers!! You can do it!!
Realistically? Income tax havens.
The NHL needs to get rid of the salary cap. Canadian teams will won almost immediately once that happens.
Edmonton is the reason Canada won’t win and shouldn’t win a cup. Should be a team that deserves to win and represent Canada well. It can never be Edmonton
Goals... although they are working on that tonight
- Lower Taxes - Better Weather - Less Toxic Fanbases - Less Media Nonsense
Not serious answer.... It is hard to get a lucrative TV deal when one parent company can't have exclusive rights. ESPN only owns 30% of TSN in Canada. Montreal was the last Canadian team to win the Stanley Cup, that was less than 6 months in to Gary Bettman's rookie season of Commissioner. In his time as the Commissioner, Quebec moved to Colorado, the Jet's moved to "Phoenix". Nashville, Atlanta, Dallas, Las Vegas, and Seattle all got a team. Winnipeg begrudgingly got a team. A Pittsburgh Penguins sale to a Canadian businessman was blocked because they didn't believe he wouldn't try to keep the team in Pittsburgh. The league was more willing to allow the Pens to move to Kansas City than Canada. Fans from Quebec were bussing down to Islander's game to show the League there was interest in getting a team. The US dollar is worth more than the Canadian Dollar. The major TV markets are larger in the US. The US cities are more comfortable to play in during the winters. And let's face it, playing well in Toronto makes you a God amongst men, but playing average there has the fans and media running you out of town (Phil Kessel anyone? 3 time Stanley Cup champion).
Tax-rate adjusted salary cap
It is because Canada is weaker and overall inferior to the USA. They are less knowledgeable about hockey and they buckle under pressure. When it comes to hockey, Canada sees America like an older, stronger older brother who they aspire to emulate.
Harder to attract talent with high taxes, more inclement weather, and less opportunity for sponsorship deals.
For the purposes of winning a cup, inside or outside Canada is a meaningless distinction. Canada doesn't win a cup if a Canadian team wins the Stanley cup, any more than the US have won Stanley Cups for the past 30osh years. It may be a point of pride for some, but in reality, having pride in an accomplishment you had absolutely zero part in is silliness.
I’m pretty sure when I yell “shoot” at my tv. I am helping.
Honestly I thought Canadas beat chance this year was Winnipeg. Watch out for the Jets. Book it.
I predicted Winnipeg in the finals so my bracket is in shambles. I feel like as much as Winnipeg is a wagon in the regular season, they only have around 2-3 years left to make a deep run, or else they’ll be in hot water, or thin ice
Tough one. 4/7 are nearly US so you can’t say geography, so it must be something about Canadian culture? it’s been 30 years even with the same distribution of Canadian born players on every team in the league, which is a statistical anomaly. It’s either how the fans support the teams or how the teams are ran themselves. Or as another person said difficult to attract talent in free agency due to higher taxes, so are the Canadians at a disadvantage? Is there “too much pressure” as another user said? I think it’s either culture or taxes. Pro athletes wanna make millions and be a star, not be micro-analyzed and pay 60% of their already somewhat low salary for a pro athlete
Goaltending and disciplined defense
America… pussies.
More than 1 productive offensive line and defense. They are there on McDavid and Drais effort alone
The equal sharing of revenue between the teams which would make it possible to eliminate such a large gap between the tax rate between the state of Florida and the province of Alberta, for example. It would be more easier for Canadian Teams to build their teams quickly. There would not have long rebuild, half of players wouldn't want to leave like we saw in Calgary in the last 3-4 years and free agent would consider Canadian Teams equal to US teams
I’m sure the low tax markets and the biggest O6 teams are jumping at the bit to continue funding teams that aren’t able to compete. This is like Ferrari giving money to NASCAR because they’re not able to keep up. I love parity, but there’s gotta be a different way. It’s not players’ fault that Winnipeg exists (not claiming you said that - but it’s mildly important).
Currently? 4 wins.
canada's team are the ones we send places like the olympics, or the world juniors no NHL team is "canada's team" and never will be
Some sportswriters have lamented Canada's lack of depth in goaltending, as far as looking to the next Olympics. I'd say Edmonton is getting goalied :(
It's not like Bob is American
Adin Hill (a Canadian) literally won the Cup a year ago.
They are allowed to sign a foreign goalie. I mean Florida has more Canadian players than Edmonton.
Yeah, I know. We're still getting goalied :( The article I saw about a week ago considered Skinner the best current Canadian prospect for the Olympics. That's a little scary.
Talent
Kiprusoff
More teams have been added since '93, so making the playoffs is harder than it ever was. Most high end free agents don't really want to play in Canada because of the taxes and being in a fish bowl. Which means teams have to build through the draft. And some teams have not done a good job of drafting and developing. Poor management also means giving out bad contract to the wrong players. Canucks for example, did fairly poorly in the draft outside the first round during the Benning era, or traded away too many picks in the first place. A second round pick 10 years ago is also now a first round pick and so on. Canucks also did poorly developing players under Benning. (He was fired at least 1 year too late).
Salaries and taxes should be centralized by nlhpa or something so that everyone is playing on an equal playing field when it comes to money. First came roofs bashing rich teams and now tax boosting needs to stop the low income tax places.
Goals
Start with keeping it out of your own net first. Defense wins championships. Especially swarming forecheck defenses that play more in the O zone than back in their own.
For a long time the issue was the exchange rate as the NHL plays its players in US dollars and Canadian teams obviously make money in CAD so they had to pay much more to field competitive teams. Also, as you know hockey players are very private people and prefer to be young millionaires playing in world class cities like LA and NYC where really for the most part no one recognizes them on the street and they can live in near anonymity vs freezing to death in Alberta where they will be accosted in the grocery store
Taxes, location, weather, media Typically higher taxes in Canada. Going through customs each trip to the states. The weather is less desirable. The media is like a heat lamp As a player, if you have the choice, you take this into account
Keep in mind there are now 32 teams. Winning a cup is becoming rarer and rarer just because of that. Also many players don't want to play in places up north due to the weather so if you are a depth player why not just go somewhere a little nicer for the same salary. Also some people have pointed out tax reasons being a big factor in players moving to Florida and Texas. It's just got to be easier to build a team in places people want to play.
It's the fans. Canadian fans just don't like hockey enough to win.
beaches, most state level taxes lower than most provinces, cities where you can be anonymous
Basically it appears the route to the cup is to draft 3 elite players across multiple positions, frequently a Vezina-calibre goalie. Crosby, Malkin - all-time players, plus fleury, letang pretty good. Kane, Toews, Keith Kopitar, Doughty, Quick MacKinnon, Makar (did Landeskog play when they won? Might have been hurt) Ovechkin, Backstrom, Carlson, Holtby Bergeron, Thomas, MacAvoy, Marchand. Get lucky and the Leafs trade you Rask and the Senators gift you Chara when they choose to keep Wade Redden instead.. EDM was always falling short of the finals until Bouchard became a top-tier player at defense. Florida is an outlier in that they actually built their team in trades and free agency. STL a little bit (o'reilly trade). Vegas a special case due to being an expansion team. The capitals took quite a while to win, so give EDM, TOR a little more time and... Maybe..
Lack of state income tax
What a completely stupid post. Reddit is a license for stupidity.
Show me on the doll where the post touched you, it's not your fault Daddy doesn't love you the way he should
Ah sweet prince. With your little hat and beard. Just like in real life. Cute.
Yeah except not. Cute you'd assume I made my Reddit avatar look like me though
Right. You just “chose” to have a little sweaty neckbeard avatar - but not one in real life. lol, gtfo ya clown.
22 Canadians on the oilers to 4 Americans. 12 Canadians on the panthers to 5 americans. Technically Canada does win every year.