Those were heady times, back in the early Canadian summer of 1993.
Petrol cost about half a loonie per litre, the separatists Bloc Québécois was on its way to winning an unprecedented role as official opposition, the Toronto Blue Jays were in the midst of claiming a second consecutive World Series and the Montreal Canadiens were champions of hockey.
The Habs had just hoisted Lord Stanley’s famed chalice — and unknowingly launched an incredible drought that’s lasted more than three decades.
No Canadian team has won the Stanley Cup since June 9, 1993 when Montreal finished off the Wayne Gretzky-led Los Angeles Kings, 4-1, in the best-of-7 series.
How to watch the Stanley Cup final
- The puck will drop for Game 1 of the series at 8 p.m. EDT on Saturday and televised by ABC.
- The Oilers have lifted Lord Stanley’s chalice five times (1984, 1985, 1987, 1988, 1990) and the Panthers are seeking their first title.
- Florida enters as slight favorites. A bettor would need to wager about $135 on the Panthers to profit $100, while an Oilers backer could invest $100 and net about $115.
- Top players to watch include Edmonton scoring machines Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl and Florida net minder Sergei Bobrovsky.
The Edmonton Oilers will be the latest Canadian-based franchise seeking to break that hex when they face the Florida Panthers in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final on Saturday.
“Every city has an affinity to their own team, you have those rivalries between cities,” Edmonton Mayor Amarjeet Sohi told NBC News on Friday. “But now that the Oilers are in the final and in queue to win the Stanley Cup, more and more Canadians are lining up behind the Oilers as Canada’s team.”
The drought, however, doesn’t represent an off-the-charts anomaly.
The Canadiens won the 1993 title when eight of 24 NHL franchises were from Canada. In today’s NHL, only seven of 32 franchises call the country home.
So the odds of a Canadian team winning it all has always been less than a 50-50 proposition, hovering between 33% and 21.8%. And a half-dozen Canadian sides have fallen in the Stanley Cup Final since Montreal’s win in 1993.
But in a league with a plurality of Canadian players and in a sport so deeply engrained in national identity, this drought represents a bit of cultural crisis, said Aziz Rajwani, who teaches accounting at the University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business.
“People in Canada are definitely aware and the (Stanley Cup) drought in Canada is mentioned year after year after year,” said Rajwani, a regular contributor to a Vancouver radio show on sports business. “Thirty-plus years is generational.”
It’s easy to see why Canadians are so devoted to hockey.
Team Canada has won nine gold medals in Olympic men’s hockey and five in the women’s game — both more than any other country.
“Hockey is integral to Canadian culture and to Canadian identity,” said Mayor Sohi, who immigrated to Canada in 1981 at the ground floor of the great Oilers dynasty of Gretzky, Grant Fuhr, Paul Coffey and Mark Messier.
Rajwani vividly recalled his school rolling in TVs for students to watch the famed 1972 Summit Series between Canada and the Soviet Union. He’ll always remember where he was when Paul Henderson scored the famous winner.
“Hockey has always been Canada’s sport,” he said. “Hockey in Canada is king and queen.”
And to add insult to injury, the sport that’s played on backyard frozen ponds across the Great White North has seen some of its championships won by clubs hailing from less-than-wintry cities.
The only ice outside arenas in cities like Las Vegas, Anaheim, Tampa and Raleigh are probably in cocktails.
The upstart Golden Knights, the Disney-inspired Ducks, Hurricanes and Lightning have won the Stanley Cup since 1993 — with fans in the hockey hotbed of Tampa celebrating with the revered chalice an amazing three times.
While some Canadians might be put off by the Stanley Cup being won by a club south of the border for the past 30-plus years, not all fans are upset. It truly comes down to where in Canada you reside.
“Sports is very tribal and that’s based on geography,” Rajwani said. “So we might be one nation, but there are several tribes in terms of the NHL. If Montreal were in (the Final), sure (many Canadians are) going to root for them. But if you’re from Quebec City, you’re not going to be happy if Montreal wins because they’re your rival.”
Mayor Sohi has been in Calgary, home of the Oilers’ bitter rivals, the Calgary Flames, this week for the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) conference and, perhaps courageously, wearing his Oilers sweater around town.
He’s convinced Flames, Canadiens, Vancouver Canucks, Toronto Maple Leafs, Ottawa Senators and Winnipeg Jets partisans will come around when the puck drops Saturday.
“When they see them on the ice with the potential of winning and bringing the Stanley Cup back home to Canada, I think you’ll see the excitement and people changing their views,” Sohi said.
By coincidence, the Oilers just so happen to have a much more Canadian roster than the Panthers.
Of the 20 Oilers who donned sweaters in Edmonton’s Western Conference-clinching win over the Dallas Stars on Sunday, 15 were born in Canada. Only seven members of the Panthers, who suited up against the New York Rangers a day prior, were born in Canada.
One of those Canadians on Edmonton is NHL superstar Connor McDavid, the reigning Hart Trophy winner who grew up near Toronto and is widely considered the sport’s best player.
“That’s what sports is all about,” McDavid said after the Oilers advanced to the final. “Bringing people together and hopefully we’re doing that for Canadians across the country.”
And as Hockey Hall of Fame Vice President and “Keeper of the Cup” Phil Pritchard pointed out, Canadians can take peace of mind knowing there wouldn’t be an NHL without Canadians.
“For Canadians, hockey is always important, and if a Canadian team wins, great. But I don’t think they get turned off the game if a U.S. team wins,” he said. “If you ask a lot of Canadians a similar question (of whether it matters if a Canadian team wins the Stanley Cup), they would respond that on every team, no matter what the city, there are always lots of Canadian connections.”
He added: “They would insist you can’t win without Canadians.”