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New York Times
5 hours ago
- Business
- New York Times
Canada's 32-year Stanley Cup drought is now embarrassing. Can the Oilers end it?
If you took a DeLorean back to June 9, 1993, and tried to explain to those gathered at the Montreal Forum what was taking place in the NHL today, in 2025, no one would believe you. That day, the Montreal Canadiens wiped the floor with an overmatched Wayne Gretzky-led Los Angeles Kings team in Game 5. The Habs hoisted their record 24th Stanley Cup, 18 of which they had won over the previous 40 years, and planned their usual parade down Rue Sainte-Catherine. Advertisement Yes, there was a time when Canadian teams not only won the Stanley Cup, but one team alone won it nearly 45 percent of the time. As a child of the '90s, I remember those days well. Back then we assumed Canada's clubs would just keep winning and having Cup parades because they always did, with the occasional intrusion from the Boston Bruins, New York Islanders, Philadelphia Flyers or Pittsburgh Penguins. Montreal was always the standard-bearer, but if you add in the Toronto Maple Leafs' dominance of the 1960s, the Edmonton Oilers' run in the 1980s and a lone championship for the Calgary Flames in 1989, the Cup practically lived in Canada between 1953 and 1993, going to an NHL team from this country 28 times in 41 seasons. And then: nothing. There are some incredible stats from Canada's Cup drought. Consider that when the Stanley Cup Final opens Wednesday in Edmonton, it will be just the second time in the past 32 years that a Canadian NHL team has had home-ice advantage in the final. (The other was the Vancouver Canucks in 2011, a series that ended about as horribly as possible for what was a deep, 117-point team.) There have been many close calls, for sure. Five Canadian teams have lost in Game 7 of the Cup final over those 32 years, including the Canucks in 1994 and 2011, the Flames in 2004, and Oilers in 2006 and 2024 — last year to the same Florida Panthers team they face this time around. Consider, too, that the Canadian franchise with the most playoff wins since 1993 is actually the woebegone Leafs, a franchise that hasn't made a Cup final since 1967. Their 89 postseason victories over that span are tied for 14th in the NHL with the Anaheim Ducks. And it translates to just 2.78 wins per season, less than one series victory. (The Detroit Red Wings lead the way with 160 playoff wins in that span, more than double what most of the seven Canadian teams have managed.) Taken together, it's a whole lot of pain for a country that loves hockey so much that it's become ingrained in its identity as a national sport. The reasons for Canada's weird — and, at this point, embarrassing — Cup drought are myriad. Winnipeg, for one, has a good excuse, given its Jets were relocated out of the league for 14 of those 31 seasons and then gifted an awful Atlanta Thrashers roster in 2011 as compensation. They've since built a strong franchise on the ice, winning the Presidents' Trophy this year as the NHL's top team despite playing in one of the smallest markets in the Big Four sports. Advertisement Calgary, Edmonton, Ottawa and even Vancouver have struggled through periods of economic challenges, especially in the 1990s and early 2000s when relocations were still in vogue — Minnesota, Quebec and Hartford all lost teams in a span of four years in addition to Winnipeg — and the Canadian dollar hit an all-time low of less than 62 cents versus the American dollar. These days, it's become commonplace in this country to blame the Sun Belt teams for the drought, pointing to players wanting to play in warm-weather climates with more favorable tax situations. Though that's become more of a factor over the past decade, what's also clear is that a lot of the Canadian franchises' misery has been self-inflicted the last three decades. There have been meddling owners who overruled their front offices and/or denied the pursuit of necessary rebuilds. There have also been poor hires in management, with some of the NHL's weakest general managers of the past 30 years putting in long tenures in Canadian cities. Beyond struggles to woo free agents, for some of the reasons listed above, the Canadian teams haven't been great at drafting or pro scouting, generally speaking. There have been moments of success and examples of strong teams, but they've rarely been powerhouses. Of the NHL's 50 best regular seasons since 1993, for example, just seven of those teams were based in Canada. Only those ill-fated 2010-11 Canucks make the top 25. Which brings us to this year's Oilers, a team that has what is likely the best chance of any to finally end Canada's drought. Not only was Edmonton one game away last season — and one goal away in Game 7 — but it also now has home-ice advantage and a stronger roster than a year ago. The Oilers boast two of the best playoff performers in league history, with captain Connor McDavid and alternate Leon Draisaitl, an elite defenseman in Evan Bouchard, and depth so impressive they've been sitting out established NHL players throughout the postseason. Advertisement There are weaknesses, too — with a question mark in goal probably the biggest one — but everyone is expecting this to be a coin-flip of a series, despite the fact the Panthers are such a strong club they are in their third consecutive final and have the makings of a salary-cap-era dynasty. Do the Oilers offer a blueprint for the other Canadian teams, though? Not exactly, not given the tortured road they took, bottoming out longer and harder than any of them. Between 1993 and when they drafted McDavid first in 2015, Edmonton had the NHL's fourth-worst record. That includes the first decade of the cap era when they were dead last by a mile, picking first four times in six years between Taylor Hall (in 2010), Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (2011), Nail Yakupov (2012) and McDavid. If there's a lesson in the Oilers' success, it's in what came next. They convinced McDavid to sign long-term out of his entry-level deal, at a discount. They did the same with Draisaitl, too. Around those two massive pillars, through trial and error, they finally put competent management in place and found enough supporting pieces to get them to here, where they're one of the best teams in the league. Along the way, Edmonton also built a world-class facility in Rogers Place in 2016 and became more of a free-agent destination, wooing key depth players like Zach Hyman, Corey Perry, Connor Brown and Adam Henrique, among others. McDavid and Draisaitl were obviously an enormous part of their on-ice success and building a culture that drew players in, but the Oilers are still proof that it can be done in Canada. You can draft good players and get them to stay. And you can win a lot of games if you give them a hand. We'll see whether it's enough to topple the juggernaut that is this Panthers team, starting with Game 1 at home. Not everyone will necessarily climb aboard the bandwagon up here in Canada, not when Edmonton is a key rival to the other teams out West, but it's fair to say there will be some extra support beyond the Albertan capital for this one. For many Canadians, it just feels like it's time to finally win one again.
Edmonton Journal
a day ago
- Sport
- Edmonton Journal
SIMMONS: Beyond the Panthers and Oilers, who's better than the Toronto Maple Leafs?
Article content Roger Neilson coached some impressive Toronto teams in the 1970s, led by Darryl Sittler and Lanny McDonald up front, with Tiger Williams fighting everyone, with Borje Salming and Ian Turnbull on defence and Mike Palmateer in goal. The most points they had in a season was 92 in 1978. They made it to the third round of the playoffs that year, being handled rather easily by the Cup champion Montreal Canadiens. The Leafs finished sixth out of 18 teams in the league. They weren't legitimate Stanley Cup contenders. Pat Burns coached some impressive Toronto teams in the 1990s, led by Doug Gilmour, Dave Andreychuk and Wendel Clark up front, with a defence that included Dave Ellett, Sylvain Lefebvre and Jamie Macoun, and with Felix Potvin in goal. Twice in a row the Leafs advanced to the third round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. The first time they went seven games and lost to Wayne Gretzky and the Los Angeles Kings and, all these years later — 32 in fact — that loss still stings.
Time of India
2 days ago
- Sport
- Time of India
Kirill Kirsanov signs two-year contract with LA Kings after KHL success
The Los Angeles Kings have made a big move this offseason. A young defenseman from Russia is getting his first chance in the NHL. The Kings announced a new signing that could help their blue line. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now The team is investing in a player they have been watching for some time. Fans are eager to see what this player will bring to the ice. Kirill Kirsanov joins the Kings on entry-level contract through 2026–27 Kirill Kirsanov officially signed a two-year entry-level NHL deal with the Los Angeles Kings on Friday, May 31, 2025. The LA Kings' official website confirms that the 22-year-old defender will be with the team through the 2026–27 season. From Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod, a team in the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL), Russia's top professional hockey league, Kirsanov. With three goals and four assists over 34 games this year for Torpedo, he performed. Moreover, eight penalty minutes and a plus-5 final rating belonged to him. Kirsanov also devoted time in the Supreme Hockey League (VHL) as well as playing in the KHL. With Torpedo-Gorky NN, he had one goal and six assists in 28 games. With five points in 19 games during the playoffs, he helped his team capture their first-ever VHL Championship. Also Read: Kirill Kirsanov's NHL journey began with Kings' 2021 draft pick Kirill Kirsanov was first chosen by the Los Angeles Kings in the NHL Draft 2021. He was picked 84th overall in the third round. He most lately played for Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod, following five KHL seasons with teams including St. Petersburg SKA and Podolsk Vityaz. Playing 120 regular-season games, he recorded 19 points: 5 goals and 14 assists. Across several seasons, he also had 10 points in 36 VHL postseason games. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Kirsanov has represented Russia on the world stage. Earning a plus-1 rating, he scored one goal and one assist in the 2021 IIHF World Junior Championship. Through their official press release and on social media, the Kings spread the signing information. They see Kirsanov as a strong, young defender with great potential. His size, skills, and experience in Russia's top leagues make him a valuable addition. The deal is now done. Fans will wait to see how Kirsanov performs when he arrives in Los Angeles.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Insider Shares 'Plausible' Mitch Marner Move for Maple Leafs Before Free Agency
Insider Shares 'Plausible' Mitch Marner Move for Maple Leafs Before Free Agency originally appeared on Athlon Sports. The Toronto Maple Leafs are expected to prioritize re-signing captain John Tavares over Mitch Marner this offseason. Advertisement NHL insider David Pagnotta is reporting a growing likelihood that Marner will head to free agency on July 1, but the analyst presented an interesting and not-so-discussed scenario. In a May 30 article for The Fourth Period, Pagnotta outlined Toronto's situation with both veteran forwards and offered insight into the club's internal planning. "An extension for Tavares is much more likely than one with Marner at this point in time," Pagnotta wrote. "All indications are Marner is heading to free agency. "He hasn't closed the door on a return to Toronto, but he wants to evaluate his options." Tavares, who signed a seven-year, $77 million contract in 2018, has repeatedly expressed his desire to stay with the team. Advertisement Although the Leafs are expected to offer Tavares a lower-money contract, talks are expected to progress soon Meanwhile, Pagnotta said Marner's list of preferred destinations has narrowed to a few teams, mostly in the Western Conference, with the Los Angeles Kings and Vegas Golden Knights among those mentioned. "Do I believe they don't have an idea where they stand with Mitch Marner and John Tavares? Absolutely not," Pagnotta wrote. "But I get where [Treliving] is coming from." Toronto Maple Leafs forward Mitch Marner (16) looks on playing with Team Canada at the 4 Nations Kirouac-Imagn Images The most interesting scenario shared by Pagnotta, however, has to do with the possibility of Toronto completing some sort of sign-and-trade deal, which is considered unlikely, or a scenario in which the Maple Leafs could opt to trade Marner's negotiating rights for a draft pick before July 1. Advertisement "Could the Leafs trade his rights for a draft pick to give a team a headstart in contract negotiations?" Pagnotta wondered. "That seems more plausible." Related: Elliotte Friedman Reveals Why Maple Leafs' Mitch Marner Trade to Vegas Never Happened Related: Struggling Western Conference Team Named 'Team to Watch' for Maple Leafs' Mitch Marner This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on May 31, 2025, where it first appeared.
New York Times
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- New York Times
For Oilers, Panthers and other truly elite NHL teams, the regular season doesn't matter much
DALLAS — Dustin Brown laughed at the question, at the very idea of it, at the possibility that a reporter could have such a limited understanding of the game of hockey, of the nature of the Stanley Cup playoffs. During the 2014 Western Conference final, the Los Angeles captain — who was in the midst of playing 64 extra games in a 26-month span — was asked why his Kings were so impressive in the postseason, but so ordinary in the regular season. After all, they were the No. 8 seed in the West in 2012, the No. 5 seed in 2013, the No. 6 seed in 2014. Hardly dominant. And yet they won the Stanley Cup in 2012, reached the conference final in 2013, and were on their way to another championship in 2014. They were a team of wrecking balls, playing the heaviest brand of hockey we've seen in the salary-cap era. The Kings didn't just beat you, they beat you up. They beat you down. They beat you into a pulp. Advertisement So why weren't they winning their division every year? Why weren't they contending for the Presidents' Trophy? 'You can't play this way for 82 games,' Brown said. 'You'd never survive. You have to save this for the playoffs. We're a playoff team, not a regular-season team.' Full disclosure: I was the reporter asking the question. Hey, sometimes you have to sacrifice your dignity for a good answer. That same postseason, I posed a similar question to Chicago's Bryan Bickell, who was a perennial disappointment in the regular season and a perennial monster in the playoffs. He gave basically the same answer: If he played like that for 82 games, he'd have nothing left when the games actually counted. In the fall of 2015, following the Blackhawks' Kings-like run of Cup, conference final, Cup, I asked Marián Hossa during training camp if he ever showed up for the start of a season and thought to himself, 'I can't believe I have to go through all this again.' He chuckled. 'It's a long, long season,' he said. 'At this stage of my career, I kind of wish I could just skip ahead to the playoffs.' He was hardly alone. There comes a point in every great team's trajectory at which they're hit with the career-altering realization that, well, the regular season doesn't mean squat. The Presidents' Trophy is worthless. Seeding is meaningless. Home-ice advantage is not a big deal. All that matters is the playoffs — getting there and getting there as healthy as you possibly can. And yes, sometimes that means coasting for long stretches of games. Of weeks. Of months, even. Sometimes that means some half-hearted efforts against lesser teams. Sometimes that means losing streaks and standings drops. It can send fans into a panic or a rage, with torches and pitchforks always at the ready. But that panic never reaches the locker room. Not the locker room of a team that's been there, done that. Advertisement Look, I'm not here to say the Florida Panthers and Edmonton Oilers don't care about the regular season. That's too glib, too harsh. But there's a reason the Panthers never blinked when they went 7-10-1 over the final month of the season, losing seven of their last 10 games and plummeting from first in the Atlantic Division and second in the Eastern Conference to third in the Atlantic (10 points behind Toronto) and fifth in the East. Or when they lost six of seven in November, for that matter. Florida always knew that when the temperature rose, its level would, too. Sure enough, they have a chance to repeat as Stanley Cup champions after losing just five games in three rounds. Same with Edmonton. Oilers Nation was gritting its teeth over a two-month run from Jan. 30 to March 27 that saw its team go 9-11-2, falling from first in the Pacific and second in the West to third in the Pacific and sixth in the West. The preseason favorite to win it all — nearly half of The Athletic staffers picked Edmonton to win the Cup in our preseason predictions — looked like anything but a contender. But the Oilers met it all with a shrug. They knew that come April, come the games that mattered, they had what it took — on the ice and between the ears — to make another run to the Stanley Cup Final. And here they are, back in the Final against those same Panthers, after a thorough dismantling of the Dallas Stars. They've won 12 of their last 14 in these playoffs. At the end of the regular season, exactly one staffer at The Athletic still picked Edmonton to win it all. And one staffer picked Florida. That's it. We should have known better. The Oilers and Panthers did. The fact is, to a great team, home ice is nice. But it's not a must. 'The regular season is a long, mental grind,' Oilers forward Adam Henrique said. 'Maybe even more so than physical sometimes. And when teams are in their window to win, they're playing a lot of hockey year after year after year. When you're in that window, people always expect to see (you) at the top of the regular-season standings and then run through the playoffs. But that doesn't happen as much anymore. Typically, the Presidents' Trophy winner doesn't win the Stanley Cup. It's just having an understanding, being able to have a mature group that can go on the road and just take care of business, knowing what you have to do in order to win — that says a lot about a team. It's not do or die just to have home ice throughout the playoffs.' Advertisement Henrique went to the Stanley Cup Final as a rookie with the New Jersey Devils in 2012, playing 24 extra games and getting a sense of how different — how much harder, how much more physical, how much more exhausting — playoff hockey was. When he came back a couple of months later for training camp, he couldn't believe how 'mentally tired' he still was. Fitness testing? Eight preseason games? Eighty-two regular-season games? Just to get back to the start of a potentially two-month playoff run? Really? And that was just his second season. Now imagine that a decade into your career. 'I feel great,' Connor McDavid countered. 'It's a blessing to play this much hockey over the last couple of years.' OK, yeah, well, futuristic, state-of-the-art hockey Terminators don't count in this discussion. 'You want to feel good about your game down the stretch going into the playoffs, for sure,' Henrique said. 'But you want to be healthy, and that takes priority if you're in a good position to allow yourself to take those extra days or games off. There's a lot that goes into it, rather than just trying to be the No. 1 seed.' Fans hate to hear about teams 'flipping the switch' come the postseason. It feels disrespectful somehow, to the game, to those buying tickets to all those regular-season games. But the great teams — the tested teams — really do flip the switch. Pretty easily, in fact. It's what separates them from the pack. You can look at the Stars and say that they lost in the conference final for the third straight spring. Or you can look at them and say they won two playoff series in each of the last three years. That's still quite a feat. And one that seemed like a long shot when they limped into the 2025 postseason having lost seven straight games in dreadful fashion. Stars fans were borderline despondent, expecting Colorado to steamroll their team. Dallas wasn't sweating any of it, though. Dallas knew better. Advertisement 'What happened with us is, we had a couple really weird, tough losses toward the end, and then we got too far away from Winnipeg (in the battle for first place),' Matt Duchene said. 'It was unrealistic that we could catch them. And you go into a lull, right? You're in purgatory. Colorado wasn't going to catch us and we weren't going to catch Winnipeg. That's why we had the slump we had near the end. But I got asked about it before Game 1 against Colorado, and I sloughed it off, and we played a pretty good game that night. And then we won the next two and we're off to the races. We have a veteran group in here. You don't want to put yourself in a position to have to flip the switch, but sometimes maybe you have to.' It helps when you know you can. When you've done it before, over and over. Only a handful of teams are good enough for long enough to reach that point. In all the years I've been covering the NHL, I think of one player comment more than any other. It came from Patrick Sharp, the longtime Blackhawks great, when he was with the Dallas Stars toward the end of his career. Lips get looser once you leave a team, especially as you near the end of your career, and I had asked Sharp point-blank if those great Blackhawks teams cared even the slightest bit about the regular season. I had spent all those years ginning up concerns about a disjointed power play, or a hole at second-line center, or a potential goaltending controversy. And all the while, I got the sense that it was just me and the fans going through all the histrionics. Those Blackhawks rarely, if ever, seemed to get caught up in any of it. And so I go back to Sharp's answer frequently, even when I'm wondering what I'm doing spending four hours on a flight and two nights in a hotel just to watch some ultimately meaningless regular-season game in San Jose. 'When you're in the playoffs, you have a job to do and you put everything else aside and you focus on that job,' Sharp said. 'You're not really caught up in how many games we've played or how tired we may be. But you feel it in training camp the next year. You feel it in those 'big' regular-season games in October, November, December, January that really aren't that big. Yeah, the Blackhawks go into Washington to play the Capitals in January, that's a 'big game.' But it's really not a big game when you were just in the Stanley Cup Final a couple months ago. It was harder for guys to get up for the day-to-day grind of the regular season when we were going deep in the playoffs like that. Maybe that's why you saw the slumps in February and March. 'I don't think 'cruise control' is even the right way to put it. You still want to play, and you want to score, and you want to win, but it's almost like, holy s—, we're really doing this again? Here? Wednesday night in Carolina? And the other team is fired up, because the Blackhawks are in town. They're playing their best and they want to beat you. It's just tough to do it every night.' It's a lesson worth remembering next season, when the Panthers or Oilers or Stars or Hurricanes or Lightning or Golden Knights go through a dry January or a feeble February. They haven't all won the Cup, but they all know what it takes. And most importantly, when it takes it. For the league's truly elite teams, it's just a matter of getting in. Top seed or sixth seed, home ice or no home ice, red hot coming in or ice cold, it just doesn't matter. They know where the switch is, and you can be damn sure they'll find it. Advertisement The regular season is for the Maple Leafs of the world, the Jets, the Senators, the Kings, the Capitals and the Flames — all still trying to prove they can be one of those elite teams — and for all the also-rans trying to find their way back into the postseason. Let them expend all that energy and all that emotion. The truly great teams know to save it for when it matters most. For the playoffs. For right now. (Photo of Oilers' Adam Henrique and Stuart Skinner: Steph Chambers / Getty Images)
