As an American who certainly enjoys watching playoff hockey but still rates the sport in general a distant fourth among the "Big Four" sports in the U.S., I have a question for Canadian hockey fans. And I mean this with all due respect; it's not a backdoor attempt to brag.
Does the fact that a Canadian team hasn't won the Stanley Cup since 1993 really bother you? Does it annoy you to the extent that even after your favorite team is eliminated from the playoffs, you'll root for any Canadian team to win it all?
Is it something that (figuratively) keeps you up at night, or do you take an "Eh, maybe next year" approach to it?
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Guess what these Conn Smythe winners have in common
1994-95 Claude Lemieux 1995-96 Joe Sakic 1996-97 Mike Vernon 1997-98 Steve Yzerman 1998-99 Joe Nieuwendyk 1999-00 Scott Stevens 2000-01 Patrick Roy 2002-03 Jean-Sebastien Giguere 2003-04 Brad Richards 2005-06 Cam Ward 2006-07 Scott Niedermayer 2009–10 Jonathan Toews
It depends on who's winning those Cups instead. Chicago and Detroit (original six respect) or Pittsburgh (Crosby), no problem. The boring-ass Devils or warm-weather teams like the Hurricanes, Lightning or Ducks? Problem.
EXCEPTION: when the Ducks beat the Senators. As a true Leafs fan, I'd root for anyone over the Sens.
"It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone." --- Bart Giamatti, on baseball
Generally, with the exception of local rivalries like the above post, most Canadians would prefer for a Canadian team to win the Stanley Cup if only because it's been so long. While people are going to have their favourite teams, and sometimes those teams might even be American-based, given a choice of various teams without any major ties to them, we'll usually rally behind the Canadian one(s). So yeah, right now Vancouver is "Canada's team", at least for everyone who isn't in Calgary/Edmonton.
It's not something people lose sleep over, though. It might be 18 years since a Canadian team has won the Cup, but it's been 44 years since Toronto has. We can always point and laugh at them and feel better about ourselves!
I seemingly know a lot of canadian fans who enjoy the schadenfreude of the other canadian teams losing, almost as much as their teams winning, even in the playoffs.
especially Leafs fans, who hate Ottawa (local rival), Montreal (longtime rival) and the western teams (geographic rivals).
and fans of one western team hate other two (esp Calgary and Edmonton) and "the eastern teams," especially the Leafs, who are shoved down everyone's throat every week by CBC.
As a Leafs fan, I actually wouldn't be all that upset about a Canadiens Stanley Cup. When I was growing up and had to pick a favourite team, my options were basically the Habs, Leafs or Red Wings*, so I figure that I could've just as easily supported Montreal all this time.
Oilers and Flames, I'd like to see them win. Habs, meh, I can live with it. Senators, god no, anyone but them. Canucks...I'm actually not on their bandwagon at all. Maybe it's a bit of the Toronto/Vancouver 'best city in Canada' civic rivalry, or perhaps the fact that Canucks fans are already insufferable enough when their team has never won anything.
* = to paraphrase the knight from Last Crusade, I chose...poorly
"It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone." --- Bart Giamatti, on baseball
Originally posted by Big BadIt depends on who's winning those Cups instead. Chicago and Detroit (original six respect) or Pittsburgh (Crosby), no problem. The boring-ass Devils or warm-weather teams like the Hurricanes, Lightning or Ducks? Problem.
EXCEPTION: when the Ducks beat the Senators. As a true Leafs fan, I'd root for anyone over the Sens.
A true Leafs fan would root for anyone over the Canadiens. At least I wouldn't.
I'm more upset that two Canadian teams have bolted to the US, and any efforts to get them back have been met with negativity from Bettman. I lived in Winnipeg for two years, and they still hate the fact the Jets left RIGHT WHEN their new arena was built...and any efforts to get the Coyotes back has failed.
Pretty much what Big Bad an Chumpstain have said. Again as a Leafs fan I really don't want to see Montreal or Ottawa win. I'd be ok with the three western teams though.
As far as an all-American team final, usually if there is some of sentimental value (see Ray Borque on Colorado in 2000) or just the team with the most Canadians on it. Or Anahiem over Ottawa. Last year I cheered for Philly so Chicago could continue to have the longest active Stanley Cup drought...alas that now belongs to my Leafs.
It'd be nice if a Canadian team won, finally. But I don't actually watch or even pay attention to hockey, so when the last Canadian team gets eliminated, I go "oh, that's too bad" and then carry on with my non-hockey-watching life.
Do I want to see it. YES!! Go Canucks!! Not sure I would say the same for the Senators, but they might be the only one I would struggle to cheer for.
In the end, because one hasn't won in a long time, we convince ourselves that Canadians were important to the teams that do win. (see the post about Conn Smythe winners)
I have to agree with most of the posts here. Would love to see a Canadian team win one. I had arguments with some here in the office as I cheered for Vancouver over Chicago. They wanted Chicago to win because they felt there were more Canadians on them than are on Vancouver. Vancouver is being called the "Swedish Canadian team".
As Big Bad said, we usually find a reason to like the winner. Even for the Hurricanes (Staal) and Lightning (Lecavalier and St. Louis)...
It's a big deal in the media - every year there's articles about who is going to "bring Stanley home", but every year, when the various players get their day with the Cup, there's always a number of Canadian players spending time with it across the country.
Here, in Calgary, I think a lot of the die-hard fans would rather an Al Qaeda team win the Stanley Cup instead of the Canucks, but that's a lot of energy to waste being a hater.
I think there's two different perspectives to view this from:
From a national pride, "Canadaians have the largest amount of great hockey players" perspective, I don't think anyone is scared. Yeah, a Canadian team hasn't won the cup since 1993, but Canada still has the largest percentage of players in the NHL. Other countries like America have caught up a bit, Canada's interests have diversified a little, and they've had some recent losses in tournaments like the World Juniors, but the fact remains that Canada dominates the sport in so many ways. They're the reigning Olympic champions in the sport, up until his injury Sidney Crosby had clearly defined himself as the greatest player in the game today, the last three (and soon maybe four) number one draft picks have been Canadians, and above all else, hockey is still part of Canada's national identity in a way few sports are in any country in the world.
From a local pride scale, yeah it kind of sucks when you consider that the majority of Canadians are cheering for one of six Canadian teams, and none of them have won since 93. It'd be like seeing your army fight valiantly and win wars for Denmark, or in this case, New Jersey.
That said, I think a majority of Canadian fans would rather see an American team win than a Canadian team that isn't the one they cheer for. I mean, if you live in Montreal and Nashville wins, how many people are going to brag to you personally and shove it in your face? If Toronto wins, you might have to kill a guy.
Originally posted by StaggerLeeWhen 75-80% of any given team are Canadian, the place they are playing is sorta a moot point.
So is it still moot when this is nowhere even close to accurate?
The most recent numbers I can find say that about 52 percent of the NHL's players were Canadian during the 2007-2008 season, with that number trending down.
Originally posted by HobbesI mean, if you live in Montreal and Nashville wins, how many people are going to brag to you personally and shove it in your face? If Toronto wins, you might have to kill a guy.
This sums things up nicely. Although you can add that we'll probably commit some form of atrocity against Bruins fans if they approach us.
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Originally posted by StaggerLeeWhen 75-80% of any given team are Canadian, the place they are playing is sorta a moot point.
So is it still moot when this is nowhere even close to accurate?
The most recent numbers I can find say that about 52 percent of the NHL's players were Canadian during the 2007-2008 season, with that number trending down.
(edited by TheBucsFan on 3.5.11 1223)
Okay then, change my uneducated guess to the word "most" and yeah its still moot.
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