Windsor - April 14, 2014 - The NHL playoffs begin this week, and will feature the most impressive teams of this year’s hockey season. Among the teams competing for Lord Stanley’s Cup are the boisterous Boston Bruins, the skillful Chicago Blackhawks, and the surprisingly productive Colorado Avalanche. What hockey fans will not witness is playoff hockey featuring the Toronto Maple Leafs, who’s last ditch efforts to make it to the post season fell way short of the expectations of Toronto fans.
Unfortunately, the Maple Leafs were not the only Canadian club to disappoint this season, as the Montreal Canadiens is the only Canadian team contending to become league champions. The Ottawa Senators were five points away from punching their ticket to the post season, while the Maple Leafs needed a miracle to even be considered for playoff contention.
The Western Conference was not particularly forgiving to its Canadian teams. Each of the four teams based in Canada found themselves partying in the basement of the Western Conference standings. It seems as though the teams flipped the notion of “best in the West” on its head, and instead competed for “worst of the submersed.”
For a game that was forged in the frozen wilderness of the Great White North, it is painful to watch the sport be dominated by American clubs. Canadians almost welcomed the Cup back to Canada in 2011, but the Vancouver Canucks were unable to overcome the Boston Bruins. It has been over twenty years since a Canadian team has won the cup, and it has almost become customary for an American club to be the last team standing. Here is to hoping that this tradition changes soon, and ends the drought of Canadian teams falling short of NHL post-season glory.
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