Image via WikipediaI figured this article was coming after another Canadian based
NHL team failed to break an 18 year streak dating back to 1993 when the
Montreal Canadians won the Stanley Cup. That was the last time a team from Canada had won the Stanley Cup and a lot of Canadians are unhappy with this fact.
Roy MacGregor; Globe and Mail--- For the past few weeks, a debate has raged in the country about whether the Vancouver Canucks were going to become Canada’s team. No U.S.-based team, however, could possibly have such an effect on this debate as did the Boston Bruins, an Original Six team that has always enjoyed strong support in Canada’s Atlantic region, where the long-standing sports links grew out of the historical shipping links.
If a Canada’s team were truly possible in hockey, it would likely happen to the Vancouver Canucks more easily than any other current Canadian NHL team. Toronto and Montreal would be reluctant to cheer for each other; Edmonton and Calgary would find it impossible. Few who pay taxes could root for a team with Ottawa in its name.
Vancouver simply does not have the natural enemies those other cities have. Nor is it part of any long-time provincial or regional rivalry. Though millions of Canadians might be disgusted today with the boorish display of the hockey rioters, fans of convenience at best, many more millions of Canadians warmly embraced this lovely city barely a year ago when the greatest Olympics in Canadian history were held in Vancouver and Whistler.
Far more significantly than whether or not Canadian fans wore blue (Canucks) or yellow (Bruins) was the thought that this series was actually far more about Canada’s Cup than Canada’s team.
Canadians take such enormous pride in their national game – novelist Morley Callaghan called hockey “our own national drama” – that it has grated seeing the Stanley Cup won where it rarely, if ever, snows (Dallas, Tampa Bay, Carolina).
The notion of one day bringing the Cup home to Canada has, in its own way, become a cause, perhaps not quite in the realm of Egypt getting the Rosetta Stone back from Britain, or Australian and Canadian aboriginals demanding their treasured artifacts be returned by the museums that hold them, but a cause all the same.
The difference is that this one will not be won in the courts, or even in the court of public opinion, but will have to be won where all Stanley Cups have been taken: on the ice, best of seven, last team still standing.
For millions of Canadians, hockey is itself a religion. To watch the Stanley Cup – bequeathed to Canadians, intended for amateur teams – become largely the property of U.S. teams is annoying, and it is nothing short of insulting to have to watch these long playoffs as the most revered trophy in the national game becomes an advertising prop for an American beer, Budweiser.
In a way I take exception to this line of thinking because hockey just isn't Canada's game, many Americans also are also hockey players and hockey fans as well. Sure the NHL is dominated by Canadians but there are also many good American hockey players playing in the NHL. The Vancouver Canucks had more Americans on their roster this past season than the Boston Bruins. In my humble opinion the Stanley Cup belongs to NHL hockey fans and their players and there is no birth right or is it an entitlement for the Stanley Cup to be won by a Canadian team.
Image via WikipediaI figured this article was coming after another Canadian based NHL team failed to break an 18 year streak dating back to 1993 when the Montreal Canadians won the Stanley Cup. That was the last time a team from Canada had won the Stanley Cup and a lot of Canadians are unhappy with this fact. 
