It’s been so long since a team from Canada hoisted the Stanley Cup—over 28 years—that the U.S.’s neighbors to the north rely on Olympic gold medals to assert their bragging rights in the country that invented hockey.
But a combination of the pandemic and government bureaucracy have given the National Hockey League’s Canadian fans an unexpected gift. All seven of the country’s teams were grouped into one “North” division for the 2021 season, and for the first two rounds of the playoffs, the best of them will square off against each other before any of them faces a U.S.-based team.
That could give Canada’s NHL clubs a great shot at snapping the 28-year Cup drought, because one of them is guaranteed passage to the conference semifinals. “Whatever happens, there’s going to be a Canadian team in the top four. That’s exciting,” said Guy Carbonneau, a three-time Stanley Cup champion with the Montreal Canadiens and Dallas Stars. He would know: he was captain of the 1993 Habs, the last Canadian team to win it all.
No team has a better shot than the Toronto Maple Leafs, who clinched the top seed in the North with a 35-14-7 record and are looking to end a 54-year championship drought. The Leafs will face archrival Montreal in the first round later this week, while the Edmonton Oilers will play the Winnipeg Jets.