Historic Hockey Night For Canada: Is It A Sign That The Cup Is Headed North Of The Border?

I don't know if you knew this or not — they don't mention it a whole lot — but Canada is the birthplace of ice hockey.

Yet despite dominance on the international stage and in the first half-century and change of the NHL's history, Canadian NHL franchises have been snake-bitten when it comes to winning the Stanley Cup for more than 30 years.

The last team from the Great White North to win the Cup was the 1993 Montreal Canadiens. Since then, the closest any Canadian team has come to winning it all came in a few Game 7s, like in 1994 (Canucks lost to the Rangers), 2006 (Oilers lost to the Hurricanes), and 2011 (the Canucks lost to the Bruins and then burned down the city of Vancouver).

In all honesty, there's an argument that the best a Canadian team has done since '93 was when the Colorado Avalanche won the Cup in 1995, but that was only because a year earlier they were the Quebec Nordiques.

So, it's been a while, but 2024 could be the year, and something that happened on Tuesday night could be an indicator of what's to come.

On Tuesday night five of the league's seven NHL teams — the Canadiens, Senators, Canucks, Maple Leads, and Oilers — were in action.

For the first time ever, five Canadian teams all won on the same night and did so by multiple goals.

Now keep in mind, the Canadiens, Senators, and Canucks played the Ducks, Blue Jackets, and Blackhawks, respectively. Those are three of the worst teams in the league.

However, Toronto's win over St. Louis was a nice one, as was Edmonton's over Detroit.

What I think this goes to show, is that there are more good Canadian teams in the NHL right now than there have been in years.

Four of the seven — the Canucks, Oilers, Jets, and Leafs — are postseason shoo-ins. Of those four, I think Canucks, Oilers, and Jets are realistic Cup contenders.

Sorry, Leafs fans, but we all know it's the truth…

The Canucks are leading the President's Trophy race, the Oilers seem to have found some depth and Stuart Skinner is back in a groove in net, while the Jets have Connor Hellebuyck between the pipes playing some of the best hockey of his career.

It will not be easy — especially with the Colorado Avalanche and Vegas Golde Knights in the same conference — but I wouldn't be shocked to see a few Stanley Cup Final games played north of the border come June.