WordsOfWisdom

I love Cracker Barrel!

Ehh, some of them do. I used to watch all the way through but then I figured there's no incentive for the Leafs to improve if Rogers/Bell has my money anyway. There needed to be some form of financial "hurt" for poor Leafs performance otherwise there would be no reason for the owners to improve the team. So me not watching when the Leafs are out is my way of helping the Leafs improve as a team. 6 final losses in a row? Owch.

Okay perhaps I should be more specific: the fans deserve to see a Cup champion in Toronto (with all we've been through).

That's so weird. I live close to Toronto and the Leafs fans I know are best described as "hopeful" that the team could win but certainly not expecting anything. The days of expecting to win anything are long gone. This is not a franchise or fanbase with any kind of swagger. The bar is set so low that fans really don't expect anything from the team. It's like watching the Special Olympics and just applauding when they don't fall off the bar and land on their head. I don't know of any Leafs fan who goes around acting like we won the Cup. It's usually just collossal disappointment and the intrigue of how they're going to F things up this time with the roster they have and the regular season performance they put in.

I can remember when the NY Rangers had their 50 year Cup drought and people wanted them to win in 1994. I can remember when Chicago ended their Cup drought. Once again, it felt like the entire hockey world was rooting for them. So honestly and truly, if YOUR favourite team is out, would you be rooting for Toronto to win? I know Toronto gets slapped with the label of "most hated" franchise in hockey... but why? People hate the Yankees because they win all the time. What's to hate about Toronto? There's probably more fans in Toronto watching Tampa hoist the Stanley Cup last year than there are in Tampa (for example). Toronto does soooooooooooo much for the NHL. A Stanley Cup for Toronto would almost be like a "thank you" for all the billions of dollars this franchise and its fans have pumped into this league. IMHO, no franchise in pro sports deserves a championship more than Toronto. You all saw the reception the Raptors got (biggest NBA parade in NBA history). I think Toronto could remind the NHL what a Stanley Cup parade really is... and why it doesn't simply involve walking around an empty parking lot with the Cup. If Toronto won, I think an entire generation of NHL fans would get to see their first REAL Stanley Cup parade.

I wish the NHL had a luxury tax instead of a cap.

The other cool thing about that graph is that it really shows which teams power the NHL, and which teams are along for the ride. The Flyers are the only US team to crack the top 5. Minnesota comes in #6. All of the Canadian teams are in the top 10. Not surprisingly, the weakest teams are Phoenix, Tampa, Colorado (which surprised me a bit actually), Carolina (lol no surprise at all), Dallas, NYI, Atlanta (no wonder they moved again), etc... The most accurate representation of where a team is in terms of fan interest is definitely gate revenue.

This was all I could find quickly, so I will extrapolate and carry forward assuming it's the norm. I'll leave it to others to find more recent stats if they're interested: http://www.threehundredeight.com/2010/06/nhl-gate-revenues.html The NHL signed a TV contract recently with Rogers/Bell for ~$200 million (or whatever it was, Google). That TV contract was for all NHL games in Canada (split among every team) for the next 10 years or whatever the contract length was. So if you consider: 200 / 10 years / 7 teams < 92.8 million. In other words, the TV deal is a small portion of the Leafs overall revenues. The Leafs pull in $92.8 mil PER SEASON at the gate... and that's in 2010.

Leafs continue to burn the Flames. 5-3 win. However, someone please teach Rielly how to handle a 2-on-1 (and other Leafs D too I might add). The Leafs don't have the fundamentals right defensively. When you're defending, you take away the PASS and let the goalie handle the puck carrier. You don't suddenly switch coverage from one player to the next and put your goalie in a no-win situation. Skate over and cover the guy that doesn't have the puck. Sliding to block the pass is a 50/50 proposition. If you get it wrong, then the other team has a 2-on-0. But there's nothing worse than covering the puck carrier, leaving the other guy wide open, and then trying to skate over to the open man once the one-timer pass has been made. Both you and your goalie are toast at that point.

If they were in Toronto they wouldn't be allowed to have any fans in the building. That's my point. We can't have different rules for different cities. It's not fair to the teams that can't host fans in their building. Don't be surprised when the Leafs are playing their playoff games in New York or Tampa or wherever. I highly doubt they'll be playing them in Toronto in front of an empty arena under covid restrictions. Texas Rangers vs Toronto Blue Jays was turning into a nice rivalry.... at least until Toronto management blew up the roster and did a rebuild. Now nobody cares.

Listed are the teams along with their probability of making the playoffs according to sportsclubstats.com NORTH Toronto (100%) Winnipeg (99.9%) Montreal (99.6%) Edmonton (99.6%) EAST Washington (98.9%) NY Islanders (98.6%) Pittsburgh (98.3%) Boston (83.8%) CENTRAL Tampa (100%) Florida (100%) Carolina (100%) Dallas (46.5%) WEST Colorado (100%) Vegas (100%) Minnesota (99.9%) Arizona (56.9%) Out of all the teams, there are basically THREE playoff spots still up for grabs. The Rangers could grab the final spot from Boston in the East, Nashville or Chicago could be in in the Central, and San Jose or LA may get in in the West. Otherwise, it's over. Let's see what (if anything) changes on this list before May.

Correct. That means a team like Toronto is hurt badly by not being able to collect that ticket revenue. These aren't $20 tickets or buy 1 get 1 free. They're the most expensive tickets in the NHL. I agree, but it's not like that in hockey. In the NHL, the TV revenue is nice, but the bulk of the money comes from the arena in ticket sales. So my question is, will the Leafs be playing their playoff games in the US somewhere so that they can have fans in the building? I'd rather watch the team play its playoff games in a city where they can have fans than watch them play in an empty building in Toronto. Plus, if this is known in advance, maybe the border will be open and fans can travel there once this happens.

I mean the revenue lost, not the operating cost. You're looking at operating costs. I'm looking at opportunity costs.

We call it the center of the hockey universe. I had no idea the first ever NBA game was played in Toronto. Perhaps the most disappointing thing is that it took until the 1990's before Canada had an NBA team. The NBA is so far behind the other major pro sports in Canada (behind hockey by miles, behind baseball, behind soccer, etc.) and that's because they never established any roots here. It's neat that the first game was played here, but probably not that unusual given that: James Naismith (November 6, 1861 – November 28, 1939) was a Canadian-American[1] physical educator, physician, Christian chaplain, sports coach, and inventor of the game of basketball. Naismith was born on November 6, 1861, in Almonte, Canada (now part of Mississippi Mills, Ontario) to Scottish immigrants.[7] He never had a middle name and never signed his name with an "A" initial. The "A" was added by someone in administration at the University of Kansas.[a] Gifted in farm labor, Naismith spent his days outside playing catch, hide-and-seek, and duck on a rock, a medieval game in which a person guards a large drake stone from opposing players, who try to knock it down by throwing smaller stones at it. To play duck on a rock most effectively, Naismith soon found that a soft lobbing shot was far more effective than a straight hard throw, a thought that later proved essential for the invention of basketball.[9] Orphaned early in his life, Naismith lived with his aunt and uncle for many years and attended grade school at Bennies Corners near Almonte. Then, he enrolled in Almonte High School, in Almonte, Ontario, from which he graduated in 1883.[9] In the same year, Naismith entered McGill University in Montreal. Although described as a slight figure, standing 5 feet 10 1⁄2 inches (1.791 m) and listed at 178 pounds (81 kg)[10] he was a talented and versatile athlete, representing McGill in football, lacrosse, rugby, soccer, and gymnastics. He played centre on the football team, and made himself some padding to protect his ears. It was for personal use, not team use.[11] He won multiple Wicksteed medals for outstanding gymnastics performances.[3] Naismith earned a BA in physical education (1888) and a diploma at the Presbyterian College in Montreal (1890).[9] From 1891 on, Naismith taught physical education and became the first McGill director of athletics, but then left Montreal to become a physical education teacher at the YMCA International Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts.[3][12] At the Springfield YMCA, Naismith struggled with a rowdy class that was confined to indoor games throughout the harsh New England winter, thus was perpetually short-tempered. Under orders from Dr. Luther Gulick, head of physical education there, Naismith was given 14 days to create an indoor game that would provide an "athletic distraction"; Gulick demanded that it would not take up much room, could help its track athletes to keep in shape[3] and explicitly emphasized to "make it fair for all players and not too rough".[10] In his attempt to think up a new game, Naismith was guided by three main thoughts.[9] Firstly, he analyzed the most popular games of those times (rugby, lacrosse, soccer, football, hockey, and baseball); Naismith noticed the hazards of a ball and concluded that the big, soft soccer ball was safest. Secondly, he saw that most physical contacts occurred while running with the ball, dribbling, or hitting it, so he decided that passing was the only legal option. Finally, Naismith further reduced body contact by making the goal unguardable by placing it high above the player's heads with the plane of the goal's opening parallel to the floor. This placement forced the players to score goals by throwing a soft, lobbing shot like that which had proven effective in his old favorite game duck on a rock. Naismith christened this new game "Basket Ball"[9] and put his thoughts together in 13 basic rules.[13] The first game of "Basket Ball" was played in December 1891. In a handwritten report, Naismith described the circumstances of the inaugural match; in contrast to modern basketball, the players played nine versus nine, handled a soccer ball, not a basketball, and instead of shooting at two hoops, the goals were a pair of peach baskets: "When Mr. Stubbins brot [sic] up the peach baskets to the gym I secured them on the inside of the railing of the gallery. This was about 10 feet [3 meters] from the floor, one at each end of the gymnasium. I then put the 13 rules on the bulletin board just behind the instructor's platform, secured a soccer ball, and awaited the arrival of the class ... The class did not show much enthusiasm, but followed my lead ... I then explained what they had to do to make goals, tossed the ball up between the two center men and tried to keep them somewhat near the rules. Most of the fouls were called for running with the ball, though tackling the man with the ball was not uncommon."[14] In contrast to modern basketball, the original rules did not include what is known today as the dribble. Since the ball could only be moved up the court by a pass early players tossed the ball over their heads as they ran up court. Also following each "goal", a jump ball was taken in the middle of the court. Both practices are obsolete in the rules of modern basketball.[15] Naismith invented the game of basketball and wrote the original 13 rules of this sport;[25] for comparison, the NBA rule book today features 66 pages. The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts, is named in his honor, and he was an inaugural inductee in 1959.[25] The National Collegiate Athletic Association rewards its best players and coaches annually with the Naismith Awards, among them the Naismith College Player of the Year, the Naismith College Coach of the Year, and the Naismith Prep Player of the Year. After the Olympic introduction to men's basketball in 1936, women's basketball became an Olympic event in Montreal during the 1976 Summer Olympics.[30] Naismith was also inducted into the Canadian Basketball Hall of Fame, the Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame, the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame, the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame, the Ottawa Sports Hall of Fame, the McGill University Sports Hall of Fame, the Kansas State Sports Hall of Fame, FIBA Hall of Fame.[9][31] The FIBA Basketball World Cup trophy is named the "James Naismith Trophy" in his honor. On June 21, 2013, Dr. Naismith was inducted into the Kansas Hall of Fame during ceremonies in Topeka.[32] Naismith's home town of Almonte, Ontario, hosts an annual 3-on-3 tournament for all ages and skill levels in his honor. Every year, this event attracts hundreds of participants and involves over 20 half-court games along the main street of the town.[33] All proceeds of the event go to youth basketball programs in the area.[citation needed] Today basketball is played by more than 300 million people worldwide, making it one of the most popular team sports.[3] In North America, basketball has produced some of the most-admired athletes of the 20th century. ESPN and the Associated Press both conducted polls to name the greatest North American athlete of the 20th century. Basketball player Michael Jordan came in first in the ESPN poll and second (behind Babe Ruth) in the AP poll. Both polls featured fellow basketball players Wilt Chamberlain (of KU, like Naismith) and Bill Russell in the top 20.[34][35] - Wikipedia

I guess my point (which kind of got buried within my post) is: Do teams share playoff revenue with teams that aren't allowed fans in their building? Could a team like the Leafs play in a neutral city somewhere? (Somewhere they're allowed to have fans?) Could you imagine a baseball postseason where the Yankees aren't allowed to have fans in their stadium due to covid but the Red Sox and Dodgers are? That's basically what we're talking about here. Could that even happen in MLB? The Yankees would probably boycott the postseason and shut down all of MLB with their clout. Last year this wasn't an issue because the entire NHL playoffs were played in two BUBBLE CITIES: Toronto and Edmonton, with NO fans. This time it's different. Everyone is in their own city playing by their own rules. How can you allow one team to play in front of fans and not allow their opponent to do the same? Given that Ontario just entered a third lockdown today, it seems highly unlikely that the Leafs will be allowed to have fans in their building in May. How (from a business perspective) would the Leafs even agree to participate in these playoffs unless they have the same opportunity to generate revenue from ticket sales as their American counterparts? If I were running MLSE I'd say "No fans = No Leafs. ie: The Leafs will sit out the playoffs and boycott unless we're allowed to have fans and/or unless the playoff revenue goes into a pool and gets split among the teams."

Leafs win 2-1 in the shootout! Campbell shows why he's the Leafs new #1 goalie.

Last time people were happy just to have hockey back. We went into a strange fan-less hockey playoff (which the Leafs were erased from early), and I tuned out quickly thereafter. This time we're guaranteed to have four Canadian teams in the playoffs, and one of them WILL be in the conference final (a rare achievement in itself). But with covid now having a greater impact north of the border (with a THIRD wave resulting in a month-long lockdown for April) the question is...... will ALL of the Canadian teams be playing in front of EMPTY arenas while their American counterparts have fans? If so, how would that work? Would there be some form of revenue sharing going on? Would there be some sort of additional "home ice advantage" granted to the team that hosts games in an empty building? Will teams be allowed to play at a neutral location where they can have fans? Ex: Could the Leafs play their playoff games in a lax covid environment like Tampa (to have fans) instead of play in Toronto where the government will surely prohibit it? The Leafs stand to lose about $7 million dollars PER GAME (at the gate) for every playoff game that they play in front of an empty building. If the Leafs are bringing in $0 per game at the gate while a team like the Capitals, Lightning, or whoever has 20,000 fans in the building, and can generate millions in playoff revenue, how is that fair? Will that fly with the Board of Governors? (Picture a blue and white sun about to turn into an angry red giant.) I thought for sure that we had the issue of covid solved by late February. The vaccines were finally rolling out, and it appeared that life was going back to normal. However, the month of March marked the beginning of another exponential rise in cases. A third wave of the virus. New cases are back up over 5,000/day in Canada with the new covid variants hospitalizing YOUNG people now, not just seniors. The new strains of covid are proving to be far easier to transmit, and the data now shows they are far more lethal than the original covid virus. Ontario enters lockdown tomorrow for the rest of April. The US doesn't seem to be experiencing this third wave. It appears as though come May, all of the US teams will be playing in front of fans at full capacity like usual, and the Canadian teams won't be allowed fans.

This topic came up in another thread...... but the HHOF in Toronto does indeed have the authentic Stanley Cup. There are actually three Stanley Cups: the original bowl of the "Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup", the authenticated "Presentation Cup", and the spelling-corrected "Permanent Cup" on display at the Hockey Hall of Fame. While the NHL has maintained control over the trophy itself and its associated trademarks, the NHL does not actually own the trophy but uses it by agreement with the two Canadian trustees of the cup.[3] The NHL has registered trademarks associated with the name and likeness of the Stanley Cup, although there has been dispute as to whether the league has the right to own trademarks associated with a trophy that it does not own. - From Wikipedia Origin The Lord Stanley of Preston After the Lord Stanley of Preston was appointed by Queen Victoria as Governor General of Canada on June 11, 1888, he and his family became highly enthusiastic about ice hockey.[8] Stanley was first exposed to the game at Montreal's 1889 Winter Carnival, where he saw the Montreal Victorias play the Montreal Hockey Club.[9][10] The Montreal Gazette reported that he "expressed his great delight with the game of hockey and the expertise of the players".[8] During that time, organized ice hockey in Canada was still in its infancy and only Montreal and Ottawa had anything resembling leagues.[8] Stanley's entire family became active in ice hockey. Two of his sons, Arthur and Algernon, formed a new team called the Ottawa Rideau Hall Rebels.[11] Arthur also played a key role in the formation of what later became known as the Ontario Hockey Association (OHA), and became the founder of ice hockey in Great Britain.[12] Arthur and Algernon persuaded their father to donate a trophy to be "an outward and visible sign of the hockey championship".[11] Stanley sent the following message to the victory celebration held on March 18, 1892, at Ottawa's Russell House Hotel for the three-time champion Ottawa Hockey Club:[8][13][14] Soon afterwards, Stanley purchased what is frequently described as a decorative punch bowl, but which silver expert John Culme identified as a rose bowl,[15] made in Sheffield, England, and sold by London silversmith G. R. Collis and Company (now Boodle and Dunthorne Jewellers), for ten guineas, equal to ten and a half pounds sterling, US$48.67, which is equal to $1,385 in 2019 dollars.[8][16] He had the words "Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup" engraved on one side of the outside rim, and "From Stanley of Preston" on the other side.[17] The name "Stanley Cup" was given to it as early as May 1, 1893, when an Ottawa Journal article used the name as a title.[18] Originally, Stanley intended that the Cup should be awarded to the top amateur hockey team in Canada, to be decided by the acceptance of a challenge from another team. He made five preliminary regulations:[8][14] The first Stanley Cup Champions were the Montreal Hockey Club (affiliated with the Montreal Amateur Athletic Association). Stanley appointed Sheriff John Sweetland and Philip D. Ross (who went on to serve an unsurpassed 56 years) as trustees of the Cup. Sweetland and Ross first presented the trophy in 1893 to the Montreal Amateur Athletic Association on behalf of the affiliated Montreal Hockey Club, the champions of the Amateur Hockey Association of Canada (AHAC), since they "defeated all comers during the late season, including the champions of the Ontario Association" (Ottawa).[19] Sweetland and Ross also believed that the AHAC was the top league, and as first-place finishers in the AHAC, Montreal was the best team in Canada.[20] Naturally, the Ottawas were upset by the decision because there had been no challenge games scheduled and because the trustees failed to convey the rules on how the Cup was to be awarded prior to the start of the season.[20] As a result, the Cup trustees issued more specific rules on how the trophy should be defended and awarded:[21][22] Stanley never saw a Stanley Cup championship game, nor did he ever present the Cup. Although his term as Governor General ended in September 1893, he was forced to return to England on July 15. In April of that year, his elder brother Edward Stanley, 15th Earl of Derby died, and Stanley succeeded him as the 16th Earl of Derby.[12] The First Stanley Cup, kept in the vault room at the HHOF in Toronto Challenge Cup era[edit] Main article: List of Stanley Cup Challenge Games During the challenge cup period, none of the leagues that played for the trophy had a formal playoff system to decide their respective champions; whichever team finished in first place after the regular season won the league title. However, in 1894, four teams out of the five-team AHAC tied for the championship with records of 5–3–0. The AHAC had no tie-breaking system. After extensive negotiations and Quebec's withdrawal from the championship competition, it was decided that a three-team tournament would take place in Montreal, with the Ottawa team receiving a bye to the final because they were the only road team. On March 17, in the first ever Stanley Cup playoff game, the Montreal Hockey Club (Montreal HC) defeated the Montreal Victorias, 3–2. Five days later, in the first Stanley Cup Finals game, Montreal HC beat the Ottawa Hockey Club 3–1.[23][24] The first Stanley Cup In 1895, Queen's University was the first official challenger for the Cup, although it was controversial. The Montreal Victorias had won the league title and thus the Stanley Cup, but the challenge match was between the previous year's champion, Montreal HC, and the university squad. The trustees decided that if the Montreal HC won the challenge match, the Victorias would become the Stanley Cup champions. The Montreal HC won the match 5–1 and their cross-town rivals were crowned the champions.[25] The first successful challenge to the Cup came the next year by the Winnipeg Victorias, the champions of the Manitoba Hockey League. On February 14, 1896, the Winnipeg squad defeated the champions 2–0 and became the first team outside the AHAC to win the Cup.[26] As the prestige of winning the Cup grew, so did the need to attract top players. Only nine months after winning the Cup, in March 1906, the Montreal Wanderers pushed through a resolution at the annual meeting of the Eastern Canada Amateur Hockey Association (ECAHA) to allow professional players to play alongside amateurs. Because the ECAHA was the top hockey league in Canada at the time, the Cup trustees agreed to open the challenges to professional teams.[27] The first professional competition came one month later during the Wanderers' two-game, total goals challenge series, which they won 17 goals to 5.[28] The smallest municipality to produce a Stanley Cup champion team is Kenora, Ontario; the town had a population of about 4,000 when the Kenora Thistles captured the Cup in January 1907.[29] Aided by future Hall of Famers Art Ross and "Bad" Joe Hall, the Thistles defeated the Montreal Wanderers in a two-game, total goals challenge series. The Thistles successfully defended the Cup once, against a team from Brandon, Manitoba. In March 1907, the Wanderers challenged the Thistles to a rematch. Despite an improved lineup, the Thistles lost the Cup to Montreal. In 1908, the Allan Cup was introduced as the trophy for Canada's amateurs, and the Stanley Cup started to become a symbol of professional hockey supremacy.[27] In that same year, the first all-professional team, the Toronto Trolley Leaguers from the newly created Ontario Professional Hockey League (OPHL), competed for the Cup.[30] One year later, the Montreal HC and the Montreal Victorias, the two remaining amateur teams, left the ECAHA, and the ECAHA dropped "Amateur" from their name to become a professional league.[27] In 1910, the National Hockey Association (NHA) was formed. The NHA soon proved it was the best in Canada, as it kept the Cup for the next four years.[31] Prior to 1912, challenges could take place at any time or place, given the appropriate rink conditions, and it was common for teams to defend the Cup numerous times during the year. In 1912, Cup trustees declared that it was to be defended only at the end of the champion team's regular season.[32] Organized interleague competition[edit] In 1914, the Victoria Aristocrats from the Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA) challenged the NHA and Cup champion Toronto Blueshirts. A controversy erupted when a letter arrived from the Stanley Cup trustees on March 17, that the trustees would not let the Stanley Cup travel west, as they did not consider Victoria a proper challenger because they had not formally notified the trustees.[33] However, on March 18, Trustee William Foran stated that it was a misunderstanding. PCHA president Frank Patrick had not filed a challenge, because he had expected Emmett Quinn of the NHA to make all of the arrangements in his role as hockey commissioner, whereas the trustees thought they were being deliberately ignored. In any case, all arrangements had been ironed out and the Victoria challenge was accepted.[34][35] Several days later, trustee Foran wrote to NHA president Quinn that the trustees are "perfectly satisfied to allow the representatives of the three pro leagues (NHA, PCHA, and Maritime) to make all arrangements each season as to the series of matches to be played for the Cup".[36] One year later, when the Maritime league folded, the NHA and the PCHA concluded a gentlemen's agreement in which their respective champions would face each other for the Cup, similar to baseball's World Series, which is played between the American League and National League champions. Under the new proposal, the Stanley Cup Finals series alternated between the East and the West each year, with alternating games played according to NHA and PCHA rules.[37] The PCHA's Vancouver Millionaires won the 1915 series three games to none in a best-of-five series.[38] Prior to organized ice hockey expanding to any serious extent outside Canada, the concept that the Stanley Cup champion ought to be recognized as the world champion was already firmly established – Stanley Cup winners were claiming the title of world champions by no later than the turn of the century. After the Portland Rosebuds, an American-based team, joined the PCHA in 1914, the trustees promptly issued a formal statement that the Cup was no longer for the best team in Canada, but now for the best team in the world.[37] Ice hockey in Europe was still in its infancy at this time, so it was without much controversy that winners of the Stanley Cup continued styling themselves as the world champions just like in baseball. Two years later, the Rosebuds became the first American-based team to play in the Stanley Cup Finals, although all its players were Canadians.[39] In 1917, the Seattle Metropolitans became the first American-based team to win the Cup.[40] After that season, the NHA dissolved, and the National Hockey League (NHL) took its place.[37] The Spanish influenza epidemic forced the Montreal Canadiens and the Seattle Metropolitans to cancel the 1919 Stanley Cup Finals after game five, marking the first time the Stanley Cup was not awarded.[41] The series was tied at 2–2–1, but the final game was never played because Montreal Manager George Kennedy and players Joe Hall, Billy Coutu, Jack McDonald, and Newsy Lalonde were hospitalized with influenza. Hall died four days after the cancelled game, and the series was abandoned.[42] The format for the Stanley Cup Finals changed in 1922, with the creation of the Western Canada Hockey League (WCHL). Three leagues competed for the Cup: two league champions faced each other for the right to challenge the third champion in the final series.[43] This lasted three seasons as the PCHA and the WCHL later merged to form the Western Hockey League (WHL) in 1925.[44] In 1924–25 the Victoria Cougars won the Cup, the last team outside the NHL to do so.[45] NHL takes over[edit] See also: Stanley Cup playoffs and Stanley Cup Finals After winning the Cup, players traditionally skate around holding the trophy above their heads, as Pavel Datsyuk of the Detroit Red Wings does here when the Red Wings captured their 11th cup in 2008 The WHL folded in 1926 and was quickly replaced by the Prairie Hockey League. However, in the meantime, the NHL (which had entered the U.S. only two years before) bought up the contracts of most of the WHL's players and largely used them to stock the rosters of three new U.S. teams. In what would turn out to be its most significant expansion of its pre-Original Six era, the Chicago Blackhawks, Detroit Cougars now called the Detroit Red Wings and New York Rangers joined the NHL. With the NHL now firmly established in the largest markets of the Northeastern United States, and with the Western teams having been stripped of their best players, the PHL was deemed to be a "minor league" unworthy of challenging the NHL for hockey supremacy. The PHL lasted only two seasons. Over the next two decades, other leagues and clubs occasionally issued challenges, but none were accepted by the Cup's trustees. Since 1926, no non-NHL team has played for the Cup, leading it to become the de facto championship trophy of the NHL.[44][46] In addition, with no major professional hockey league left to challenge it, the NHL began calling its league champions the world champions, notwithstanding the lack of any interleague championship. In doing so, the NHL copied a policy that had been adopted by the then still-fledgling National Football League from its start in 1920 (and which the National Basketball Association also asserted upon its founding in 1946). Finally in 1947, the NHL reached an agreement with trustee. J. Cooper Smeaton to grant control of the Cup to the NHL, allowing the league to reject challenges from other leagues that may have wished to play for the Cup:[46][47][48] This agreement was amended on November 22, 1961, substituting the Governors of the International Hockey Hall of Fame in Kingston, Ontario with the Committee of the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, Ontario as the group to name the two Canadian trustees, if need be. In the 1970s, the World Hockey Association sought to challenge for the Cup. By this time, all Cup Trustees were longtime NHL loyalists, and under the direction of NHL President Clarence Campbell the WHA's challenge for the Cup was blocked. However, notwithstanding the aforementioned legal obligation, the NHL (considering not only the WHA's presence but also the rising caliber of European ice hockey leagues) quietly stopped calling its champions the world champions. Nevertheless, the NHL came under pressure to allow its champion to play the WHA champion. Eventually, following the establishment of the Canada Cup as the first best-on-best international hockey tournament, NHL President Clarence Campbell (who was a vocal opponent of the tournament) made public overtures to establish a true world professional championship in ice hockey, "just like the World Series".[49] Under Campbell's proposal, the NHL champion would have played the WHA champion for the right to face the European champion. In the end, Campbell's proposal went nowhere – eventually, the NHL resolved the WHA challenge by agreeing to merge with its rival, by which time the older league had quietly withdrawn its support for the idea. Neither the NHL nor any other professional hockey league makes a claim to its champions being the world champions. The Cup was awarded every year until 2005, when a labour dispute between the NHL's owners and the NHL Players Association (the union that represents the players) led to the cancellation of the 2004–05 season. As a result, no Cup champion was crowned for the first time since the flu pandemic in 1919. The lockout was controversial among many fans, who questioned whether the NHL had exclusive control over the Cup. A website known as freestanley.com (since closed) was launched, asking fans to write to the Cup trustees and urge them to return to the original Challenge Cup format.[50] Adrienne Clarkson, then Governor General of Canada, alternately proposed that the Cup be presented to the top women's hockey team in lieu of the NHL season. This idea was so unpopular that the Clarkson Cup was created instead. Meanwhile, a group in Ontario, also known as the "Wednesday Nighters", filed an application with the Ontario Superior Court, claiming that the Cup trustees had overstepped their bounds in signing the 1947 agreement with the NHL, and therefore must award the trophy regardless of the lockout.[51] On February 7, 2006, a settlement was reached in which the trophy could be awarded to non-NHL teams should the league not operate for a season. The dispute lasted so long that, by the time it was settled, the NHL had resumed operating for the 2005–06 season, and the Stanley Cup went unclaimed for the 2004–05 season.[48] Furthermore, when another NHL lockout commenced in 2012 the Trustees stated that the 2006 agreement did not oblige them to award the Cup in the event of a lost season, and that they were likely to reject any non-NHL challenges for the Cup in the event the 2012–13 season were cancelled, which it was not.[4] In 2007, the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) formalized the "Triple Gold Club", the group of players and coaches who have won an Olympic Games gold medal, a World Championship gold medal, and the Stanley Cup.[52][53][54] The term had first entered popular use following the 2002 Winter Olympics, which saw the addition of the first Canadian members.[55][56][57] Original, authenticated, and replica versions[edit] The original Stanley Cup in the bank vault at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, Ontario There are technically three versions of the "Stanley Cup": the original 1892 bowl or Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup, 1963 authenticated "Presentation Cup", and the 1993 "Permanent Cup" at the Hall of Fame. The original 1892 Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup, purchased and donated by Lord Stanley, was physically awarded to the Champions until 1970,[82] and is now displayed in the Vault Room at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, Ontario.[82] The authenticated version or "Presentation Cup" was created in 1963 by Montreal silversmith Carl Petersen. NHL president Clarence Campbell felt that the original bowl was becoming too thin and fragile, and thus requested a duplicate trophy as a replacement.[83] The Presentation Cup is authenticated by the seal of the Hockey Hall of Fame on the bottom, which can be seen when winning players lift the Cup over their heads, and it is the one currently awarded to the champions of the playoffs and used for promotions.[64] This version was made in secret, and first awarded in 1970.[83] The replica "Permanent Cup", was created in 1993 by Montreal silversmith Louise St. Jacques to be used as a stand-in at the Hockey Hall of Fame whenever the Presentation Cup is not available for display.[83] Once again, the very first Stanley Cup (in the vault room) at the HHOF The Great Hall at the HHOF in Toronto with the real Stanley Cup (known as the "presentation cup" because it's the one given to the players to parade around the ice). When the "presentation cup" isn't there (during the end of the Stanley Cup final for example), the Cup on display is replaced with the original Stanley Cup (that had become too brittle for players to skate around with). Now you know.

@nolan bianchi Also worth mentioning: Leafs are technically #1 on this list because 50% of the value of the New York Rangers (or more) is tied up in MSG (Madison Square Gardens arena), the most valuable arena is all of sports. So if you delete the arena from the equation, TOR > NYR. As for Buffalo, in addition to their recent losing streak, I noticed that the Buffalo Sabres have NEVER won a Stanley Cup! So that's a wonderful streak the Sabres still have going!

Looked to me like MacKinnon was just giving him back his helmet, and Garland (surprised by the gesture of good sportsmanship) wasn't expecting it and got hit in the face.

Jets crash and burn against the Leafs!

The only other teams that might come close are: Phoenix Coyotes Winnipeg Jets Florida Panthers I'm not sure how long those teams have gone without winning a playoff round but it's probably comparable to Toronto.

Every team in the NHL has won a playoff series more recently than Toronto. Not much of an accomplishment really. The Leafs haven't won a playoff round in 20 years. Of course, they spent 15 of those 20 years not even making the playoffs. I think I posted the roster of the last Leafs team to see playoff action past round one. Names like: Mats Sundin Alexander Mogilny Gary Roberts Joe Nieuwendyk Ed Belfour Brian Leetch Bryan McCabe etc....... Pat Quinn was the head coach.