Will a Canadian team win the Cup? (poll)

[yave1964]

  Lots of great Hockey coming from up north this season, Calgary and Winnipeg look like the class of the West, Toronto with a nice statement win against Tampa last night, Montreal, Vancouver and Edmonton doing just enough to hang around the conversation (forget Ottawa, they are hoplesssly out of it) so I thought I would put a two part poll in here:

 

First part: Will a Canadian team win the Cup?

Second part: if so, who?

Here are the Candidates:

 

VANCOUVER: Somehow still hanging around, Horvat and Pettersson are brilliant young centers, Markstrom is having an outstanding season, a lot of smoke and mirrors however.

 

EDMONTON As of now not in a playoff spot but if they squeak in McDavid and Draisatl are a deadly duo.

 

MONTREAL: Looking as if they have turned a corner as an organization and Carey Price is quite capable of stealing a series or two on his own.

 

CALGARY: One of the leagues surprise team combining grit and skill, Lindholm a huge addition to the top line, the question is if they have enough in net.

 

TORONTO: The media darling (if you dont believe me turn on Hockey Central at noon any day and listen to the drone on about the Leafs five days a week) the knock is they beat up on the weak sisters and lose to the top teams. May have turned that corner last night in Tampa.

 

WINNIPEG: Put distance between themselves and Nashville last night in the battle for first in the division. Simply loaded with skilled players at every position and depth everywhere of rugged young kids who are a pain to play against.

 

 OTTAWA Threw them in here because they are in Canada, lol but it would take a few mid air plane crashes involving other teams, a LOT of players from other clubs testing positive for steroids and half the league retiring to take up curling and even then they probably wouldn't have much of a chance.

 

  So that is the bunch, will Canada win a cup for the first time since Roy led his Habs to a surprise victory? And if so, which team will it be?

[WordsOfWisdom]

On 1/18/2019 at 11:36 AM, yave1964 said:

First part: Will a Canadian team win the Cup?

Second part: if so, who?

 

Well now that we've had some time to review these teams:    

 

Calgary or Winnipeg have the best chance of being a Canadian team to win, because I don't see the Leafs getting past Boston and certainly not Tampa in the East. The Flames and Jets at least have a decent chance of making it the final, and then depending on injuries and wear & tear, whatever happens happens.    

 

Until a Canadian team finally wins the Cup again, I will always assume they won't do it. The odds are simply too slim to begin with, and no Canadian based team has ever entered the playoffs as the favourite to win since Wayne Gretzky last played as an Oiler. That's three decades ago now!