It was just about this time, 20 years ago, that the last “Golden Age” of Canadian NHL hockey began.
It was a short run that lasted all of 14 months, encompassing a pair of playoff seasons, but people from one end of the country to the other still point to the springs of 1993 and 1994 as an example of what the Stanley Cup playoffs, at their best, can represent. Even on a 14-inch Trinitron.
We’ve all heard the old joke about how many Montreal Canadiens (or Toronto Maple Leafs) fans it takes to change a lightbulb; the answer being 1,000 — one to actually change the bulb and 999 to tell you how great the old one was.
Well, as a fan of neither of those historic franchises, I can tell you it WAS better 20 years ago and as a puck-starved nation we are overdue for a similar stretch. I won’t say we deserve it, for fear of Jeremy Roenick or Brett Hull beaking off and painting our entire country with one red and white brush. And if “need” is too strong a word, we can certainly “want” it.
An all-time high six (count ’em) Canadian clubs made the playoffs in 1993. The Leafs played a game every other night for 42 straight nights and fell one Wayne Gretzky virtuoso performance shy of a Cup final meeting with the Canadiens in the NHL’s 75th season. All the Habs did was win 10 straight overtime games en route to becoming the last Canadian team to win it all.
In 1994, the Vancouver Canucks beat the Calgary Flames in a thrilling all-Canadian first-round matchup that wasn’t settled until Pavel Bure scored in double overtime of game seven. Then Vancouver beat Toronto in an all-Canadian conference final before bowing out in seven to the Rangers in what many consider the best Stanley Cup final of the post-expansion era.
Edmonton and Calgary had owned Canadian bragging rights through the entire 80’s, so perhaps it was the emergence of some new (old) hockey blood that got the juices flowing. More than likely it was simply the presence of the three biggest cities in the country taking their turn on the national stage. And it didn’t hurt to have No. 99, Edmonton’s favourite sporting son and a national hero, playing a leading role for the surprising Los Angeles Kings. Perfect storm.
Some may differ but most will agree: it’s just a lot more fun when more Canadian clubs are in contention. While your team is moving through at one end of the nation, the one you love to hate on the other side of the Rockies — or the country — is battling through similar drama, played out before a near-identical collection of jersey-clad folks living and dying with each goal. If watching your team win is the most satisfying thing at this time of year, surely calling your college buddy to rip his losing team represents a healthy runner-up.
There are four Canadian teams in this year’s tournament. One, of course, is guaranteed to move on and while none of the four on paper appear legitimate threats to do what Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal did two decades ago, consider at the start of the ‘93 and ‘94 playoffs the Habs, Buds and ‘Nucks didn’t exactly have “long run” splashed all over them either. Montreal and Toronto were fourth in their respective conferences at the end of the ’93 regular season; the Canucks were the seventh seed in the West in ’94.
Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver have all made runs to the seventh game of the final since 1994 but each of those clubs was essentially a lone Canadian wolf. Some in the media tried to get the country to rally around an adopted “Canada’s Team” in 2004, 2006 and 2011 but that’s never going to happen. People in those three cities will talk about their team’s run forever — and rightfully so — but the rest of Canada moved on pretty quickly once the Lightning, Hurricanes and Bruins collected their respective prize from Gary Bettman.
So it’s been awhile since we’ve had what felt like the whole nation glued to the same group of stories. Too long.
No disrespect to Doug Gilmour’s wraparound or Patrick Roy’s cheeky wink but we’ve seen those now-grainy highlights enough over the past 20 years. Time for new stories and memories. In HD.