The Edmonton Oilers Fall Short of the Cup

Despite a thrilling comeback from 0-3 in the series, the Edmonton Oilers have failed to capture the Stanley Cup. They fall short in game 7, with a final score of 2-1 for the Florida Panthers. This continues the streak of no Canadian teams winning the cup since 1993.

The last Canadian team to have won the NHL Playoffs and the famous Stanley Cup trophy was the Montreal Canadiens in 1993 as they defeated the Los Angeles Kings 4 games to 1.

Since then, there were 7 Canadian teams that have made the Stanley Cup finals, including, now, the Oilers. Surprisingly, 5 of those included game 7’s. All of them ended with a loss. The most recent game 7 loss was the infamous Vancouver Canucks loss to the Boston Bruins in 2011.

Is it just statistics or is there some other disadvantage Canadian teams have to face? What can be done to finally break the 30+ year long drought? We'll explore this in a future investigation.