Can Canada break its Stanley Cup curse?

The Edmonton Oilers are heading south to Miami to struggle to carry the Stanley Cup again to Canada for the primary time since 1993.

They are going to be hoping to keep away from a repeat of final 12 months after they made the identical journey and misplaced.

For over 30 years, the winner of the Nationwide Hockey League’s prime prize has gone to an American group. It is a sorry legacy for a rustic the place ice hockey is not only a sport, however a part of the nationwide id. About 40% of gamers within the NHL, throughout all groups, are Canadian – greater than some other nation.

Final 12 months, the Oilers flopped in the course of the remaining recreation of the seven-game sequence in opposition to the Florida Panthers.

It was a “heartbreaking” loss for Carson Duggan, who grew up in rural Alberta and now lives within the US. She had travelled all the best way to Miami to observe that remaining recreation, the place she says she was joined by hundreds of different Canadians.

It is a sore level for a lot of Canadians that the league’s most die-hard followers have gone so lengthy and not using a trophy, and but stay prepared to spend huge cash and journey huge distances to help their group.

Now Edmonton has a second likelihood at breaking the shedding streak this 12 months, however heading into Sport 6, there are considerations that historical past may certainly repeat itself. Whereas the Oilers started the sequence robust, profitable the primary recreation 4-3, the Panthers demolished Edmonton 5-2 on Saturday, giving them a 3-2 sequence lead.

Tuesday’s recreation, in Miami, shall be do-or-die.

The repeated losses have, in a method, united Canadians in opposition to a standard enemy – the US. Though there are seven Canadian groups within the NHL for Canadian followers to cheer for, on the subject of the playoffs most get behind whichever Canadian group goes the farthest. Thus, on this 12 months’s remaining sequence, the Edmonton Oilers have been christened, by elimination, Canada’s group.

“I feel it is identical to, we’d like a cup as Canada,” Ms Duggan mentioned. “A variety of Canada is cheering for Edmonton.”

That is very true due to tensions between Canada and the US, which have heightened amidst a testy commerce warfare.

The worldwide rivalry actually got here to a head in the course of the winter’s 4 Nations Face Off, when Trump was repeatedly making digs at Canada by calling it the “51st state”.

Canadians booed the American nationwide anthem in the course of the recreation, and three fights broke out on the ice in the course of the first 9 seconds of 1 recreation. Shortly after Canada gained the 4Nations, Canadian comic Mike Meyers appropriated the hockey time period “elbows up” as a rallying cry for Canadian sovereignty.

The slogan was adopted by Prime Minister Mark Carney (whose hometeam is Edmonton) throughout his election marketing campaign.

In the meantime, US President Donald Trump has personally referred to as the Panthers, who play about an hour away from his property Mar-A-Lago, to supply his help.

Temperatures between the 2 nations have appeared to chill a bit, Ms Duggan mentioned. However that does not imply {that a} Canadian win would not be a “cherry on prime”.

“We’re not going to be bullied,” she mentioned, including that she thinks “most Canadians know that almost all People are good individuals”.

Each Canadian has their very own speculation as to why Canadian groups haven’t gained the Cup since 1993, from the mundane to the downright conspiratorial.

For starters, below the attention of NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, American franchises have vastly overtaken the league, with seven out of eight new groups since 1993 going to sunshine states like Nevada, Florida and most lately, Utah. Now there are simply seven Canadian groups in comparison with America’s 25.

Others level to the gentle temperatures and profitable tax breaks in lots of US states as a draw totally free brokers.

Ms Duggan likes to suppose it is no less than partly due to ice hockey’s uniquely egalitarian gameplay – gamers are solely on the ice for 45 seconds at a time, sometimes, which signifies that even a star participant, just like the Oiler’s captain Connor McDavid, cannot monopolise the rink.

The 28-year-old, whose been in comparison with Corridor of Famer Wayne Gretzky, has been enjoying with the group since he was first draft decide within the NHL in the course of the 2015-2016 season. Whereas it is taken the Oilers years to get to the extent that they are enjoying at now, even then it was clear he can be a star.

“If he was drafted to Boston or Chicago or Philly or Rangers, or actually any group in the US, I feel hockey would have grown exponentially,” Ms Duggan mentioned. “You possibly can know completely nothing about hockey and watch 5 minutes and see [he’s] the perfect participant.”

Now residing in New Hampshire, after shifting to the US to play university-level ice hockey and coach, Ms Duggan – whose great-grandfather was a mayor of Edmonton – mentioned the Oilers are nonetheless her house group.

“I feel that was a chunk of house that was all the time there,” she mentioned. “They’ve most likely taken years off my life, as a result of a few of their puck drops are at like, 10pm, and I keep up and watch each single recreation.”