Stanley Cup Droughts

Why does someone, in the midst of your worst suffering, decide the time has come to drive home, disguised in the form of character analysis, all the contempt they have been harboring for you all these years? What in your suffering makes their superiority so fulsome, so capacious, makes the expression of it so enjoyable?
Philip Roth, American Pastoral

A strange thing happened when the Chicago Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup. Amidst the celebrations by the victors and grief for the losers, a number of hockey people turned their sites on Toronto.

Yup, Toronto.

The culmination of an interesting regular season and a tremendously compelling playoff, during one of the most remarkable moments in professional sports, is apparently not the appropriate time to celebrate the victors or recognize the fight of the Flyers. No, it's the time to talk about the Leafs. More specifically, it should go without saying, it's time to point out the Leafs' failings.

You see, with the Blackhawks victory, the Leafs now have the longest current Stanley Cup drought in the NHL - an astonishing 43 years. The drought is an accomplishment the Leafs share with the Los Angeles Kings and the St. Louis Blues. Except neither the Blues nor the Kings resonate quite the same way with hockey fans or the hockey commentariat, so you won't hear much about those two other teams. No, you'll only hear about the Leafs.

You also likely won't hear about how it's not even the longest drought. The New York Rangers went 54 years without a Cup Win, but that doesn't quite fit with the need for a negative Leafs narrative, so it will be skipped.

On the bright side, all droughts eventually end.

At some point the Leafs will win the Cup. It might be in 2015 or it might be in 2050, but when the Leafs finally do raise that magnificent silver cup, I hope that the sporting press and twitterati wait a day or two before pointing out the failings of another franchise. It would be nice if the focus remained where it should: on the winners and the team they defeated.

Personally, I'm thrilled the Hawks won the Cup. Chicago is one of my favourite American cities and the Hawks were clearly the better team. It should be one helluva parade on Friday, I hope the fans revel in it.

Pop open a bottle of bubbly, here's to another goddamn new year

My final tiny contribution to the New York Times Hockey Blog is now up.

Sadly, the Times is bringing in 30 new bloggers for 2009. It was fun representing the Barilkosphere and responding to the Times' questions. I'd like to thank Jeff Klein for asking me to take part and I'd encourage you to surf over to the NYT and check out what they're up to with their hockey blog.

The final question from the Times, "Besides your team winning the Stanley Cup, what is the most heartfelt wish you have for hockey in 2009?"

Obviously, I went with labour troubles, more third jerseys, a reality show based on 24 hour coverage of all things Sidney Crosby and the Habs winning the Cup. Would love to hear what other hockey fans are hoping for this year...



What's with the post title? Click here.

Why the Sens Lost: How they Can Win in 2008

I have studied the game tapes and crunched the numbers.

I have looked at ESG+, ESS-, TOI, shift charts, specialty teams, built databases and read tea leaves and I have come to a startling conclusion.

I know why the Senators lost the Stanley Cup.

As a Leaf fan, it’s a secret I’m not sure that I should share with our supposed rivals from the town that fun forgot.

It could be the key that brings the Cup back to Canada.

But, in the spirit of sportsmanship and in deference to so many of my poor, sad friends who sold out their previous teams to cheer for the Sens, I am prepared to share that secret with you now.

Beards.


That’s right, as anyone can tell you facial follicles separate the men from the boys.

As the Blue Jays have found out, the arrival of Sal Fasano’s fu man chu has the club approaching the .500 mark for the first time this season. Talk of releasing Fasano has seen the team lose two in a row to the lowly Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Imagine if Sal had the power of a full beard.

Still don’t believe me?

Look at last year’s miracle run by the Oilers. You don’t really think that team should have been in the finals do you? But Google any images from last year’s playoffs and you’ll get a sea of beards among the blue, copper and white.

Biggest disappearing act in the playoffs by an impending free agent? Daniel Briere. Why? Because he can’t grow a beard – Briere grows facial hair like he’s the daughter of the bearded lady at the circus.

Calder cup winners? The Bulldogs – here’s the wire photo:


Now, look at this year’s Stanley Cup match-up.

The winners:

And the losers:

It couldn’t be more obvious.

Who had the best beard on the Ducks?

Scott Niedermayer

Who won the Conn Smythe?

Scott Niedermayer.

Who was suspended twice?

Pronger.

Who was clean shaven?

Pronger.

I’m starting to see a trend here.

Hands down, the most consistent Senators in the finals - the guy that coach Murray said he wished he had a dozen of?

Mike Fisher.

Which Sen had the best playoff beard?

Mike Fisher.

Coincidence? I think not.

Even Teemu Selanne’s father (or father in-law) grew a beard:


Consider this: Heatley and Spezza didn’t grow beards for the finals. A search party is still looking for them.

Want to know something really spooky?

J.S. Giguere didn’t let in a single really bad goal. Challenged for the Conn Smythe trophy and gets his name engraved on the Stanley Cup. Everything seemed to go his way.

He had a beard.

The goalie at the other end of the ice? Well, he ran into some pretty bad karma in game six – scoring on his own net to kill any momentum Alfredsson’s short-handed goal might have brought. In fact, many would argue that Emery had his worst run of games in the Stanely Cup final. Why? What was the cause of his poor play?

The man is named Razor.

Think about that for a moment.

The Sens goalie is the anti-beard.

Alfredsson, an early favorite for the Conn Smythe, shows up in the finals clean shaven and it’s like some type of madness hits him. He ends up shooting the puck right at who? That’s right, the Duck with the biggest beard.

As the Sens and their fans spend the summer trying to figure out what went wrong and how they can bounce back next year, it’s pretty clear to me that they don’t need to re-build, they don’t need to change this line-up to threaten for the cup.

This team needs to embrace the beard.

The Sens need to throw away their lady philishaves, get rid of those pink venus razors, home waxing kits and their disposable Gillette Daisy Plus - whatever they’re training staff put out in the clubhouse - and they need to get on the beard bandwagon.

Next year, a few months after the Leafs have failed to qualify for the playoffs (about the same time that MLSE offers JFJ a lifetime contract) each and every Senator should look like they could house a family of rare birds in their facial hair - then, and only then, will they sip from the Cup.

CBC Run by Leaf fans?

Ouch.

Isn't this like saying "shut-out" or talking about a no-hitter in the sixth inning?



All joking aside, I'm not counting the Sens out. Not by a long shot.

If there's one thing I've learned as a life-long Leafs fan it's this: in hockey, the most likely outcome - the one I can almost always count on - is the one that will cause me the most pain.

Based on this (call it the first law of MLSE) I fully expect the Sens to storm back in Kanata.

Long Odds

It’s disappointing to me as a Leafs fan that the new measure of success in this town and for this organization seems to be making the post-season.

With expectations well-managed (how many times did someone at MLSE use “playoffs” and “dog-fight” in the same sentence as the season began) this team sits in 10^th place, on the outside looking in, and all signs point to JFJ trying to gear up for a playoff run.

Friends, clients and colleagues are all talking about the Leafs current streak and hoping that it might be just enough to help the Leafs squeak into 8^th place.

This is what we have to root for?

I realize that the post-season is what it’s all about and you can’t drink from the big silver mug if you don’t even qualify, but isn’t it time somebody at MLSE stepped back and looked at the big picture?

In a nutshell MLSE, here's your big picture: teams that struggle to make the post-season don’t win the Cup.

It’s that simple.

Since the NHL expanded to 21 teams in 1979-1980, the 1985-86 Montreal Canadiens are the lowest ranked club to win the Stanley Cup. That season they were 5^th in the Wales(now the Eastern) Conference (they also had a young goalie named Patrick Roy).

Think about that for a second. No team ranked lower than 5th has won the cup since the league expanded to 21 teams. Only twice in the past 26 years has an 8th seeded team even made it to the finals.

Of the 27 teams that have won the cup, since 1979 nineteen were first (11) or second (8) in their conference - that’s 70% of the winners coming from the top 2 spots.

Have a look for yourself...

Season	Cup Champion	Final Standings	Losing Team	Final Standings
1979-80	New York Islanders	2nd Campbell	Philadelphia	1st Campbell
1980-81	New York Islanders	1st Campbell	Minnesota	4th Prince of Wales
1981-82	New York Islanders	1st Wales	Vancouver	4th Campbell
1982-83	New York Islanders	3rd Wales	Edmonton	1st Campbell
1983-84	Edmonton	1st Campbell	NY Islanders	1st Wales
1984-85	Edmonton	1st Campbell	Philadelphia	1st Wales
1985-86	Montreal	5th Wales	Calgary	2nd Campbell
1986-87	Edmonton	1st Campbell	Philadelphia	1st Wales
1987-88	Edmonton	2nd Campbell	Boston	2nd Wales
1988-89	Calgary	1st Campbell	Montreal	1st Wales
1989-90	Edmonton	2nd Campbell	Boston	1st Wales
1990-91	Pittsburgh	3rd Wales	Minnesota	7th Campbell
1991-92	Pittsburgh	4th Wales	Chicago	3rd Campbell
1992-93	Montreal	4th Wales	Los Angeles	6th Campbell
1993-94	New York Rangers	1st East	Vancouver	7th West
1994-95*	New Jersey	5th East	Detroit	1st West
1995-96	Colorado	2nd West	Florida	4th East
1996-97	Detroit	3rd West	Philadelphia	2nd East
1997-98	Detroit	2nd West	Washington	4th East
1998-99	Dallas	1st West	Buffalo	5th East
1999-00	New Jersey	2nd East	Dallas	3rd West
2000-01	Colorado	1st West	New Jersey	1st East
2001-02	Detroit	1st West	Carolina	8th East
2002-03	New Jersey	2nd East	Anaheim	6th West
2003-04	Tampa	1st East	Calgary	6th West
2004-05	LOCKOUT	NO	CUP	AWARDED
2005-06	Carolina	2nd East	Edmonton	8th West

Standings indicate overall points ranking, not seeding by division/ *lockout shortened season

As the table above shows, Championship odds aren't good for a team sitting in 8^th place (nevermind those in 10th that need everything to go their way just to make the post-season).

As a fan, I’d love the Leafs to qualify for the playoffs – it’s why the games are played - and I really hope they do make it.

But as a fan, isn’t it time we set our sites a bit higher than 8^th place? Isn’t it time we asked a bit more of MLSE?

Aiming for 8th place isn't how droughts end.