Thirty years without a Stanley Cup: Maritime hockey fans lament playoff losses

It was a weekend that killed any hopes of a Canadian Cup.

While the Toronto Maple Leafs’ season-ending loss to the Florida Panthers in Game 5 of their Eastern Conference semifinal Friday night left just one Canadian team in the hunt for the 2023 Stanley Cup, the Edmonton Oilers' elimination at the hands of the Vegas Golden Knights Sunday night sealed the deal.

"It wasn't supposed to be like this,” said Scott Purdie of Coxheath, N.S., a lifelong Oilers fan. "What is it now, 30 years? And I think for many hockey fans in our great nation, it does sting."

Purdie is right -- it's now been 30 years and counting since the 1993 Montreal Canadiens brought Lord Stanley north of the border.

Cape Breton Eagles' play-by-play announcer Pat McNeil was 11-years-old when his Habs won that spring’s Cup.

"Ten overtime wins. A lot of late nights. Especially someone like me probably shouldn't have been staying up at that age to watch those games, but I did see most of them”, McNeil remembered.

At the time, he certainly couldn't have imagined a drought that would last this long.

"Since the Habs won the Stanley Cup, the Blue Jays have won the World Series,” McNeil pointed out. “The Raptors have won the NBA Championship. An American team has won the Grey Cup. That's all happened since the last NHL champion came from Canada. So, that's pretty perplexing."

Whether the Canadian Cup curse is just coincidence or something more, when and who will end it now?

"You look at McDavid in Edmonton, and it's really hard to imagine he's going to go his whole career without winning a Stanley Cup,” McNeil said.

"Canada's best bet for next year? Gotta go with the orange and blue,” Purdie said.

Meanwhile, fans of some other teams took the opportunity on Monday to rub in their rivals’ losses.

"There's still a lot of growth in the group and a lot accomplished this year, and obviously it just continues to build the desire and the fire to get to the ultimate goal,” Maple Leafs captain John Tavares told reporters.

Or, put another way, “There's always next year.”