With four of my more deeply-rooted hockey passions not even in the Stanley Cup Playoffs this year it hasn’t been easy for me to develop rooting interests. Since my love for the game was fostered greatly during my college years on the Canadian border I typically default to teams from north of the border, and since I tend to love underdogs as a rule the fact that no Canadian team has won a cup this century makes that storyline much more intriguing. And since we now know exactly how passionate and relatively normal Canadians are as a whole based on the events of the past year it makes their teams all the more relatable and worth rooting for.
Alas, they didn’t exactly have a full compliment in the chase to begin with–just three of their seven franchises qualified at all (admittedly a better track record than the New York City metropolitan area turned in–the Blutarski GPA of zero-point-zero). And based on what transpired this past weekend, especially yesterday, they may indeed be coming empty for a 33rd consecutive year.
The pain was especially felt in Montreal, where the up-and-coming and youth-led Canadiens had already forged a series lead against the Tampa Bay Lightning, a team with two Cups this decade but this year began to show signs of age and rust. But as the nameless ASSOCIATED PRESS reported yesterday, the remaining Florida squad found a way to turn back their clock:
Brandon Hagel scored his NHL playoffs-leading fifth and sixth goals in the third period and the Tampa Bay Lightning rallied to beat the Montreal Canadiens 3-2 on Sunday night in Game 4 to tie the series. After the first three games in the first-round series went to overtime, Tampa Bay overcame a two-goal deficit to end it in regulation. Hagel gave the Lightning the lead with 4:43 left, deflecting Nikita Kucherov’s shot past Jakub Dobes. Jake Guentzel had a goal and assist, and Kucherov added two assists on the top line with Hagel. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 16 saves.
And if the True North found that turn of events disconcerting they no doubt should be downright panicked by what transpired late last night in Orange County, as CLUTCH POINTS’ Tristin McKinstry summoned the strength to share:
The Anaheim Ducks entered Game 4 with a 2-1 series lead, and a chance to push the Edmonton Oilers to the brink. It was a very close encounter between these two teams. In the end, they needed overtime. After a lengthy review, Ryan Poehling emerged as Anaheim’s overtime winner. Poehling carried the puck along the wall in overtime. He attempted to pass the puck in the low slot, but it deflected off someone in front. It went between the legs of Oilers goalie Tristan Jarry. After some confusion, the officials on the ice ruled that the puck crossed the line. A lengthy video review confirmed the goal, giving Anaheim a chaotic win.
This now puts Connor McDavid and company on the precipice of yet another Cup-less season, one far less satisfying than even their spirited but ultimately futile pursuit of the Florida Panthers that fell two and then one game short for the last two seasons.
Coupled with the Carolina Hurricanes’ expected but nonetheless sobering sweep of the surprising but clearly outclassed Ottawa Senators that saw their season end on Saturday let’s just say the country needed to look elsewhere for validation and escape. Fortunately, the one winter team in Toronto that did make their post-season was able to provide it, even if they did so in a manner seen as typically Canadian in style. At least that’s how THE ATHLETIC’s three-headed monster saw it:
The Toronto Raptors made a habit of winning ugly during a regular season that produced the franchise’s first playoff appearance in four years. They took it to another level Sunday afternoon.
In a game where neither team could shoot straight, the Raptors ground their way to a series-tying 93-89 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers in a pivotal Game 4 inside Scotiabank Arena. Scottie Barnes drained six free throws in the final 34.6 seconds — part of an 11-2 Toronto run to close out the game — and the Raptors sent the Eastern Conference first-round series back to Cleveland tied at 2-all.
The first half was unsightly, as the two teams combined for 74 points on 30.3-percent shooting (30 of 99) from the field. Neither team topped 40 points, marking the first time that’s happened in a playoff game in 11 years. And they had more than twice as many turnovers (18) as made 3-pointers (7).
While the scoring ticked up a notch in the second half, the overall 1990s half-court slugfest aesthetic remained. It wasn’t until Donovan Mitchell and Cavs teammate James Harden drained three 3-pointers during a 15-2 fourth-quarter run that Cleveland surged ahead. But the Toronto defense held the Cavs to just one basket over the final 130 seconds to secure the win and set up a massive Game 5 on Wednesday night at Rocket Arena.
The Raptors captured their country with their shocking Kawhi Leonard-led title run in 2019, but ultimately fumbled a great deal of that cultural relevance with a series of poor decisions that included not ponying up to keep Leonard financially happy and not even trying to play games in empty arenas as the NHL did in 2020-21 with its seven franchises–not to mention the summer Stanley Cup run of 2020 that rewarded the Lightning with the first of their trophies. They relocated to Tampa where they turned in a last-place finish and even found a way to re-ban fans at the very time that the Miami Heat were allowing a coupla thousand brave warriors (myself included) to safely watch a game.
Of course, Montreal and Edmonton aren’t quite out of it yet. And Montreal gets to go the very arena that the Raptors carpetbagged their way into to try and regain control–and where they’ve already stolen one game of an exceptionally tight series. And the Oilers’ foes are the anything-but-Mighty Ducks that are an inexperienced group of skaters being willed into competitiveness by their veteran coach Joel Quenneville, defiantly finding success after a series of allegations about his past unraveled his previous coaching stint in South Florida.
And if they are able to rebound, while I’ll be disappointed for my dear friends who hold Lightning and Ducks season tickets, I’ll be happy that Canada at least gets a shot at breaking a drought that means far more to them than it does to me. The Raptors can wait as well. They’ve still got a lot of work ahead to regain street cred in my book.
Courage…