21 years.
Okay. That is the obvious figure. 21 years where Canada won't get the Stanley Cup. Gary Bettman is a very happy man, again.
What is even more amazing is that in the 21 years is that the Montréal Canadiens haven't even made the Stanley Cup finals. Other than the new Winnipeg Jets, the only Canadian teams that haven't made the Stanley Cup final in the last 21 years are the Montréal Canadiens and the Toronto Maple Leafs.
This looked like the year for the Habs. Everyone was playing well. The March 15 miracle comeback over the Ottawa Senators emotionally knocked out the team that had defeated the Canadiens in the playoffs the previous spring. With a comeback such as that, anything was possible.
Despite the outstanding play of Dustin Tokarski, this team looked like it was headed for the Stanley Cup final. The Chris Kreider takedown of Carey Price proved to be too much. But the team didn't respond as it had to other setbacks throughout the year.
Can't look back and think the New York Rangers were the better team. They weren't. But they will advance.
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With the season on the line, Montréal managed 18 shots, 5 in the 3rd period. The only 2 penalties against the Rangers came late in a period so the Habs didn't have 2 consecutive minutes of PP time.
This was not a fitting way to go out. The team didn't play well in Game 6, but this isn't the way the team should be remembered.
The other frustration is that the Canadiens played so well in beating out the Boston Bruins. Short of something off the charts, the Bruins are going to be an obstacle for the Canadiens in the next few years. And short of something truly off the charts, the Bruins will get away with their cheap shots.
The Rangers are not in the Bruins category, but they had their share of cheap shots. The Kreider hit in Game 1. The pathetic headbutt by Derek Dorsett in Game 5. The Canadiens missed Dale Wiese a lot more than New York will ever miss John Moore.
I like hockey and the NHL, but I'm so tired of the attempts to injure being passed off as "these things happen." And that includes Brandon Prust's hit.
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Not every Canadian understandably shares the CanadianCrossing.com view of getting the Stanley Cup back to Canada, regardless of the team. Plenty of Canadians don't like the Canadiens or Montréal or Quebec or French Canada or sovereignty battles. Yes, if the Habs had snapped the streak, well, they were the last team from Canada to win the Cup, so not much of a change.
In a year where Western Canadian teams were shut out of the playoffs for the first time since 1978, and no one else from the East stepped up, the Montréal Canadiens were Canada's lone representative. And they had our full attention. Don't like that. Kick your favorite Canadian team into gear and get them in the playoffs. We welcome any and all into the playoffs. Make my late April, May, and early June hell.
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If you are looking for an omen, Ginette Reno would not have been at the Bell Centre to sing O Canada had there been a Game 7. Tonight, Reno is giving a concert at Place des Arts, just east of the Bell Centre, at 7:30 pm. If the Saturday night game had started at the usual Hockey Night in Canada, Reno could have done both live.
The plan was to have Reno sing the national anthem during her concert and broadcast the feed live on the video board at Bell Centre.
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The final 2 nominees for the cover of the EA Sports NHL 15 video game are Montréal's P.K. Subban and Boston's Patrice Bergeron. The fan balloting has been intense. However, the fine print notes that the sponsor isn't required to take the total vote into consideration. In other words, vote your heart out but we may take other factors into consideration.
Presumably this leaves out Subban since he plays for a Canadian team. Video games aren't in my realm, but Subban is way more known to the average NHL fan, especially casual fans. Plus, you would easily assume that Subban would kick Bergeron's butt in video games based on personality. I'd take Bergeron on a face-off, but Subban for the cover of a video game.
If nothing else, the cover battle is between 2 Canadians, if not 2 Canadiens.
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Steve Lepore reported that 6.2 million North America viewers saw Game 6 of the Canadiens-Rangers game. CBC accounted for 4.08 million. This leaves 2.12 million viewers for NBCSN.
As a marker, Game 1 of the Boston series averaged 1.925 million viewers for NBCSN.
We argued unsuccessfully that the Ottawa Senators deserved more U.S. love for reaching the 2nd round, but that never happened.
NBCSN will show some Montreal Canadiens games next year, but the team deserves more attention given the Eastern Conference final status. The ratings have shown a Canadian-based team can draw on U.S. TV. If Subban does make the cover of NHL 15, that could be worth an extra 1-2 telecasts.
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Now what?
You can keep going down the Stanley Cup run. CBC and RDS will have all the games and NBC joins in the fun, carrying all but Games 2 and 3 (those to NBCSN).
You could follow the most exciting MLB team these days, the 1st-place Toronto Blue Jays. The Jays had their 9-game winning streak snapped Thursday night in an exciting 8-6 loss in 10 innings to Kansas City. Toronto also lost Friday night to the Royals.
Edwin Encarnacion has 16 HR in May, one short of the MLB record for the month. Given that Barry Bonds has that record, well, Encarnacion will have the mark for non-steroid users. He had 2 2-run HR in Thursday's loss.
You can follow Eugenie Bouchard, who reached the 4th round of the French Open. Bouchard downed Johanna Larsson 7-5, 6-4 on Friday.
There is the Canadian Grand Prix in Montréal on June 8. Yes, NBC is coming back to Montréal.
You could rest, watch some great Canadian films, enjoy the summer outdoors. You could wait for the CFL … and wait … and wait.
We'll check back in for the NHL when we hear news from Rogers on its plans for the 2014-2015 NHL schedule … just 4 months away.
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