Tonight, the Stanley Cup Finals begin as the Boston Bruins face off against the Vancouver Canucks to have a chance to hoist the Stanley Cup. The Bruins have not won a Stanley Cup since 1972 and many fans still feel the pain of 1990 loss to the Edmonton Oilers.
However for the nation of Canada, it's been nearly seventeen years since any Canadian team has hoisted the cup. The last team to do so was the 1993 Montreal Canadiens led by coach Jacques Demers. Since that victory, four Canadian teams have made the Stanley Cup Finals and none were successful in claiming the cup.
In a sport, that is so popular in the great white north, it's still somewhat of a national tragedy when the Carolina Hurricanes/Tampa Bay Lightning/and Anaheim Ducks have claimed trophies in recent memory and the Toronto Maple Leafs/Edmonton Oilers/and Montreal Canadiens have not.
This year might be Canada's best shot in reclaiming the cup, Vancouver's goaltender Roberto Luongo was the goaltender for the Canadian national team during the Winter Olympics and he might be the deciding factor in a series that features Boston's prevalent defense making it hard for offensive talent like Mason Raymond/The Sedin Twins/and Ryan Kesler.
The Bruins are going to be a formidable opponent for Canucks offense but the one possible weakness is goaltender Tim Thomas who has had a rather up and down playoffs so far but if the Bruins defense shuts down the Canucks, Thomas will not need to perform at such a high level.
For the common fan, it's a series everyone wants to see, Offense vs. Defense, USA vs. Canada, and even, 17 year drought vs. 28 year drought. All I know for sure is that one of those droughts will end and for Canada's sake, Vancouver better be the victor or it will be another year that the national sport will not claim the highest trophy in the land.
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