Canada’s decades-long Stanley Cup drought is keeping veteran hockey players south of the border

Next spring, 2023, will mark the 30th anniversary since a Canadian team hoisted the Stanley Cup.

The 30-year mark is traditionally marked by a gift of pearls. But will it be pearls of wisdom – no Canadian team will again win the highest award in the national game – or will that easy curse turn out to be fake pearls that a northern team eventually breaks?

There were high hopes for the Edmonton Oilers this year, but they came up very short, being swept in four games in the Western Conference final by the Colorado Avalanche. Swept, despite having what is widely seen as the two best players in the game, Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl.

One year ago, the Montreal Canadiens surprisingly reached the final, largely on the back of the goaltending of Carey Price.

The Canadiens were the last Canadian team to win the Cup, the 1993 Conn Smythe Trophy for the MVP of the playoffs going to goaltender Patrick Roy. He also won the Conn Smythe in 1986, the previous time Montreal won.

Since 1993, it has been fallow going for Canadian teams. The great dynasties of the Canadiens (1950s, 1970s), the Toronto Maple Leafs (1960s) and Edmonton Oilers (1980s) are now so far in the past that many of today’s fans have no recollection of how dominating those Canadian teams were in their time.

There was a period early in this century where Canadian teams reached the Stanley Cup final three times in a row – Calgary Flames in 2004, (no Cup in 2005), Edmonton Oilers in 2006, Ottawa Senators in 2007 – but all three teams ended up runners-up. The Vancouver Canucks lost to the Boston Bruins in 2011 and, of course, the Canadiens lost to Tampa Bay in 2021.

Goaltending takes the usual blame for coming up short, just as goaltending gets the usual credit for going all the way. Montreal’s Patrick Roy was the…