The Montreal Canadiens of 1993 were the last Canadian team to win the Stanley Cup, which made a superstar of goaltender Patrick Roy, lying down at front left.Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press
Perhaps it is easier to think of as “The Curse of 33.”
This spring marks the 31st year since a Canadian team last won the Stanley Cup, a trophy donated in 1892 by Lord Stanley of Preston, sixth governor-general of Canada, to be presented to “the championship hockey club of the Dominion of Canada.”
Thirty-one years. In the equivalent time frame after the founding of the National Hockey League in late 1917 – no Cup was awarded in 1919 because of the Spanish Flu epidemic – Canadian teams won the Cup 19 times. There has to be a rational reason for this – or perhaps one not so rational at all.
The 1993 Cup was decided between the Montreal Canadiens and the Los Angeles Kings. It was the very first appearance in the final by the Kings, their newfound success tied in no small part to the on-ice presence of Wayne Gretzky, who had previously led the Edmonton Oilers – a Canadian team! – to four Stanley Cups.
For the Canadiens, of course, spring playoffs were as sure as city street potholes, that being the team’s 34th appearance in the Cup final. They had already hoisted the trophy 23 times.
It was considered a special year for Lord Stanley’s gift. The trophy had been first awarded 100 years earlier, on St. Patrick’s Day 1893, to the Montreal Amateur Athletic Association. For a Montreal team to win yet again on the centennial seemed only right.
Karma, but what of karma in the 31 years since?
Banners at Montreal’s Bell Centre pay tribute to the Canadiens’ 24 past Stanley Cup victories, the most of any team in the NHL.Richard Wolowicz/Getty Images
Montreal's rivals in 1993, the L.A. Kings, suffered a setback when referees measured Marty McSorley's stick, penalizing him because it was curved beyond the legal limit.John Biever/Sports Illustrated via Getty Images
The Canadiens won easily, taking the best-of-seven series from the Kings four games to one to claim the team’s 24th Stanley Cup.
The Kings’ collapse – Mr. Gretzky did not even get a shot on net in the final game – has long been tagged to a penalty Mr. Gretzky’s enforcer, Marty McSorley, took in Game 2 when he was found to be using an illegal stick.
“The Curse of Marty McSorely” is often named in U.S. lists of top-10 sports curses. Not nearly as high, of course, as “The Curse of the Bambino” (the Boston Red Sox sold Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees and didn’t win another championship for 86 years) or “The Curse of the Sports Illustrated Cover” (a common belief that appearing on the cover jinxes athletes). But Mr. McSorley’s stick gets mention.
Patrick Roy won the Conn Smythe Trophy for his role in the Canadiens' 1993 victory.Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press
A much better jinx might be the Montreal player wearing jersey No. 33. That would be goaltender Patrick Roy, who was so sensational in the 1993 series he was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player of the playoffs. It was Mr. Roy’s second Stanley Cup, and his 10 overtime victories in those playoffs are a record that may stand forever.
Less than two seasons later, on Dec. 2, 1995, Mr. Roy was again in goal for Montreal when coach Mario Tremblay “hung him out to dry” in an 11-1 loss to the Detroit Red Wings. Mr. Roy stormed off the ice and shouted to team president Ronald Corey that he had played his last game in Montreal. A few days later, Mr. Roy was sent to the Colorado Avalanche in a lopsided trade that ended up bringing two more Stanley Cup rings to Mr. Roy and setting in motion a quarter century of mediocrity during which the Canadiens wouldn’t reach the finals again until 2021 – which they lost.
“The Curse of 33″ would not necessarily be the only hockey hex. It has long been believed by players that should you touch the Cup before winning it you will never win it. Most players also refuse to touch the Presidents’ Trophy, awarded to the team that finishes first over all.
Blackhawks coach Pete Muldoon was the subject of a hockey curse legend that a Globe sportswriter, Jim Coleman, helped to propagate.George Rinhart/Corbis via Getty Images
There is also “The Curse of Muldoon,” which was said to have kept the Chicago Blackhawks from finishing in first place from 1927 to 1967. After a first-round flop in 1927, coach Pete Muldoon was fired by owner Frederic McLaughlin, who felt his team should have won everything. Revered Globe and Mail sportswriter Jim Coleman wrote in 1943 that Mr. Muldoon had responded with: “Fire me, Major, and you’ll never finish first. I’ll put a curse on this team that will hoodoo them until the end of time!”
Mr. Coleman later admitted he’d made up the story to fill space on a slow day, but it seemed to make sense to a lot of Chicago fans. Why not, then, “The Curse of 33″ to explain the Canadian shortcomings over the past three decades?
Hockey historian and author Eric Zweig of Owen Sound, Ont., admits to being “pretty much baffled” by the lack of Canadian Stanley Cup success, but he doesn’t buy into any jinx theory. Mr. Zweig has heard all the usual excuses – high taxes, cold weather, superior unrestricted free agents preferring to keep families out of the intense northern spotlight – but he thinks the reason might be simple mathematics. Canadian teams are now but seven of 32 in the overall league. Canadian teams won pretty much half the time up until 1993, and “now the numbers are more in line over the entire history of the league.”
All that negative thinking could change soon, however, as on Saturday the hockey playoffs will begin with an impressive four Canadian teams in the postseason: Vancouver Canucks, Edmonton Oilers, Winnipeg Jets and Toronto Maple Leafs. All four teams exceeded the 100-point mark, with Vancouver winning the Pacific Division. It has been, by any measure, a wonderful year in hockey for the country. Each of the four teams reaching the playoffs has a superstar by any league measure.
Toronto’s Auston Matthews’s 69 goals have forced even those who delight in mocking the Leafs (no Stanley Cup since 1967) to concede that the kid from the Arizona desert is now a magnificent two-way player on ice. Edmonton’s Connor McDavid has been regarded for some time now as the best player in the game, and on Monday joined Mr. Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, Bobby Orr and Nikita Kucherov, who reached his milestone on Wednesday, as the only players to record 100 assists in a season.
Vancouver captain Quinn Hughes is being mentioned as a potential Hart Trophy finalist as the league’s most-valuable player – a remarkable feat for a 24-year-old defenceman. And Winnipeg goaltender Connor Hellebuyck’s glittering 37-19-4 record has made the Jets the Cinderella story of the year in hockey.
Patrick Roy coaches the New York Islanders against their state rival, the Rangers.Brad Penner/USA TODAY Sports via Reuters
As for that other long-ago goaltender Patrick Roy, he is now coaching the New York Islanders, the team replacing its previous coach in late January after four consecutive losses and seemingly headed to missing the playoffs once again.
Since Mr. Roy went behind the bench – this time not to shout at team management – the Islanders have made a remarkable turnaround and on Monday clinched a playoff berth.
“The Curse of 33″ may have become “The Blessing of Patrick Roy.”
Hockey in Canada: More from The Globe and Mail
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