With the field officially set for the Conference Finals, none of the four remaining teams have won a 21st Century Stanley Cup
With the field officially set for the Conference Finals, none of the four remaining teams have won a 21st Century Stanley Cup
Last night in Vancouver, the Edmonton Oilers clinched the final of the four spots in the NHL's Conference Finals. Edmonton will take on the Dallas Stars out West, while the Florida Panthers and New York Rangers vie for the league's Eastern crown.
The last decade plus of NHL hockey has tended more toward the dynastic (i.e. a surplus of repeat, if not necessarily consecutive, champions) than any of the other three major American sports. While this year's field has plenty going for it by way of traditional powers, it also assures that we will have a team win its first Stanley Cup of the 21st century.
Dallas was the most recent of these four teams to capture the Cup, and that came back in 1999, the franchise's only trip atop the sport's mountaintop. Meanwhile, the Oilers are five-time Stanley Cup champions, but the most recent was the Gretzky-less triumph in 1990.
On the Eastern front, the Rangers famously won in 1994 (another Mark Messier-driven vehicle). It was their crown, but the next most recent infamously came back in 1940. Meanwhile, the Florida Panthers (who arrived in the league in 1993) have appeared in two Stanley Cup Finals (1996 and last year) but lost both.
The remaining field may not be the first choice of the league's television partners, but for hockey fans, it's a unique combination of tradition and fresh blood, with the promise of a cathartic championship for a starving fan base.
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