Music: {allcanada} Canucks can end Canada's cold spell with Stanley Cup win

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When the Montreal Canadiens won 10 overtime games to capture the 1993 Stanley Cup, coach Jacques Demers believed he was continuing a tradition, not staking the end of a successful era for Canada's NHL franchises.

"I never thought that the Canadiens would go 18 years without a Cup, (let alone) come close to thinking a team in Canada would take 18 years to have a shot at winning the Cup," Demers said.

From 1976 to 1993, Canadian teams won the Stanley Cup 12 times, including seven in a row from 1984 to 1990. Sixteen Canadian teams reached the Final, and there were all-Canadian finals in 1986 and 1989. Since then, only four Canadian teams have reached the championship series — none from 1995 to 2003 — before this year, and they all lost. Adding to Canada's woes: Teams in Quebec and Winnipeg moved to U.S. cities in the mid-1990s.

Tuesday, Winnipeggers rejoiced about the announcement that the Atlanta Thrashers will move there to give Canada a seventh franchise. And tonight, the top-seeded Vancouver Canucks start their bid to end the country's title drought when they host the Boston Bruins in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final.

"There will be electricity in Vancouver that is felt throughout Canada," said Bob McKenzie, an analyst for TSN, which is Canada's equivalent of ESPN.

With the city of Vancouver 15 months removed from seeing Canada capture the Olympic gold medal in the Canucks' home arena, local fans would appear to have an expectation of greatness.

"We're feeding off the emotion and passion of the city," defenseman Kevin Bieksa (FSY) said. "To see people crying when they come up to you just because we are going to the finals, we are definitely impacting the community."

The Canucks seem to be a clear favorite. They led the NHL in regular-season points (117), goals (262) and road wins (27), and gave up the fewest goals (185).

Vancouver forward Raffi Torres (FSY) said the excitement level in the city started slowly, but then became overwhelming after the Canucks took a 3-1 series lead by winning Game 4 of the Western Conference finals in San Jose.

"When we flew back later that Sunday, there were probably 5,000 people at the airport," Torres said. "That's when we knew, 'OK, it's going to be nuts.' "

The Canucks' Roberto Luongo (FSY) was Canada's gold medal-winning goalie in 2010 and has experience in not becoming distracted by the city's festival atmosphere.

"I'm barricaded in my place right now, triple locks," Luongo joked. "I haven't been out much."

This is a very confident team, seemingly taking on the personality of captain Henrik Sedin (FSY) , who is even-tempered and workmanlike in his approach. He doesn't say much until there is a need for something to be said, like earlier in the season when he called a players-only meeting after a 7-1 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks. That seemed to launch the team to the top of the NHL standings.

"Before that, we didn't play bad, but we were winning games because we had a great team, and that's not the way you want to win," Sedin said. "You want to win by the way you play and feel good about yourself after every win, and I don't think we did that. Sometimes you need a big loss to really understand it's just not good enough."

Although proud of their Swedish heritage, twins Henrik and Daniel Sedin (FSY) have lived in Canada for most of their adult life. They moved to Vancouver to play with the Canucks just before their 20th birthday.

" 'Vancouver-ized,' you can say that," Henrik said. "This is home for us. We pretty much grew up here. … Ninety percent of our time we spend here. We have friends here. We had our kids here; they're Canadians."

'We're the Mecca of hockey'

The title drought is a significant issue in a country with 30 million people that always has had hockey intertwined in its culture and heritage. Five of the six Canadian franchises sold every seat of every home game this season, and the Ottawa Senators sold 99.3% of their seats. Four out of five Canadians watched some portion of the televised gold medal game between Canada and the USA.

"We're the Mecca of hockey," Demers said. "The United States has basketball, baseball and football."

The NHL had eight Canadian franchises when the Canadiens won in 1993, but in 1995, the Quebec Nordiques moved to Denver and won a Stanley Cup in their first season as the Colorado Avalanche. In 1996, the Winnipeg Jets moved and became the Phoenix Coyotes.

The reasons behind those franchises' departures played a role in Canada's title drought. The poor value of the Canadian dollar, compared to the U.S. dollar, hurt teams because their revenues were in Canadian dollars but they paid players in U.S. money.

"There was a time you couldn't build a hockey team in Canada and hope to keep your better players," Demers said. "A $10 million player became a $14 million (in Canadian money)."

The best illustration of that issue came when the Canadiens were bought by an American, George Gillett, in 2001.

A salary cap and revenue sharing plan was put in place in 2005 to help smaller markets compete. The Canadiens were sold again in 2009, to Canada's Molson company, and today a U.S. dollar is worth about 98 cents Canadian.

Having a team in the Final makes the series a better story for Canadians. But not all of the rooting interest in Canada will be along nationalistic terms.

"I would not say the Canucks are perceived as Canada's team," McKenzie said. "Their best players are two Swedes (the Sedins) and an American (Ryan Kesler (FSY) ). In Canada, the Vancouver psyche or mind-set is that they're a little bit cut off from the rest of the country (other side of the mountains), and they often cite 'Eastern bias' for a lot of (issues), so now that they're in the Final, I don't have the sense a lot of Canadians east of British Columbia have any warm feelings for the Canucks."

Boston is an Original Six team and some older Canadians are Bruins fans, dating to the days when 99% of NHL players were from Canada.

Said Canucks player Tanner Glass (FSY) , a native of Saskatchewan: "When I was watching the Habs (Canadiens) in '93 and the Oilers and Flames in the 2000s, I was 100% behind them, so I feel like we should be Canada's team. Whether we are or not makes no difference to us. We're focused on beating the Bruins."

Breaks going Canucks' way

The Canucks have a significant advantage on special teams and on offensive firepower, but the Bruins have a wild card in Tim Thomas (FSY) , a finalist for the league's award for top goaltender.

"They have a mix of everything — scoring, grit. ...We've got to be prepared to work real hard and play hard against them because they don't give you any easy opportunities," said Nathan Horton (FSY) , who scored Game 7 clinching goals for the Bruins in the conference semifinals and finals.

In Vancouver, there is a sense that it is time for the breaks to go the Canucks' way, such as this week when it was announced that key faceoff man and role player Manny Malhotra (FSY) had recovered enough from a March 16 injury — a puck hit his left eye — to play. He missed practice Monday and is day-to-day.

"You get the bounces because you've been doing things right for a long time," Canucks coach Alain Vigneault said. "I believe that Vancouver is due for 40 years of good bounces."

Canada's Cup quest

Canadian team representation in the Stanley Cup Final from 1976-1993:

Year	Winner	Runner-up

1976	Montreal	Philadelphia

1977	Montreal	Boston

1978	Montreal	N.Y. Rangers

1979	Montreal	Boston

1982	N.Y. Islanders	Vancouver

1983	N.Y. Islanders	Edmonton

1984	Edmonton	N.Y. Islanders

1985	Edmonton	Philadelphia

1986	Montreal	Calgary

1987	Edmonton	Philadelphia

1988	Edmonton	Boston

1989	Calgary	Montreal

1990	Edmonton	Boston

1993	Montreal	Los Angeles

Total	12	4

Canadian team representation in the Stanley Cup Final from 1994-2010:

Year	Winner	Runner-up

1994	N.Y. Rangers	Vancouver

2004	Tampa Bay	Calgary

2006	Carolina	Edmonton

2007	Anaheim	Ottawa

Total	0	4