The Universal Cynic

Since 1994, only eight NHL teams have failed to make it to their respective conference finals. Would you like to guess the teams? Go ahead and put in your call to Liam Maguire. I'll wait.

Give in? Here they are:

Boston, Columbus, L.A., Nashville, Phoenix, Atlanta, the New York Islanders and...

Montreal.

Of course, the statistic becomes even harsher when you realize that Phoenix was awarded a team in 1996, Nashville joined in 1998, Atlanta arrived in 1999 and Columbus rounded out the group in 2000.

Now, how many Stanley Cups has Montreal won since 1982? Easy answer, right? Two. But how many times have the Canadiens won the conference finals in the same period? Three. Three times in 28 years. A team like Carolina, however, has been three times (and won twice) in just over a third of the time -- only eight years. Of course, Montreal fans would be quick to point out that they have but one Cup to show for it.

So what's the moral of this mathematical tale? Perhaps it's that Montreal might be effective if they get far enough into the playoffs -- but they can't seem to do it very often. Why don't we hear more about this? Just something to chew on, when you hear the national media bagging on other Canadian teams for their lack of postseason stamina.

More later.

Yes, Jordan Staal really did take the Cup to the Hoito. Bless his heart. For more on the Cup's adventures in Thunder Bay, check out this piece from the Chronicle Journal.









(Much thanks to reader Scott B. for the photos.)

What is Jim Rome's producer (and the man solely responsible for shutting Ottawa's print media out of Jim's studio*) doing holding the Stanley Cup? I don't know, and I'd like to...except that the Team 1200 has insisted on preempting the show in favour of blatantly redundant local talk for some time. We're hoping this isn't a sign of things to come -- and that the show will return (fingers crossed) on Monday.

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* If you missed it, here's the clip:


We had planned to follow Senators president Roy Mlakar to his 10 a.m. PST karma-collecting interview with the one and only Jim Rome. An early phone call to producer "Jay Stew" put the wheels in motion, but a return call from producer Travis Rogers (sic) 15 minutes later threw brakes on a deal we believed was as good as done.

At least CJOH sportscaster Terry Marcotte -- who doesn't fall under the Jungle's little- known and quite-curious rule of not allowing print journalists into the studio -- was able to spend some time in the company of their greatness.


Rule No. 1: Never believe a word Jason Stewart says;

Rule No. 2: Travis can be persuaded with a pan of fudge that's easily obtained from Chino Hills.

Of course, what would I know? It's only been 10 years.