For over 30 years, the winner of the National Hockey League’s top prize has gone to an American team. It’s a sorry legacy for a country where ice hockey is not just a sport, but part of the national identity. About 40% of players in the NHL, across all teams, are Canadian - more than any other country.

Last year, the Oilers flopped during the final game of the seven-game series against the Florida Panthers.

It’s a sore point for many Canadians that the league’s most die-hard fans have gone so long without a trophy, and yet remain willing to spend big money and travel big distances to support their team.

  • three@lemmy.zip
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    5 days ago

    It’ll stay this way until Gary is gone and players stop getting tax breaks to play in the states.

    • BigDiction@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      Curious what people think is good a solution to this. For example should teams in Alberta get a higher cap, or discounted cap hits for contracts?

      Should that also apply to teams in California vs Florida and Texas that don’t have state income tax?

      • Hadouken Shoryuken@feddit.nl
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        3 days ago

        I wonder if after tax purely based on their NHL contract (so without their personal investment or moonlight job) will work.

  • pimento64@sopuli.xyz
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    4 days ago

    Have they tried playing defense with even so much as pretense of giving a shit about keeping the puck out of their net, at all? I didn’t see it from the Oilers.

    Also, who are these Canadians for whom this is a sore point, outside Edmonton? Fans of every other Canadian NHL team are on cloud 9 right now gloating over the Oilers’ humiliation. This is a team that theirs compete against, they are going to get fuck all out of watching that team win instead of theirs, and nationality is 1,000% meaningless. To give a shit about this, you need to either be a quasi-fan of the game of hockey but not any particular team, or a hack reporter who certainly isn’t going to come up with real analysis and has to pinch off a drama turd instead.

  • Auli
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    4 days ago

    Eh hockey is becoming and well become less dominate in Canadian culture. It is getting to expensive to play both financially and time wise and as less people grow up playing it less well care about the NHL.