A well known face is good for the game. A non-robotic voice is good for the game. He isn't wooden, which is a good thing. Jeremy Roenick, Brett Hull and even Mike Milbury with their honest approaches are good for the game, refreshing even. I think it is that type of resentment about Cherry that has somehow kept him out of the Hall of Fame as a builder
That's 3 out of 6 but you sure don't use a very big sample size do you?
Since 1965 all but 5 of the Conn Smythe winners have been Canadian. Yeah, yeah, there wasn't Europeans in the NHL in 1965. Okay let's be fair and start it from 1990 then. 16 out of 21 since 1990 have been Canadian. Two Americans, a pair of Swedes and a Russian. That's about 80% since the European explosion. Not bad.
Just for the record too, this isn't to say that there haven't been some Europeans and the odd American who are great playoff performers. Of course not. But this does tie into the belief that there is an underlying level that Canadians can often reach. Call it tradition, call it something in our blood, I don't know but maybe its just the never-say-die attitude and never quitting until the whistle blows. Maybe its the more physical gritty game in the postseason but whatever it is I think there is a good reason why the Stanley Cup winners are so often littered with Canadian players.
Even post lockout:
Canes - lots of Canadians. Best players were Ward, Staal, Stillman and BrindAmour
Ducks - heavy, heavy Canadian prescence. Basically a Canadian team with Selanne and Pahlsson
Red Wings - heavy on the European talent, best players were non-Canadian
Penguins - heavy on the North American talent with Gonchar and Malkin as Russians
Hawks - Very high Canadian percentage
Bruins - Almost all the team was Canadian
Now these are recent examples and you know as well as I do the further we go back in the NHL the more Candian-central it gets. So we're talking about 4 Cup winning teams being almost exclusively Canadian. The other (Pens) had more Americans than usual and a couple of Euros and the other was the Red Wings a very Euro-laden team.
So I tdon't think its discriminating to suggest that when the chips are down a Canadian team has a better chance at finding a way to win. Ask the 2011 Canucks.
Ridiculous!
The Sedins were bad in the finals...and Lucic was invisible for them as well.
But the Sedins had a good playoff offensively, and Kesler was an animal playing on a messed up hip that needed to be surgically repaired to get the Canucks to the Final, and to a game 7.
And you know what? American Kesler shut down a Canadian Joe Thornton, Canadian Patrick Marleau, and Canadian Dan Boyle was pretty ineffective when the Canucks beat the Sharks in 5.
And who shut down the Sedins? An American and a European. Thomas and Chara were the best players for Boston.
Plus you have to consider SIGNIFICANCE. If the Canucks had won game 7 of the final, you can't say "they won with Tanner Glass, therefore every team needs a kid from Saskatchewan to win a cup." Tanner Glass played 2 minutes a night.
So the press box Canadian (likely because they represent over 60% of all NHL players) doesn't mean you need more Canadians to win.
20% of players in the NBA currently are from outside the U.S. Yet the teams that win are usually more than 20% American. So can we conclude that you need more Americans to win an NBA Championship? So how do you explain Nowitzki?
Actually, in last year's NBA finals, the Miami Heat and Dallas Mavericks had a combined total of 3 American-born white basketball players. So I guess if you got a white boy from the USA, you aren't going to win???
This is all xenophobic, nationalistic B.S. Let's face it, as Canadians, we don't really have a space program, we don't have an empire, we don't have any international significance politically, so the thought of us possibly NOT being the best at this one thing scares the crap out of us.
There is no scientific study that Canadians have something "in their blood." After all, Canadians are made up of different races. How is a kid who grows up in Vancouver more driven to win the Stanley Cup than a kid who grows up in Minnesota? I'm FROM Vancouver and I don't think that could be the case, nor could ever be proven.
Do you think Brazilians want the World Cup more? Do you think that British Born players in the English Premier League want the FA CUP more than the other Euros who play in that league? You think Mariano Rivera or the Puerto Rican Alex Rodriguez doesn't want the World Series as much as an American, because more Americans have won it? Do you think Steve Nash is not driven enough to win an NBA Champion, because being Canadian makes The Stanley Cup "in his blood"?? This is ridiculous.
The Stanley Cup, I hate to say this, is not sacred. Its a sports trophy. Winning a sports trophy means winning the playoffs. That's what it means in the KHL, the Swedish Elite League and the NHL. And usually, the team that is the best, that gels, and has some luck along the way will win. Nationality has NOTHING to do with it.
Corellation/Causation????
I could show you that more Americans=NBA Championships and More Canadians=Stanley Cup Championships too.
But to suggest it means that those players are more driven than other players of different nationalities? Show me one peer-reviewed scientific study that proves it please.