Not with Aqua. No one worth a damn will want to work for him, and he will never let a real rebuild happen when needed. Our best bet is if he lucks into someone else that can turn the core into a contending team, and stays the f*** away from making decisions.
I was born 11 days after the Stanley Cup Final in 1994, so hopefully there will be a cup in my lifetime.
One thing to look at is the 2009 to 2012 playoffs.
During those seasons, we had the most consistently dominant squad in team history. Two bona fide #1 goalies, one a furure HHoFer. Another pair of HHoFer's on the first line.
Watch those playoff series. Going up against Chicago, going up against LAK while Quick was in god mode. Did you know Quick put up a .946 in 2012
despite letting in a goal from centre ice? The only other goalie to do that over more than 10 playoff games? Giguere in - you guessed it - 2003.
Getting to the Cup Final is hard.
Getting a
win in the Cup Final is even harder.
Getting
3 wins in the Cup Final is exponentially harder.
Getting that 4th win is monumentally harder.
Each decade, another team or two is added to the league. Each decade, it gets incrementally more difficult.
EDM got Gretzky. The best player to ever lace up skates.
They got McDavid.
PIT got Lemieux, quite possibly as good as, maybe even better than Gretzky but for serious, serious health issues. And Jagr.
They got Crosby.
When we got Linden, Dallas got Modano. Yeah we spanked them in 'the second round of 94, but they took home the Cup in '99 when we were trying to forget Keenan existed.
Take a look at those COL and DET teams of the '90's, and then look at our current lineup, and try not to shed a waterfall of tears. We're not at sea level, looking up at Everest so high that we have a crick in our neck - we are at the bottom of the Marianas Trench.
Speaking of the Marianas Trench, Aquilini opened Pandora's box when he hired Benning, and promptly slammed is shut, chained it, threw away the key, and dropped the box in the middle of the ocean, while that last voice trapped inside pleaded "
Let me out, let me out" as it sank to the depths.
So yeah, there's hope. We just need the James Cameron of GM's.