NHL will have a new Stanley Cup champion this century as lengthy droughts take centre stage
No matter which team wins the Stanley Cup championship this year it will be a first this century.
The Dallas Stars won its lone championship in 1999, months before the world worried computers would malfunction at the start of a new millennium. The New York Rangers haven’t done it since their magical run in 1994 that ended a 54-year title drought.
The Edmonton Oilers have not done it since the last title of their dynasty in 1990, seven years before current star Connor McDavid was born. The Florida Panthers have never won the Cup since their inception in 1993, when hockey in the U.S. Sun Belt was just starting to become a reality.
“It’s something that these all markets are starving for,” said Mike Rupp, a NHL Network analyst whose three-point Game 7 performance in 2003 gave New Jersey its third championship. “I love seeing new blood in it.”