Today, the Toronto Maple Leafs fell 3-0 to the New Jersey Devils in Game 6 of the Conference semifinals. This makes it 33 years since they had won a Stanley Cup (they had won 11 Stanley Cups in its history, the last one in 1967). In addition, the loss of the Maple Leafs makes it a record 7th season that the Cup would be won by a team from the USA, since the Montreal Canadiens won it in 1993.

This is strange, as Canada is the birthplace of hockey, and due to the high cost of hockey franchises, more and more Canadian teams might have to close and move to the US. The Toronto Maple Leafs were Canada's best hope at the Stanley Cup this year. The irony is that the team's star, Mats Sundin, is a Swede.

This loss could well be the beginning of the end of Canadian hockey. All the top Canadian stars play for US clubs now. Canadian teams are just too poor to be able to afford the huge salaries that top players demand nowadays (see Alexei Yashin's holdout on the Ottawa Senators). Kinda sucks, doesn't it?