With Patrick Kane scoring the goal that nobody saw without the aid of video replay, 93.34% of the NHL media wrote their reports celebrating the victory of the Chicago Blackhawks as the 2010 Stanley Cup Champions. As for the other 6.66%, half of it were the Flyers media, obviously mopey over their cinderella team’s loss in one of the most confusing plays in hockey history. The other half? Yep, none other than Toronto. The article that most of our writers have been waiting years to write has finally arrived, that being that the Toronto Maple Leafs now have the longest Stanley Cup drought in NHL history.

Personally, I’ve never cared much for championship droughts, period, in any league. It’s a stretch grasp to pick on teams and their fanbases, to me. But considering we won’t hear the end of this until the Leafs win a cup (2246 is the latest projection), it might as well be addressed now. So here’s what I’m going to go through with this article.

I’m going to go through who exactly are the people doing the mocking. I’m going to go through how this drought looks in comparison to other teams. I’m going to go through a theory that states we might not actually be the team with the longest drought in the NHL, why people should embrace it rather than counter argue it, and more importantly, why we typically shouldn’t care. Lets get started.

Who’s Talking?

The Toronto Media – Our media has been known for years to sell us the doom and gloom stories, how everything is wrong with this franchise, and how its everyone’s fault, including the fans. And quite often, the most obvious thing you’ll see in these articles is a reminder that its been 43 years since the Leafs have lifted the Stanley Cup, just incase we forgot their article about it the day before. Why do they do it, though? Mostly because it sells.

Its a lot easier to get people to write articles that reflect the teams history as a continuation of the present. And as we know, the last half decade of Leafs history hasn’t exactly been gumdrops, lollipops, rainbows, and unicorns. Naturally, with this considered, its much easier to ride the coattails of problems in the past that weren’t a big deal previous.  When the team is good, they’ll talk about great parts of our history, how we’re one of the greatest franchises in the history of the league, how we have the best fans, how are legends are awesome, and all that Jazz. That’s what we saw pre-lockout – can you remember anywhere near as much negative history brought up at that point?

Regardless, this doesn’t make it acceptable to flood us all with constant negativity that you’ll pretend didn’t exist the second this team wins its first playoff game since 2004. Hearing it once in a while isn’t a big deal – having at least one major media writer go on a tirade daily is a bit irritating, though.

Fanbases of Divisional Rival and Canadian Teams – This is the bulk of it, writers aside. A (usually) friendly argument between a fan of the Leafs and one of a division rival or fellow Canadian team tends to lead to the easy jab when the debate gets tough (or even if it doesn’t) for the fan of the other team, and that’s simply uttering 1967. Granted, nobody really has an argument – every single team in the Northeast Division or of Canadian origin is in the longest championship drought in its history, with the Bruins, Sabres, and Canucks all about to hit 40 years themselves next year. The Habs drought may only be 17 years, but considering that their previous one was 7, and that in itself was a record, its significant to them. Hate them or not, the Senators completely squandered what had the potential to be a dynasty in the 2000′s,walking out of it with not one cup. Calgary and Edmonton haven’t won in over half of their franchises history, both recently going all the way to game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals. In reality, none of these fanbases should be particularly proud of what they’ve done in the past 20 years (well, 19 – the Oilers won the cup in 1990), and in some cases, beyond that.

For The Record (Yes, Another Article With A Freaking Chart)

Consider this chart when deciding just how big of a deal the Leafs drought supposedly is. 22 teams are in the longest droughts in their teams history. 13 teams (almost half the league) have never won once. 2 of those teams came in the year after the Leafs won, meaning 1968 was also their first year of failure in this streak. Just as a note, I know I’ll be jumped on for the Colorado one. I know that technically its not the longest drought in their history due to the Quebec Nordiques. But really, drought’s aren’t relevant to current owners, management, and players – they’re paid to look at the current year and nothing else. Droughts are relevant to fanbases, and Quebec’s history doesn’t involve Denver, hence 2002-present being the longest drought to them.

Furthermore, 7 teams either haven’t won a cup since the 70′s, or have been around that long yet haven’t won once. When does 40 years become no big deal, but 43 is the most important thing ever by anyone? Its a bit odd. Point being – 22 fanbases are the hungriest they’ve ever been. The Leafs being 5% of that isn’t that big of a deal.

Do the Leafs Even Have The Longest Drought?

Look, I’m never going to use this theory in an actual argument, because in the end, I don’t care enough to grasp at straws. But some of you do. So here’s what just clicked into my head today – the Leafs weren’t the team with the 2nd longest drought, and aren’t the new #1. They were 4th, and now 3rd. How does this work?

For technicalities sake, a Stanley Cup Champion team are considered the cup champions until the next team wins it. For example, the Pittsburgh Penguins were still the cup champions on Tuesday, and for most of Wednesday until Kane’s goal went in. By this logic, the Leafs were the Stanley Cup Champions until April 1968, after the first games played by the Los Angeles Kings and St. Louis Blues, who still haven’t won the greatest prize in hockey. In terms of years of non-victory, the teams are equal. Make it in terms of days since they were not the cup champions, and the Leafs sit in 3rd.

Does it Even Matter?

If it matters to you, it sure as hell shouldn’t. In all honesty, championship droughts are entirely something that exists in people’s minds so they can argue which team is better amongst each other. The only thing that should matter to anyone is recent history. To me, the Chicago Blackhawks weren’t a team who have been waiting 49 years for a Stanley Cup – they were a team on the upswing going for a cup in their second year of competitiveness after a rebuild. Much like the Leafs are a team that have had desperate issues the last few years but are heading in the right direction, instead of a team that has been waiting 43 years.

Putting this into perspective – there are very few pro hockey players left that were born before the Leafs won the cup. The average player on the Leafs wasn’t born until the drought was at least 15 years in, many closer to 20, and as much as 24. The past is complete irrelevant in the big scheme of whats going on right now, and is merely an ego stroke for fans who like to trash talk, and reporters who like to report on the bad stuff. And if you must care – embrace it. The Leafs last won the cup with one of the most legend stacked rosters, in one of the most historic years in league history. It may be a long time, but it was a hell of a year to have the drought start at. I’d much rather have beaten the Canadiens in a thriller in the 50th year of the NHL with a team filled to the brim with Hall of Fame talent, than won the next year with much of that core retired, against a weak first year St. Louis only in because Expansion teams were another conference.

In the end though, it really doesn’t matter. Its just a number. It means nothing to the team now, and all the talk about how long its been since we’ve accomplished something while the Hawks actually do accomplish something in a fantastic way is just ridiculous. And that’s without considering the argument is weak anyway. But that’s just my opinion.