10 NHL fan bases tortured more than the Carolina Hurricanes’

The general structure of the NHL allows for some balance between all teams across the league. But, a few have issues pleasing their fans.

If you had to compile a list featuring the worst teams to be a fan of, there’s a few factors that are involved. It’s not just struggling to go far in the playoffs or not even making the playoffs in the first place. This type or ranking also involves things like repeatedly coming up short in clutch time, notoriously poor trades, and issues with the franchise itself. The Carolina Hurricanes have some issues with that.

For example, numerous hockey fans in cities without an NHL team buy into the idea that teams like the Canes, Arizona Coyotes, and Florida Panthers need to be moved to richer hockey hotbeds. There’s a long list of locations that do not have the privilege of playing host to an NHL franchise, like Raleigh does. Here’s some of the better locations in that group:

• Quebec City, Quebec
• Seattle, Washington
• Portland, Oregon
• Houston, Texas
• Hamilton, Ontario
• Toronto, Ontario (Addition to two teams)
• Kansas City, MO
• Milwaukee, WI
• Salt Lake City, UT

Of the teams favored for expansion, Salt Lake City and Milwaukee aren’t likely. But they’re both in solid sports cities that already support at least one successful professional team, despite the population issue, or lack thereof.

However, we could highlight the benefits and drawbacks of NHL expansion all day. The fact that Canes fans even have to worry about that signifies a huge struggle for the franchise and its supporters. Since 2009, the good times are a few, and the attendance at PNC Arena took a nose dive.

Overall, the Canes still have a Stanley Cup, in just a two decade long franchise history. And, they have a Stanley Cup Finals appearance and Eastern Conference Finals appearance, on separate occaision. In a growing city like Raleigh, commanding by population and business growth, the potential is there for this to be a fantastic organization to support once again.

Here’s the 10 NHL fan bases, of active teams, that would be more stressful to cheer for than the Carolina Hurricanes.

A common theme among teams on this list is going without a Stanley Cup for a long period of time. That’s where we can start off with a franchise like the St. Louis Blues. In just over 50 years of hockey in St. Louis, the Blues did not bring home a single Stanley Cup.

It’s not like the Blues have not found their successes of late. In the past six years, the Blues have two division titles, and playoff appearances in every season over that stretch of time. However, the first and second round exits are becoming routine for the Blues.

The 2017-18 season looks to be another solid regular season finish for the Blues. Led by star forward Vladimir Tarasenko and standout goalie Jake Allen, the Blues do have some room to grow still also.

A Stanley Cup Championship would erase the Blues from this list. The constant high expectations for the Blues and the expected playoff letdowns have to ware on the fan base. Funny enough, the Blues’ franchise started out with three straight Stanley Cup Finals defeats, in the late 60’s.

Unlike the Blues, the Minnesota Wild don’t have a long history of suffering without a Stanley Cup Finals win. But, the main difference between the Blues and the Wild is that Minnesota keeps getting their hopes up for seemingly no reason, dating back to the days with the Minnesota Northstars.

The rise of the Wild started back in the mid 2000’s with upstart forward Marian Gaborik leading the way for them to make the first Western Conference Finals appearance in franchise history. Minnesota dished out Gaborik just a few years to the New York Rangers, after Minnesota’s second playoff appearance

Moreover, the team that knocked out the Wild in their first playoff appearance, the Anaheim Ducks in 2003, actually knocked them out four years later. Anaheim would eventually win the 2007 Stanley Cup, over the Ottawa Senators, after getting past the Wild.

Much like the Blues, the Wild are still relevant in contention in the West. They have a ton of talent, but some of their best players are aging out of their prime. The clock is ticking before the Wild are going to have to start a rebuild. Hopefully for their fan base, they’ll bring home some hardware before that happens.

The Panthers have seen their fair share of success and young talent run through Sunrise in the past eight years. In fact, Florida even won their division twice, coming in 2011-12 and 2015-16. So Panthers fans had their cut of success during the regular season.

But, there’s been little success in the playoffs for the Panthers since the days of goalie John Vanbiesbrouck and superstar winger Pavel Bure. Vanbiesbrouck brought the Panthers to their only Stanley Cup Finals appearance, in 1996.

Ultimately, the Panthers wound up losing to another team making its first Stanley Cup Finals appearance, in the Colorado Avalanche. Most of the team’s fortunes have gone downhill since then. The rotating success of teams in the Southeast Division, and now the Atlantic Division, put some additional stress on the Panthers.

The biggest thing that likely stresses out the fans of both the Panthers and Yotes is the constant threat of relocation. That’s something that Florida and Arizona share with the Canes. Smaller fan bases and struggling times of few successes puts strain on the franchises’ relations with the rest of the league.

It’s possible that no team on this list has seen more recent regular season success than the Caps. However, that regular season success has yet to translate to any major runs in the postseason. Washington has three straight playoff appearances, with no appearances in the Eastern Conference Finals.

In each of the last two seasons, the Caps were eliminated by their bitter rival Pittsburgh Penguins in the second round. Before that, Washington fell short against another division rival in the Rangers, in what would start their current three year streak of losing in the Eastern Conference Semifinals.

Alex Ovechkin’s time, in the thick of his prime, is running out in D.C. He’s still an elite scorer in the league, but his best years are getting wasted away. Caps fans saw multiple Presidents’ Trophies resulting in early round exits in the playoffs.

Vezina Trophy winning goalie Braden Holtby needs to step up his game in the playoffs also. Holtby does not seem to show the same in the playoffs that he does during the regular season. This is yet another year where the Caps are leading the Metropolitan Division during the regulars season. We’ll see what happens.

The asterisk next to the last Stanley Cup won by the Sens is due to the fact that they’re not that same consecutive franchise that won so many championships in the early 1900’s. Since returning to Canada’s capitol city back in 1992, the Sens have come close so many times.

No Stanley Cups have made their way to Ottawa in what’s getting close to a full century. They’ve made multiple trips to the Eastern Conference Finals, and even one to the Stanley Cup Finals. In 2017, the Sens were barely knocked out by the Pens in the conference finals, in double overtime.

Ottawa has come close on so many occasions that the blood pressure of their diehard fans has got to be through the roof come playoff time. It’s easy to get caught up in the hype when you’re team makes a run to the conference finals, but the Sens take that with a grain of salt now.

This season has not gone well for Ottawa so far. In fact, the Sens just fell short to the Canes, at PNC Arena on Jan. 30. They need to pick up the pieces from the 2017-18 campaign and re-tool for the following NHL season.

The ups and downs the Buffalo Sabres have seen over the past two decades is nothing short of amazing. Their last Stanley Cup Finals berth came in 1999, with Hall-of-Fame goalie Dominik Hasek commanding the nets.

Since then, the Sabres had another Vezina Trophy winning goalie in Ryan Miller that nearly led them to a Stanley Cup. But, the Canes stood in the Sabres’ way during the 2006 NHL Playoffs, on their way to winning the franchise’s only championship.

At this moment, the Sabres are not at their best point in franchise history. The promising future of young superstar Jack Eichel gives hope that better times are just around the corner in Buffalo. For now, they need to find a goalie to provide the team with a reliable final source of defense in net.

This could be yet another last place finish in the East for Buffalo. They will battle the Sens for last place in both the Atlantic Division and the entire conference. One more high draft pick could be exactly what the Sabres need to finally contend again.

The only team on this list with multiple Stanley Cups, might have the most unfortunate turn of events since the 1970’s. Through quite a few runs far into the playoffs, the Flyers have constantly fallen short of reaching that ultimate prize to please their ravenous fan base.

Philly is in playoff contention in the Metro this season, sitting in a wildcard spot right now. Players like Shayne Gostisbehere, Jakub Voracek, and Claude Giroux are putting together a Flyers squad that is bouncing back in a big way this year.

Their most recent berth in the Stanley Cup Finals came in 2010, when the Flyers were defeated by the Blackhawks on an overtime goal from Patrick Kane, that sneaked by goalie Michael Leighton. The delayed reaction regarding Kane’s goal put a pin in the Flyers’ last championship hopes.

These Flyers do have the grit required to make a good run into the playoffs, but that also means making it through a tight Metro race in the finals months of the regular season. Philadelphia has seen so much playoff success in the past two decades. That is, until they reached the point where they were close to winning another Stanley Cup.

The San Jose Sharks have one Presidents Trophy, one Western Conference Championship, and six division titles since 2002. With all of those accolades, you would expect a Stanley Cup to be the result of at least a single one of those seasons.

The only Stanley Cup Finals appearance for the Sharks came back in 2016, where they were overmatched by a fast Pittsburgh team winning their first of two consecutive championships. San Jose came so close, and to no avail once again.

In total in franchise history, the Sharks have 12 seasons of making it at least as far as the conference semifinals. Only one of those 12 runs resulted in a berth in hockey’s final series of the season.

Most fans of any team in the NHL have to admire the consistency of the Sharks, nearly making the playoffs in all of their years as a franchise since 1991. However, it would be nice for them to reward their loyal fans that show up so well to the “Shark Tank” by winning their first Stanley Cup.

This is an obvious choice for the top spot among the most tortured fan bases in the NHL right now. The Vancouver Canucks have a strong fan base, despite what type of success they’re having. In their nearly 50 year history, the Canucks had some good stretches of positive times.

However, the 2011 Stanley Cup Finals, which resulted in a series defeat to Zdeno Chara and the Boston Bruins, is a microcosm of life as a Canucks fan. Vancouver has three berths in the Stanley Cup Finals, none of which they came up victorious.

These struggles in the Cup Finals put a lot of pressure on the front office to keep the success going. Vancouver’s overall level of talent and competitiveness saw a decline in the past few years. Henrik Sedin and Daniel Sedin are still part of the team, but they’re getting older and will soon retire.

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