SEATTLE — Now the real fun, or agony depending on one's outlook, begins for fans north of the Canadian border when it comes to the Stanley Cup Playoffs and national pride.

The Edmonton Oilers, who ousted Vancouver in Game 7 on Monday night, will try to become the first Canadian-based team to win the Cup since Montreal did it 31 years ago. That's one plotline for local fans to follow as they await a Kraken coaching hire that became a little clearer after Carolina was eliminated last week and promptly re-signed Rod Brind'Amour to an extension. Boston getting ousted as well also leaves assistant coach Joe Sacco out there for interviews should the Kraken seek permission from the Bruins.

The conference showdowns feature the New York Rangers and Florida Panthers in the East along with the Oilers and Dallas Stars in the West. Dallas won its only Cup in 1999, while the Rangers last won in 1994 and the Oilers in 1990. Florida is 0-2 in finals appearances from last season and 1996.

Another drought looming large, given the NHL's vast Canadian influence, is the lack of a Cup for teams north of the border since Montreal defeated Los Angeles in the 1993 final. And believe me, you'll hear a lot more about that in coming days because it actually matters to millions of people who love hockey.

I was a crime reporter standing outside the Montreal Forum that 1993 night preparing to cover the inevitable and destructive riot that broke out within seconds of the Canadiens capturing their record 24th title.

My riot coverage story made the now-somewhat-iconic front page of the Montreal Gazette on June 10, 1993, to the left of a photo of Canadiens goalie Patrick Roy hoisting the Cup aloft along with an accompanying main story and a column by future Sports Illustrated senior writer Michael Farber. No one back then suspected Canada's title drought to come.

But hockey has changed plenty since and no major professional North American league has felt the impact of globalization quite like the NHL.

By the mid-1970s, the NHL had maxed out at 18 teams and was comprised of roughly 95% Canadian players. But that was before the 1980 Team USA "Miracle on Ice" gold medal victory at the Lake Placid Winter Olympics turned Americans onto hockey in greater numbers. And before the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991 opened NHL floodgates to Russians and more Europeans.

By the last decade, Canadians comprised only half of all NHL players. This season, they formed just 41.7% which may explain where Canadian angst about Cup team geography comes from.

Mind you, Canada still has the most NHL players. The U.S. is a distant second at 29.1% while third-place Sweden has 9.1%. Canada still enters most international tournaments as the consensus favorite and its current entry at the IIHF World Hockey Championships in Prague — bolstered by Kraken players Jared McCann, Jamie Oleksiak and Brandon Tanev — remains undefeated through seven games.

So, some Canadian angst is overblown. That a nation of just 39 million people continues to do so well in hockey is in itself worthy of praise. But in a healthy, globalized sport, it will never be what it once was.

On top of that, so many additional players helped the NHL expand to 32 teams. With only seven teams from Canada, well, Cup odds take a hit. Back before full-on free agency and salary caps, good Canadian-based teams could keep contending cores together longer. Now, it's largely just a numbers game of hoping to win out during that brief window your odds hit.

Since Montreal's win in 1993, we've seen Canadian teams reach the final six more times — a once-every-five-years rate roughly mirroring their current seven-of-32 composition within the league. They just haven't prevailed in those championship series.

And it's all got me wondering: Does it even matter anymore if a Canadian-based team wins a Cup in a globalized league? Does team geography have anything to do with a nation's hockey prowess?

Had Vancouver beaten Edmonton on Monday, "Canada's hope" would now be a Canucks team that dressed only two Canadian-born players on its Game seven 20-man roster. The Canucks used eight Americans and dressed as many Latvian players as Canadians.

Had Vancouver advanced, it would have made more sense for Canadian fans to cheer for Dallas this round. Half of the Stars' 20-man roster hails from Canada.

Sure, the Oilers team now facing Dallas has a whopping 16 Canadians among their 20 players. But given what I've just shown with Vancouver, the Oilers' lineup feels more luck of the draw than serious commentary about national ability.

Former Montreal colleague Farber suggested in a contributor piece for Sports Illustrated several months back that hockey was becoming an American game. And small wonder, given this country of 333 million people boasts a pipeline from the junior-level United States Hockey League to the NCAA along with an elite National Team Development Program that offers alternatives to Canadian-based major junior ranks that once monopolized NHL entry.

Similarly, the mass arrival of NHL players from beyond North America has seen them return to their countries to bolster amateur and pro feeder systems there.

Hockey is truly going global. And that's the best compliment anybody can pay Canada's game.

Now retired Sports Illustrated great Farber was an American who arrived in Montreal for a columnist's job in 1979 and remains there as a recently minted Canadian citizen. His writing has done more than almost anyone's to help sell hockey on both sides of the border.

When I write about the Kraken, I hope to generate similar enthusiasm locally about my birth country's sport.

That iconic Gazette front page from Montreal's win 31 years ago? The newspaper even sold thousands of T-shirts with the cover reproduced on its front. Last I checked Tuesday morning, you can still buy the shirt for $65 CDN on eBay. And oh yes, I still get a kick out of seeing it.

But that's as far as any lingering pride goes. And if our newspaper ever has cause to produce a similar Kraken championship keepsake, this Canadian would gladly — and proudly — add it to the personal collection.

More on Kraken coaching search

While Sacco is out there for the Kraken, Todd McLellan has already interviewed, with Dean Evason and Gerard Gallant, also out there, as available ex-coaches as well as internal options in Kraken assistant Jay Leach and AHL bench boss Dan Bylsma.

I don't see the Kraken hiring an untested college coach, given the franchise's urgency to turn things around, so we'll see.

My guess is the earliest we hear something is once the conference finals are done.

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