The Memorial Cup has a long and historic history in Canada and North American hockey. For better or for worse, every May the tournament decides the CHL champion. This always brings along heavy debate about the format, the length of the tournament, and the automatic host entry. There have been plenty of articles written about the format of the tournament, and just as many written with ideas on how to fix it, this, is not one of those articles.
I wanted to take a look at one of the big arguments about the tournament, the Host Entry. For those who don’t know, each Memorial cup (Since 1983) consists of four teams, The OHL, QMJHL, and WHL Champion, along with a Host team. The Host team is selected by a CHL committee from a series of bids put forth by teams who believe they have what it takes. It’s a massive undertaking and takes the whole community to be on board so these bids can become quite lengthy. Not only do the bids have to be submitted two to three years in advance of the tournament, selecting a host also happens within this same timeline. One of the major considerations when choosing a Memorial Cup host is team quality. How good will this team be? Will they be able to compete with the CHL’s elite? Will they get embarrassed? Due to the cyclical nature of the CHL, it’s never easy to predict these things, so I assumed, there must have been some bad choices. Some host teams the CHL wished they hadn’t chose.
This year’s tournament is being held in Regina. The Pats had a fantastic season last year finishing the season with 112 points. Unfortunately, they lost some key players from last year’s team which has led to their struggles so far this season. If projected from this day forward Regina would finish with a record of 36 wins 31 losses and 5 overtime losses (36-31-5-0) which is good for 77 PTS and would give them a 53.47% PT%. Not Great.
I decided to look at the tournament’s modern era (Starting in 1983, so keep that in mind). That is when the tournament took on the format we use today, and see where Regina would fit in. If Regina was to stay on the same pace they have set so far this year they would become the fourth worst team to host a Memorial Cup, and the second worst team to participate in the tournament (1990 – Seattle). We all know that there are a number of factors that go into the decision to award the Memorial Cup, but did the CHL err with the awarding to Regina? I don’t think so, the other factors, mainly the 100th anniversary of the tournament, overwrote the fact that Regina would have an average team this year. Here’s a question to ponder, should Regina be allowed to participate? We would probably have to wait for the playoffs to commence, but it’s a discussion worth having.
Some Host Team Stats
lowest ever PTS%: 1990 – Hamilton Dukes (21.21%) (They were not allowed to participate in the tournament)
Highest ever PTS%: 2005 – London Knights (88.23% )
Only 7 host teams have ever finished with less than 40 wins.
11 host teams have finished with greater than 100 PTS
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[a] In 1987, the OHL organized a Super Series for the right to host the Memorial Cup tournament between the Leyden Division champions Oshawa Generals, and the Emms Division champions North Bay Centennials. The super series was played before the OHL playoffs commenced. Oshawa defeated North Bay 4 games to 3 for the right to host the Memorial Cup. Oshawa also won the OHL championship series defeating North Bay 4 games to 3. Since Oshawa won both the Super Series and the OHL Championship, only three teams participated in the Memorial Cup.
[b] The Chicoutimi Saguenéens hosted the 1988 tournament at the Centre Georges-Vézina of Chicoutimi, but were not guaranteed a berth. They were eliminated in the playoffs so the QMJHL sent the Drummondville Voltigeurs, who finished as the championship runners-up, in their place.
[c] The Dukes of Hamilton hosted the 1990 tournament at Copps Coliseum. However, because of the team’s poor standing in the 1989–90 season, the team stepped aside for the OHL championship runners-up, the Kitchener Rangers.
[d] The Beauport Harfangs hosted the 1991 tournament, however were not guaranteed a berth. The Harfangs were eliminated in the playoffs. The QMJHL championship runners-up Drummondville Voltigeurs were awarded this berth. The Harfangs were based in Beauport, Quebec City, a suburb of Quebec City; however, the tournament was played in the Colisée Pepsi.
[e] The Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds won the right to host the 1993 Memorial Cup by defeating the Peterborough Petes 4 games to 0 in a Super Series, much like how Oshawa hosted in 1987. However, the Petes won the OHL championship, thus granting them a spot in the tournament.
