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The Edmonton Oilers are eight wins away from becoming the first Canadian team to win the Stanley Cup since the Canadiens in 1993.

That might have some Canadiens fans cheering for the Oilers — hoping they can bring the Cup back to Canada for the first time in 31 years. Others might be cheering against the Oilers, hoping the Canadiens remain the last Canadian team to hoist the Cup.

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If the Oilers can knock off the Dallas Stars in the Western Conference final, they will become the first Canadian team to reach the final since the Canadiens in 2021, when they lost to the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Canadiens ended a 10-year streak of no Canadian team in the final, going back to 2011 when the Vancouver Canucks lost to the Boston Bruins.

The Canadiens missed the playoffs for the third straight year this season. But over the last 15 years, they have won more playoff series than any other Canadian team with nine. The Canucks rank second with eight, followed by the Oilers with six. The Lightning lead the way with 20 playoff series wins over the last 15 years, followed by the Boston Bruins, Chicago Blackhawks and Pittsburgh Penguins with 17 each. The Toronto Maple Leafs have one playoff series win in the last 20 years.

The Canadiens hold the overall record for most playoff series wins with 96 — including a record 24 Stanley Cups.

Personally, I’d like to see Edmonton win the Cup and bring it back to Canada. The Oilers haven’t won the Cup since 1990 — two years after Wayne Gretzky was traded to the Los Angeles Kings — with Mark Messier as captain.

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The Oilers have been a tremendous turnaround story this season. They fired head coach Jay Woodcroft after getting off to a 3-9-1 start and brought in Kris Knoblauch, who had coached McDavid for three seasons in junior with the OHL’s Erie Otters. The Oilers went 46-18-5 with Knoblauch behind the bench in the regular season.

There are a couple of former Canadiens on the Oilers who Montreal fans might be cheering for — defenceman Brett Kulak and forward Corey Perry.

Kulak has become a solid third-pairing defenceman since the Oilers acquired him from the Canadiens two years ago at the NHL trade deadline in exchange for defenceman William Lagesson, a second-round pick at the 2022 draft and a seventh-round pick at this year’s draft. While Lagesson only played three games for the Canadiens, they used the second-round pick to select defenceman Lane Hutson, one of the team’s brightest young prospects.

The summer after acquiring Kulak, the Oilers signed him to a four-year, US$11-million contract with a modest salary-cap hit of US$2.75 million. The 30-year-old played all 82 games this season and posted 3-13-16 totals while averaging 15:23 of ice time. He has 1-3-4 totals in 12 playoff games.

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Perry is looking to advance to the Cup final for the fourth time in the last five years with a fourth different team. He made it with the Stars in 2020, the Canadiens in 2021 and the Lightning in 2022. The 39-year-old has won the Cup once in his 19-year career, back in 2007 with the Anaheim Ducks.

The Oilers signed Perry to a one-year, US$775,000 contract in January after his one-year, US$4-million contract with the Chicago Blackhawks was terminated in November because of “unacceptable conduct.” Perry later issued a statement apologizing for his conduct and said he had started to work with experts in mental health and substance abuse on his struggles with alcohol.

Jeff Gorton, the executive vice-president of hockey operations with the Canadiens, will be watching the Eastern Conference final between the New York Rangers and Florida Panthers very closely. Gorton was GM of the Rangers when they announced they were starting a rebuild in 2018.

“Listen, I look at that team and I’m pretty proud of what they’re doing today,” Gorton said about the Rangers in March, when he was a guest on The Sick Podcast with Jimmy Murphy and Pierre McGuire. “I still root for a lot of those guys. There’s not too many nights where we look at the scoresheet where I don’t see a lot of the names that are pretty familiar. It’s hard to root against them — except for a couple of times a year when we play them.”

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Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman shot down reports of Gorton possibly leaving Montreal for Columbus on his 32 Thoughts podcast last Friday, reporting the Canadiens would not grant permission for the Blue Jackets to speak with him about any job openings in their front office.

“There’s a lot of things that happened there that are happening now (with the Canadiens),” Gorton said about the Rangers on The Sick Podcast. “As you build a team, you’re trying to build a team and put people in these spots and see if it works. Having that and knowing some of the deals we made, some of the players we brought into New York and how it’s worked out and what kind of team they have it certainly gives me confidence going forward to know that we can handle it here in Montreal, too.”

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