Question about Memorial Cup

[OutOfTheCube]

What happens in the Memorial Cup if the host city also happens to be league champions? It seems very likely to happen this year, with London hosting the Mem. Don't they need four teams to do the format correctly?

[showtime]

the runnerup in the OHL would go i believe

[ratech]

That is right and it happens quite often actually. The location of the Memorial Cup is predetermined the year before based on the prediction that the host team will be league champions of their repective league.

[Maritime Q-Scout]

Originally posted by ratech@Feb 17 2005, 12:39 PM
That is right and it happens quite often actually. The location of the Memorial Cup is predetermined the year before based on the prediction that the host team will be league champions of their repective league.

I wouldn't say it happens often... last time it happened was 1997 if I'm not mistaken when Shawinigan was the QMJHL rep, despite losing to the Olympiques in the Q league finals.

(of note, former Flame, and future Conn Smythe Trophy winner JS Gigeure lost in 7 games in the semis to Shawinigan, in what went down in Halifax folklore as "one game from the Memorial Cup" then they hosted 3 years later, and 3 years after that lost to Hull in 7 of the finals)

[Sylvanfan]

Yeah the 95 Blazers won the WHL Championship and were hosting the Memorial cup that year. Mind you the Blazers have been one of the most pathetic franchises in junior hockey ever since that. The runner up team assumes the role of host team as the host team is given the most difficult schedule in the tourney. The host team winning their respective league championship happened like 3 times in 4 years in the 90's but hasn't occurred in awhile now. Still London looks like a pretty safe bet to be OHL Champs this year.