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8. Toronto Raptors

Last league title: Not applicable

Claim to shame: Playoff résumé

For years, the Raptors served only to rattle Toronto’s already shaky sense of self worth, at least as it relates to the United States. High-profile players either avoided the city or escaped whenever possible. Tracy McGrady left. Vince Carter left. The team has made the playoffs only six times in 19 seasons, and it has won exactly one post-season series, that win coming 14 years ago. The Raptors would have gone farther that year, in 2001, had Carter not missed the winning shot at the buzzer in Game 7 in Philadelphia, a shot that clanked off the back of the rim hours after Carter attended his graduation ceremony at the University of North Carolina.

7. Vancouver Canucks

Last league title: Not applicable

Claim to shame: Chronic heartbreak

Perhaps no Canadian franchise breathes more life into an ancient cliché than the Canucks, who have thrice disproved Lord Tennyson’s claim it is “better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.” Canucks fans have been to the brink of ecstasy three times — appearing in the Stanley Cup final in 1982, 1994 and again in 2011 — only to have their hearts broken in new and painful ways. In 1994, Vancouver forward Nathan Lafayette hit the post in Game 7, and the Canucks lost by a goal. In 2011, Vancouver dropped Game 7 at home, triggering riots in the city.

6. Hamilton Tiger-Cats

Last league title: Grey Cup, 1999

Claim to shame: Chronic heartburn

A Hamilton team captured the Grey Cup at least once in every decade of the 20th century, a point of pride that has not carried into the 21st century. The Ticats stumbled through the first decade of the new millennium. In 2003, the franchise went bankrupt, with real fear it might have to fold. Even after the team was saved, it was only saved off the field with the deep pockets of a new owner (Bob Young). On the field, the Ticats put their fans through some long seasons of terrible football. And their renaissance, over the last two years, has featured some exquisite pain, with back-to-back losses in the Grey Cup.