AN ALL-CANADIAN DIVISION IN NHL WILL TREAT FANS TO HOCKEY MAGIC
In a world still fraught with uncertainty, and professional sports remaining secondary to personal health and safety, this could be the greatest compacted National Hockey League season in history.
If the NHL can somehow pull it off.
If they can get this right, make it work, avoid as many of the obvious COVID-19 pratfalls as possible, and store it in this country, with an all-canadian Division — this could be hockey for the ages.
The television networks have to be drooling over the possibility of showing two Canadian teams playing almost every night there is hockey to be shown. It could be the Maple Leafs vs. the Habs every Saturday night, and if not, then the Oilers vs. the Flames in a rekindled Battle of Alberta, or the Canucks vs. the Jets ... the possibilities aren't necessarily endless, but they are indeed intriguing.
A while back, in the pre-pandemic days, I had this conversation with a hockey friend who works in the NHL: Do you think we'll ever see Auston Matthews playing against Connor Mcdavid in a playoff series?
The only way it could happen with them wearing Leafs and Oilers sweaters, PRE-COVID-19, was in a Stanley Cup Final.
And considering the Leafs can't seem to win a playoff round and the Oilers have been about the same, what are the odds of that ever happening?
We never did get to see Wayne Gretzky match up against Mario Lemieux in a Cup Final and I still wish that had happened, but we did get Gretzky vs. Bryan Trottier twice and Gretzky vs. Raymond Bourque twice. And that was pretty great.
Now, we're going to get Matthews vs. Mcdavid and John Tavares vs. Leon Draisaitl nine or 10 times this coming season — more than that if Toronto and Edmonton somehow wind up in a playoff series.
Mcdavid, like Gretzky, grew up outside Toronto. Gretzky loved playing at Maple Leaf Gardens and adored playing against the Leafs. In five NHL seasons, Mcdavid has played just nine games against Toronto. But in those nine contests, he has scored five goals and set up 10 others: that's a 137-point pace against the Leafs, including a highlight reel goal that won't be forgotten.
Mark Scheifele grew up an hour and a half from Toronto. He played junior in Barrie. He's the best player on the Winnipeg Jets. He has only played 14 times in seven seasons against Toronto. Just 14 games. In those 14 games he has recorded 11 goals and eight assists. Numbers like that aren't coincidental.
The Leafs already have a builtin rivalry with Montreal, though it has been disconnected over the years as the teams have gone in different directions. That should change this season. This isn't the Original Six with Jean Beliveau matching up against Dave Keon, where the teams would play each other 14 times apiece each season, and again in the playoffs. You have to be over 60 in age to have any real memory of that. They were the only two Canadian teams then.
The story changes now. Fifty-plus years later, there are seven Canadian teams, and not much to distance the top six in the country while Ottawa rebuilds and retools and will soon be not far behind.
When last season ended early, Edmonton had 83 points, Toronto 81, and Winnipeg 80. Calgary and Vancouver were a point or two below the Jets, but ahead of them in percentage points.
It basically means there's little to choose from between the top five teams in Canada, and if the Canadiens' improvements are as apparent as they seem, four teams are going to make the playoffs, while two teams expected to make the playoffs will not.
“Who knows what's going to happen in Canada?” said Ray Ferraro, the leading hockey analyst in the game. “You can't predict this.”
Well you can, just not accurately, or with any conviction of being accurate.
Who's the best goalie in Canada? It's somewhere between Connor Hellebuyck, the reigning Vezina Trophy winner, and Carey Price, forever a candidate.
Not far behind them is Jacob Markstrom, who left Vancouver to sign with Calgary. Three at one level, and then it's a toss up. Is Freddie Andersen next best? How will Matt Murray fit in his first season in Ottawa? What does the kid, Thatcher Demko, do in Vancouver, and if he doesn't succeed, can Braden Holtby return to form with the Canucks?
Nothing definitive here. Just a full meal to chew on.
Who's the best coach in Canada?
I default instantly to Claude Julien, having won a Stanley Cup in Boston before leaving for Montreal, but one impressive aspect of both Julien and Paul Maurice in Winnipeg: They've changed over the years. They have grown. They've had to successfully alter deep-rooted beliefs and adjust to a changing game and forever-changing rosters.
They're on the short list of best coaches in Canada along with Travis Green of the Canucks, who might be the best of them all.
Where does Sheldon Keefe rank in all this? How can we know? He's never started a season in the NHL. He's never had his own training camp or his own roster. Soon, we'll find out where he ranks, or if he ranks. And it's the same with D.J. Smith in Ottawa, who enjoyed a very sound first season with a very thin team.
Dave Tippett in Edmonton has had some success, but it's seven years since he won a playoff round. And we can't know what to make of Geoff Ward, the Flames coach. Like Ferraro says, who knows what's going to happen?
Whatever it is, it's going to happen fast, after a short camp, maybe no exhibition games, and a lot of regular season games in not that many days. And as we've seen with Major League Baseball, the National Football League and certainly with NCAA football, there are going to be interruptions. There are going to be COVID challenges. There is going to be a need for flexibility. The 56-game season might not be 56 games long.
But if my understanding of the new format is correct, every game featuring Canadian teams will have them playing each other until one team is left to advance to the Final Four.
There won't be any of those Tuesday night games when Minnesota is in town and, really, who cares? The games are going to matter like they haven't before. The losing streaks are going to be more damaging than they have been in the past. And the stars across the country are at an elite level, the likes of which we have rarely known.
The Canucks have Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes and Bo Horvat and Brock Boeser. The Flames have Johnny Gaudreau and Matthew Tkachuk and Mark Giordano. The Oilers have Mcdavid and Draisaitl, the best player in the world and the reigning Hart Trophy winner. The Jets begin with Scheifele and captain Blake Wheeler and boast incredible depth up front with Patrik Laine, 38-goal scorer Kyle Connor and Nik Ehlers in front of Hellebuyck.
We know what the Leafs have in Matthews, Mitch Marner, Tavares, William Nylander and Morgan Rielly. And Montreal begins with Price, with the defence block of Shea Weber and Jeff Petry and the emergence of the kids, Nick Suzuki and Jesperi Kotkaniemi, up front.
And then we have the Sens, with Brady Tkachuk and Thomas Chabot and all those draft pick possibilities.
And everyone playing everyone just about every night of the week, sometimes two or three games in a row between teams. There will be a lot of games played and not a lot of practice time, which players will love and coaches will hate. Fans should eat it up.
“I remember playing in the Adams Division,” said Ferraro, who started as a Hartford Whaler. “In those days we played Boston, Buffalo, Montreal and Quebec eight times a year, and then played each other in the playoffs. Every game felt like a playoff game. The intensity was off the charts.”
Every division won't be as great or competitive as the Canadian division looks to be. A Western Division, for example, with Los Angeles, San Jose, Anaheim and Arizona isn't deep. But it's strong at the top, where Vegas has a great team and so does Colorado and probably Stanley Cup finalist Dallas, as well.
But try picking just four playoff teams in a division with Boston (100 points last season), Washington (90) Philadelphia (89), Pittsburgh (86) the pesky Islanders (80) and the emerging Rangers (79).
“This is going to be incredible and I think unpredictable,” said Ferraro.
A one-year experiment forced by a global pandemic. A one-year experiment built for Canadian hockey fans.