Competition should be intense in short season

The lists are seemingly endless.

Who are the top 10 players in Canada? Who are the best goalies? Best centres? Best defencemen and wingers? Who has the edge when it comes to coaching?

With the NHL lumping all the Canadian teams together in a North Division this year, everyone with an opinion has spent the past few weeks ranking — and furiously debating — who the top four teams are in the country. Is Toronto ahead of Montreal? Is Edmonton better than Calgary? Where would you slot Vancouver and Winnipeg? Is Ottawa even worth mentioning?

No matter which clubs you put first and last, the answers all lead to the same conclusion: qualifying for the playoffs has never been more difficult for the seven Canadian teams.

Then again, it's not like the Pittsburgh Penguins have it any easier.

Think qualifying in the top four in a division that includes Calgary, Edmonton, Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver and Winnipeg is going to be a challenge? Try beating out Boston, Buffalo, Philadelphia, Washington, and the New York Islanders and Rangers in the renamed East Division.

“Certainly, the teams in the East are all rival teams that ended up being together,” Penguins GM Jim Rutherford told Postmedia News in a phone interview Monday. “It's a unique year. We're doing what we have to do. I don't think there's much point in breaking this down into what teams we'd like to see match up against each other. It will be really good. A lot of intense games. It will be great for the fans.”

Indeed, getting eight games of Sid versus Ovie could be just as entertaining as watching Connor Mcdavid versus Auston Matthews battle it out 10 times this year. But the real entertainment could come from watching the standings on a daily basis.

Are the Bruins, who could be without Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak for the beginning of the season, still the team to beat? Where would you slot Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and the New York Islanders? How about a Capitals team that lost goalie Brayden Holtby and then his replacement in Henrik Lundqvist? Could we see a shift in the balance of power now that the Rangers have No. 1 pick Alexis Lafreniere and the Sabres have Taylor Hall and Eric Staal?

“It's not supposed to be easy,” said Rutherford. “This is a majorleague sport. There's parity. There's a lot of it in the league. Going back to the last couple of years, there aren't any easy games. In a shortened season, it makes it that much tougher.”

With only 56 games on the schedule, you better come ready to play — especially with a potential four-point swing in the standings on the line every night.