BURR-RIGHT HOPES
Senators’ series win symbolizes the rising fortunes of Canada’s NHL teams
Idle question: Is there any chance golf season will start before Canada Day? While we’re waiting for an answer, here are the always sunny musings and meditations on the world of sports.
When it first started, the streak seemed like an anomaly which would be corrected over time.
You had seven Canadian-based teams in the NHL — at least you did for most of the time in question. Each year they had as good a chance as any to win the Stanley Cup. At some point, it figured the great cosmic roulette wheel would spit out one of their numbers and we’d all have a laugh over the drought.
The problem is, it’s been 24 years since the Montreal Canadiens won the Stanley Cup and it’s just not that funny any more. We’ve seen championships in places like Carolina, Tampa and Anaheim, where the game is little more than an afterthought. We’ve seen cruel near-misses in places like Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and Ottawa where they would sell their soul for a parade.
Somewhere in all that time it became personal, especially last season when there wasn’t a Canadian team in the Stanley Cup tournament. Not one. Un-frickin’-believable. In hindsight, 2015-16 also seemed to mark the point in which this story changed, and while it’s likely the drought will continue this year, you can feel it coming to an end.
It isn’t the five Canadian teams that qualified for the playoffs — though that’s not a bad place to start — or the two teams that have qualified for the second round. It’s the look and feel around those seven franchises these days — well, six of them, anyways.
Edmonton, with mega-star Connor McDavid, seems to have arrived a couple of years early. Toronto has assembled the core of a championship team. Ottawa isn’t as sexy but, top to bottom, it might be the deepest team of the bunch. Montreal is still formidable. Calgary and Winnipeg are trending the right way.
That leaves the Canucks and you know their situation. But that’s our burden to carry.
For the rest of Canada there is hope and promise and that means something because we know the Stanley Cup means something a little more in our country.
That said, are we ready for a Cup in Nashville? Based on the first round, they might be the team ready to take a deep run this post-season. They can play fast. They can play heavy. They have depth throughout their lineup — P.K. Subban is their third-best defenceman and they had 12 players in double digits in goals this season. And they have the goalie in Pekka Rinne.
They also dominated the Blackhawks in the first round, which just isn’t supposed to happen. Things can change in a hurry in the playoffs but the Preds aren’t a first-round fluke. They’re the real deal.
Massive props to Alex Burrows for making it to the second round with the Sens. Burrows had just one assist in the series win over Boston but he was a presence.
Also thought Jannik Hansen would have more of an impact with the Sharks in the playoffs but San Jose lost their series to Edmonton in Game 5 when they tried to nurse a one-goal lead through the third period. At that point, they stopped pressing the issue and played like they were killing a 20-minute penalty. The Oil’s Oscar Klefbom inevitably tied the game with under three minutes to play in the third and the Sharks never recovered.
Spent a couple of days poking around the Nikita Tryamkin story and came to this conclusion. The rift between the player and the organization is not irreparable. Wouldn’t say it’s an absolute lock, but the sense here is he’ll be back in Vancouver at some point.
The Minnesota Twins’ Byron Buxton, who was once considered the best prospect in baseball, got a hit on Saturday to lift his average over .100 on the season. If the significance of this development escapes you, it’s because you didn’t pay $20 for him in your rotisserie league.
And finally, for a quick lesson on the importance of the centre-ice position, take a look at the Pittsburgh Penguins’ playoff roster.
Their top three scorers are Evgeni Malkin, Phil Kessel — yes, I know he’s not a centre — and Sidney Crosby. Beyond that, there’s someone named Jake Guentzel with five goals and the immortal Bryan Rust with four. Read further down and you see names like Tom Kuhnhackl, Conor Sheary and Scott Wilson, who all play a regular role with the Pens and the average hockey fan couldn’t pick out of a police lineup.
The point is, when you have elite centres, you can find wingers. OK, not everyone has Crosby and Malkin, but think of the best teams in NHL history and they all had that one-two punch down the middle.
At the risk of stating the obvious, this highlights the Canucks’ greatest need at this summer’s draft. At this stage of his career, Bo Horvat is a decent No. 2 centre but someone is needed to complement him.
They pick the right player — Nolan Patrick and Nico Hischier are the two top centre prospects in this draft followed by Gabe Vilardi and Casey Mittelstadt — and they should be set there for the next six to eight years. That’s something they can build around. That’s something that can sell a rebuild.
One draft pick can change the entire course for a team and the Canucks need that pick now.