North strong and free-scoring
Offence has been trumping defence so far in all-canadian division
If you want to play in the NHL’S North Division, you better be able to score.
Defence? Well, if absolutely necessary.
After about 20 per cent of the season — and who really knows how many NHL teams will actually play all 56 games? — the evidence suggests the seven teams in the all-canadian division are more interested in shootouts than neutral-zone traps.
Heading into Friday’s games, four Canadian teams (Toronto, Montreal, Edmonton, Winnipeg) were among the top eight scoring teams in the 31-team league, and Vancouver was 12th. The top three scorers in the league — Connor Mcdavid and Leon Draisaitl of the Oilers, and the Leafs’ Mitch Marner — were in the North Division, as were the top four goal scorers — Montreal’s Tyler Toffoli, Vancouver’s Brock Boeser, Toronto’s Auston Matthews and Mcdavid. (Matthews passed Toffoli on Saturday.)
The Leafs were averaging 3.64 goals per game, improved from last year, and they were more than a half-goal behind Montreal, which had the No. 1 offence in the NHL.
Now having the two worst defensive outfits in hockey — Vancouver and Ottawa — sure helps those offensive numbers. The seven best defensive teams in the NHL, meanwhile, were all American. Hope the fans there have been enjoying that.
The North, it’s worth noting, is also the only one of the NHL’S four divisions that hasn’t had a game postponed. Four teams are currently on pause: New Jersey, Bufalo, Minnesota and Colorado.vegas, which returned Friday after missing four games, has played only eight times. So too have Carolina, Dallas and Florida.
Not sure there’s a handy slogan for this, but so far in the very strange NHL season North Division clubs are best known for goals and avoiding the coronavirus. Maybe the two things go together.
How long will that last? Who knows. If the country gets better at getting vaccines into arms, it should only get better, and eventually the players will be inoculated as well.
It’s interesting that five of the seven Canadian clubs — Calgary and Ottawa are still struggling to score — have played such an attacking game so far. We expect it from the Leafs. They’ve been trying to play that way under Sheldon Keefe, and when you’ve got Jason Spezza chipping in with a hat trick, the numbers are going to be good.
Montreal traded Max Domi, but brought in Toffoli and Josh Anderson, both of whom are likely to score more than Domi. Nick Suzuki is improving by leaps and bounds. We’re not used to Marc Bergevin’s plans working out, but this one seems to be so far. Looking forward to three meetings between the Leafs and Canadiens over the next two weeks and maybe, just maybe, a playoff series.
Winnipeg is interesting. The Jets are up more than half-agoal per game despite having had Patrik Laine in the lineup for only one game before trading him to Columbus for Pierre-luc Dubois. Dubois hasn’t played yet, but is expected to make his debut next week.
Both Nik Ehlers and Kyle Connor are making Winnipeg’s long-term investments in them look good, and the Jets are getting goals from unexpected places.
Forwards Andrew Copp and Adam Lowry both have four goals, as does defenceman Derek Forbert.
Edmonton is always thought of as a high-scoring team, but really hasn’t been one until this season.
Sure, Draisaitl and Mcdavid get points in bunches, but the rest of the roster has usually lagged behind. This season, 15 Oilers have at least one goal, Ryan Nugent-hopkins is producing and youngster Kailor Yamamoto is proving to be dangerous.
The Canucks, finally, can’t defend at all as seen by their dreadful work in a 7-3 loss to the Leafs on Thursday. What has happened to Alex Edler is unknown. Chris Tanev is missed. TSN’S Ray Ferraro astutely pointed out during Thursday’s broadcast that Vancouver is allowing opponents to move the puck from one side of the rink to the other far too easily to be solid defensively.
But the Canucks can score. They’ve bulged the twine 47 times this year, albeit in 14 games. Elias Pettersen is waking up, and Bo Horvat just isn’t talked about enough as a points producer and goal scorer. Quinn Hughes, the NHL’S top-scoring defenceman with 15 points, is so fun to watch as a puck mover.
It seems unlikely, given history, that all this offence in the North will last. Teams want to win, and NHL coaches generally identify cutting down the goals against as a much better way to compete than increasing the goals for.
One thing we may see is the games get more physical. It was interesting to see Wayne Simmonds lay out Hughes late in the game Thursday, if only since it was such an un-leaflike thing to do. Not since Nazem Kadri have the Leafs had a player willing to ignore the unspoken policies of the sport, like not hammering a smaller star player in the final moments of a blowout.
That’s OK. The hit wasn’t dirty, and Simmonds always accounts for his own deeds. But other than the Tkachuk boys, one in Calgary and one in Ottawa, we haven’t seen a great deal of nastiness in the allcanadian grouping.
Give the season another month, and that may change. Suddenly the race for those four playoff spots is going to heat up and the games will get more competitive.
For now, we can only hope the North remains free. To score at will.