ALL-CANADIAN DIVISION: WHY NOT ACT NOW AND MAKE IT PERMANENT?

Sportsnet's TV numbers already through the roof and it'll get even better in playoffs

Every night is Hockey Night in Canada — and the television numbers in the Great White North are up. Way up.

It began with the Montreal-Toronto and Vancouver-Edmonton combination that produced the most-watched NHL opening night on Sportsnet ever, reaching 6.6 million viewers.

The first Saturday Hockey Night in Canada with Toronto-Ottawa, Montreal-Edmonton and Vancouver-Calgary was apparently similarly ballistic. And with people being told to stay home in southern Ontario, it's going to be interesting to see the numbers from this past Saturday night's Montreal-Vancouver and Ottawa-Winnipeg slate on HNIC — normally soft draw games that are subject to blackouts when played on a week day.

Quite possibly the numbers will continue going way, way up as we go deeper into the season, with massive games featuring Canadian teams battling for only four playoff spots.

Projections are that they'll be way, way, way up in the spring with two first-round playoff series and one second-round series involving Canadian teams playing each other, plus one Canadian team guaranteed to be in a Stanley Cup semifinal.

So, the question has to be said aloud sooner or later.

Six games into the season would qualify as sooner. But why wait for spring?

Will the television ratings and the advertising revenue involved result in pressure on the National Hockey League to figure out a way to keep their Scotia North Division — or at least some version of it — beyond this 56-game coronavirus-inspired season?

Will the Honda West, Mass Mutual East and Discover Central become permanent, too? Obviously, the NHL wouldn't want what is effectively a Canadian League, as it exists right now, with exclusive play involving Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver.

And when fans return to the stands, Canadian fans would want to go back to watching their teams face Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin and all those other great stars on American-based franchises, not to mention the Original Six teams.

The annual visits of the Boston Bruins, New York Rangers, Chicago Blackhawks and Detroit Red Wings are prized tickets in places like Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and Winnipeg and doubly so in Canada's two Original Six cities of Montreal and Toronto.

And considering the extent the Maple Leafs went to get out of the Western Conference in order to have more games telecast on Eastern time zone prime time and fewer starting at 10 p.m. EST (versus Edmonton, Calgary, Colorado) and 11 p.m. EST (Vancouver, Los Angeles, Anaheim, San Jose, etc.), don't simply assume the Canadian teams would all be totally thrilled with the prospect.

But, put together the right sort of schedule and format, and you could create a scenario where it might be win-win for everybody.

One problem. With Seattle coming into the league next year, you'd need four eight-team divisions to make it work. That would mean an eighth team in the previously all-Canadian Scotia North Division, a team the Canadian bank isn't getting many mentions from through this sponsorship because it's consistently being called what it is — the Canadian Division.

Assuming Seattle would want to play against mostly American opposition, that would leave Detroit and Buffalo, both border cities with large numbers of their fan base located on the Canadian side of the border.

Let's assume Buffalo would be the best fit.

You'd start by scheduling home and away games against all out-of-division teams. That's 48 games.

That leaves 34 to play within your division.

With two home and two away against each team, that's 28. That leaves six to get to a full 82-game schedule. I'd suggest spreading them around with extra Original Six games involving those teams and extra regional rivalry games such as Vancouver-Seattle, Edmonton-Calgary, Los Angeles-Anaheim, Pittsburgh-Philadelphia and Islanders-Rangers.

And by all means, keep the playoff system.

Sportsnet hasn't got much bang for their buck to this point with so many teams from north of the border either missing the playoffs or making early exits.

This year, the top four Canadian teams advance and play each other in the first round, followed by two in the division championship game, and the winner advancing to a seeded final four.

The team with the most regular season points will play the team with the fewest.

Imagine that every year? The way this season has started, the NHL is going to have to think about it.