Our national nightmare has passed
Fans in five Canadian cities gear up for the thrills — and stress — of the Stanley Cup tourney
The Great Canadian Hockey Crisis was, it turned out, rather short-lived. Perhaps years from now, when the wounds aren’t so raw, we’ll speak of it in hushed, reverential tones: that time, in the spring of 2016, when not one of Canada’s seven NHL franchises made the post-season. Arenas were empty, hockey pools lacked their usual run of hilariously biased homer picks, Rogers executives made their scotch a double, no ice, for there was no one on this country’s ice for the first time since the Trudeau years. No, not that one, the other one, with much less lustrous hair.
We managed to muddle through the dark times. A nation rose to the challenge, and now, just a year later, five Canadian teams are back in the playoffs. They don’t even have to play each other in the first round this time. Canada is back.
This isn’t to say there wasn’t some merit to the introspection and investigation that took place in the wake of the playoff bagel Canada’s teams put up last season.
It’s true there are challenges unique to this market, if we can call the entire country a single market. Some Canadian outposts operate at a free-agency disadvantage because their climate is cold and their taxes are high. Other Canadian markets have a similar recruiting disadvantage, but for a different reason: because the NHL is king and players perform under remarkable scrutiny. The relative anonymity of a life in Nashville or Anaheim, not to mention the weather, has its appeal.
But the pressure thing, on the evidence of this past season, can be taken as an excuse only so far.
The Toronto Maple Leafs had every reason to wilt down the closing stretch, but instead they played their best hockey right up until a late wobble.
The Calgary Flames survived an injury to Johnny Gaudreau and the early-season benching of Brian Elliott, the guy they brought in to be their No. 1 goaltender.
The Ottawa Senators made the post-season despite losing starting goalie Craig Anderson for a stretch while he dealt with his wife’s illness.
The Montreal Canadiens traded their best player who wasn’t Carey Price and still won their division.
And the Edmonton Oilers, the team that was very good at draft lotteries and tragically lacking at just about everything else, finally lived up to their promise and broke a long playoff drought.
It’s not that Canada’s teams found a way to overcome innate challenges, it’s that they had better players or better coaching or better management or better luck. The Leafs, for one, have had some of the first three in recent years, but they wouldn’t be in the playoffs if the draft lottery hadn’t broken their way last June.
But why they made the playoffs this year doesn’t matter at this point nearly as much as the fact they did.
It’s time for Canada’s teams — sorry, Vancouver and Winnipeg — to again sample the tasty thrill, with a dash of fear and a jigger of agony, that is NHL playoff hockey.
For the Canadiens, it’s time to see if they can manage a deep playoff run that would go some way to soothing the sting of losing P.K. Subban.
For the Flames and Senators, it’s time to draw on the experience of their 2015 playoffs as they’ll each face a team with a whole lot more post-season experience than that.
And for the Maple Leafs and Oilers, it’s time for their fabulous youngsters to get a sampling of the playoff crucible. Both teams come in with no pressure, having taken huge leaps forward already, and yet both fan bases will say they’re just happy to have some playoff hockey while secretly hoping they have a lot of it.
And then, when the games start and the first would-be game-winner clangs off the iron, Canadian fans will recall the one upside of not being in the playoffs: It’s a lot less stressful.