@Scoopie: I moved my reply to you here as this is the more appropriate thread.
One of Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg and Ottawa has to sit out every year.
No effin' way Rogers makes the Leafs or Habs miss a year.
The league would work so much better if they moved one of the failing southern teams to Quebec City. You wouldn't have to make any team miss Hockey Day in Canada.
You could quite easily group all eight Canadian teams in a conference or whatever they want to call it. Split into west and east divisions but still use the league alignment to maximize the number of games against Canadian foes. That would work so much more easily with 8 Canadians teams and 24 US teams as opposed to 7 Canadian teams and 23 US teams.
This year for the obvious reasons one team has to sit out but normally one Canadian team would play a US based team. The last two years, that team has been the Oilers (San Jose in 2019 and Nashville last year). The extra couple days of rest will be good for the team.
That said, I do find it strange the league would sideline one of, if not its biggest superstar, who is from Canada, playing on a Canadian team, on a day dedicated to hockey in Canada. Last I checked the Oilers have plenty of history against both Calgary and Winnipeg...more than Ottawa vs Winnipeg and Vancouver vs Calgary, which have been the matchups at least 3 years running (I didn't check past 2019).
As you said...they aren't going to have the Leafs or Habs miss out, likely not the Sens either since they're in the nation's capital so that leaves the four western based teams to shuffle around. But if the league wants ratings...what is going to draw more viewers: Tkachuk and Stutzle vs Wheeler and Ehlers or McDavid and Draisaitl vs Tkachuk and Gaudreau in a BoA. I realise I'm contradicting myself a bit by including the Sens in my example, but it was just that...an example.
