I dont think any of the divisions are jokes. I think they are remarkably balanced which is why they were changed for the bubble year to be as such and if there is a truly "weaker" division, it would have to be the west where they only have 3 competitive teams. I mean, EVERYONE had the same three teams at the top of the division in the West at the start and guess what.....its turning out that way. In the same way, the East is probably the slightly strongest division but not by any real margin. The crazy schedule also has some teams playing/below their records right now so its tough to get a read on teams which complicates things.
The whole crapping on the North thing feels like real propaganda against the Leafs most of the time and it only grew louder once the Leafs got more dominant. Do you ever hear of how the Canadian division is an offensive powerhouse and therefor the strongest division?....nope....it has to be that its awful defensively and the weakest. Both of the stats for these are tied together though and theres no real way of knowing until the final four I guess.
I'd rather not entertain this argument though as its an unprovable argument....and unprovable arguments are always a sign of a horribly weak argument. In the meantime, we can all watch the games and see for ourselves the quality of hockey on display and, from all the games I have watched, the North sure doesnt look any weaker than the other divisions. For the Leafs, the Matthews/Marner combo look next level and McDavid is an absolute two-way monster for the Oilers this year. Pretty sure they would be working their magic against anyone.
