Whatever you guys say. If success doesnt change it for you then your operating on a set of faith and beliefs - which is a pointless debate. If anything is slightly fair to say that VGK and COL could have been a tad bit overrated. VGK and their forwards certainly shouldn't scare a good defensive team that can score themselves.
And its not like the Canadian teams were isolated for years before this - its been one season lol, people act like this is the WHA or something and have been operating in their own world for the last decade.... They were competitive teams before the North division just last season, for the most part anyways..
And they literally have some of the biggest stars in the entire world on them. Teams like Florida and the NYI are the toast of the town this season - but I still like Toronto, Winnipeg and Edmonton's roster and players better. Put Trotz, Quenville and Brindamour on them and see how they do (and where their teams go). I would take Ottawa over any other rebuilding team in the league, and quite a few others that are a bit better then them now too (like Minnesota for example, or the teams above).
Now the Habs, one of the North's sketchier teams, are more than holding their own against of of HFboards top 2 or 3 heavyweight contenders in the semi finals. At some point the piss poor excuses are going to have dried up completely, if they havent already.
The North was literally on par with the rest of the divisions. And its easy to see that there is a clear, non fact based inherent bias inside many people in here....Like as if the fact that the border being closed changes the fact that the Sens have like 5 or 6 Americans, like 3 Russians, a German, ect - or that the team was build from the same pool of players that other 30 teams were..
The irony is that if we really "closed the borders", summoned all Canucks back to the homeland, and then built our teams from all Canadian players, the NHLs 7 top contenders come playoff time would all be from the oh so loathed North division
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