Speculation: What do you think about the whole canadian division

Regina and Saskatoon would be good cities to host teams. I think Brandon and Red Deer would be good too. All the teams would be within a couple hours flight too.

 

Regina... heh.

 

Can you imagine confining NHL stars to Regina and Saskatoon in the middle of winter?

 

If ever you wanted to know what the Original Six rivalries were like, here's the closest thing to it.

In those days, teams would see each other 14 times per season!

 

Based on the early returns from the prognosticators, pundits and soothsayers, the Canucks ain't getting much respect in this new Canadian Division. The Eastern hype machine is focused on the Leafs and Habs, with some even predicting Ottawa won't finish 'last' (they will).

But that's just the way the Canucks would probably want it.....flying below the radar screen with few expectations and lot to prove based on their playoff performance last summer.

 

Travis Green teams always start fast. Could be huge in a shortened season.

 

Well it's not like they got better on paper. And the team last year was outperforming their fundamentals (outscoring their shot/chance shares, relying on good goaltending, and a weirdly efficient PP2).

It'll be hard to repeat career years from all of our core players. Petey + Hughes could certainly improve, but how can anyone really expect Miller + Horvat to take even more massive strides to offset the lack of depth?

That said, the Canadian division is a mish-mash of mediocre-at-best teams + kinda good Toronto, so I do think the Canucks will squeak in the playoffs based on that. Edmonton without Klefbom is pretty ugly. Winnipeg needs Hellebuyck to continue to be Vezina calibre. And Ottawa is Ottawa. If they run ahead of those teams, they're in.

 

Hopefully everyone comes into camp in shape and ready to go.

 

Im willing to bet Ottawa doesn't finish last.

 

Looking at that Ottawa lineup, if they don't finish last, some other team in Canada is really going to have to crap the bed. Parity in the Canadian Division probably ensures a bunch of teams in the 'mushy middle'. But just can't see one of those teams being the Sens.

 

I love the idea of a Canadian division because the Canucks are going to get exposed badly, which will ultimately force ownership’s hand into firing Benning and his cronies. The Canucks won’t be able to ride the coattails of Markstrom or feed off of the Kings, Sharks, and Ducks this time around.

 

Canucks and Sens will be close for the last spot but I think the Senators will finish higher in the standings. No Markstrom or Tanev + no 2nd line winger = Canucks getting exposed big time.

 

10/10 username

 

It’s gonna be hate vs hate between Canadian cities.

 

Totally agree. The Canucks will be in the “Turtle Derby” with the Sens. Top five pick coming our way?

 

Even Jake?

 

Especially Jake.

 

I think if Vancouver cant play a home game, 56 games in 115 days, yea..... we are going to finish dead last.... I am not kidding....

 

Wow!....Canucks aren't getting a lot of love, even on the Canucks board!. Looking at their lineup, I can't see on paper why they'd be much worse than the team that was the last Canadian club standing before their season ended against Vegas.

I mean Schmidt slots in for Tanev, and is actually an upgrade. Tofoli was a loss, but he was hurt and missed both the Wild-Blues series, and was playing at less than 70 percent when he did play. Leivo is obviously a loss, but he missed half the season and wasn't around for the playoffs either.

The loss of Markstrom is the biggest wildcard, but with Holby and Demko sharing the load, there's a chance the Canucks could actually be better off in goal. Green played Markstrom until his tongue was hanging out, and as a result, he was injured twice during the season.

And as far as where the Canucks actually play their games, with no fans in the building, it really doesn't matter where they hit the ice. There's really no such thing as an actual 'road game'. So the travel won't be a factor at all. No six game road-trips, with morning starts in the Eastern time zones. Probably no back to backs in different cities. About the only thing that would kill the Canucks would be injuries because they have zero depth.

So count me as being shocked if the Canucks and Sens end up battling it out in the Canadian Division turtle derby.

 

Records vs Canadian teams last season:

TEAM	GP	W	L	T	OL	PTS	PTS%	GF	GA	GF/G	GA/G
WINNIPEG	12	9	3	0	0	18	75%	39	27	3.25	2.25
MONTREAL	15	10	3	0	2	22	73%	47	34	3.13	2.27
CALGARY	14	8	4	0	2	18	64%	42	39	3.00	2.79
TORONTO	14	7	3	0	4	18	64%	47	42	3.36	3.00
EDMONTON	16	7	7	0	2	16	50%	47	54	2.94	3.38
OTTAWA	14	4	7	0	3	11	39%	32	44	2.29	3.14
VANCOUVER	15	5	10	0	0	10	33%	36	50	2.40	3.33

 

Edmonton and Ottawa are f***ed

 

Playoffs will come down to which team stays healthy obviously. If alls equal then it'll come down to depth. But with a condensed schedule and how playoffs usually unfold, depth is more important than high end top lines/top pairings:

My prediction:
Tier 1 (NHL top 4 material)
1. Montreal
2. Toronto
3. Calgary
Tier 2 (2nd round ceiling)
4. Edmonton
5. Vancouver
Tier 3 (playoff bubble)
6. Winnipeg
Tier 4 (Commendable performance)
7. Ottawa

 

Injuries and Covid will decide the fate of teams.

look at how nfl teams have had entire position groups out for games. So nhl teams can’t afford to lost half a D core or all of their C.

How responsible will all of the Canuck players be?

Only guy I worry about is Jake. No real concerns about anyone else.

 

I don't get the pessimism here. We're in a division with the least number of teams and there isn't a single elite team in the mix (Colorado, LV, Tampa). So it's going to come down to match ups.

Here, again, we're not in a bad spot. The area we struggled in all season was defensive zone coverage once the opposing team establishes the cycle. Do any of the Canadian teams excel in this? Maybe Winnipeg, but they've dropped off as a team. The area we did well in: track meet hockey where everyone was involved in the play, short crisp passes to generate speed through the neutral zone. That's pretty much Edmonton, Montreal and Toronto hockey - 2 of the 3 favorites to win the North Division.

What I predict is that it will be a bit of a shooting gallery on our net in transition so Demko and Holtby better be ready. But we have a balanced, deep, offense with an elite top line (not McDavid line level, but pretty similar to the Matthews line). Our PP will still be deadly. If we stay relatively healthy (always a big if), we will be in the mix all the way to the end.

 

As was just shown a few posts back, we played those exact same teams last year and only managed 33% of the possible points, worst in the entire group.

Are we better than last year? Are the other teams much worse? We need a lot of movement in both directions for us to double that point percentage to finish top 4.