By: Burke De Boer Sports Editor
Canada may very well be back in 2017.
The 2016 National Hockey League season was characterized by an all-American playoff race. For the first time in 46 years, not a single Canadian team posted a good enough record to make it into the postseason.
But we are now halfway into the 2016-17 season, and each one of the seven Canadian teams remains competitive in the playoff hunt.
The most prominent of these is the Montreal Canadiens, currently on top of the Atlantic Division.
The high profile trade that sent PK Subban to Nashville and Shea Weber to Montreal was the jaw-dropping move of the offseason. Subban is younger than Weber and moves the puck across the ice quicker. Since the Canadiens drafted him in 2007, he has become an organizational icon and is known around the league as one of the elite defensemen.
Similarly, the Predators had a great defensive scheme. Weber was an important part of the team, but when the news broke it seemed it was all coming up for the Predators. Nashville mediaman Brooks Bratten reported that Subban said he felt, “a whole closer to winning the Stanley Cup.”
But with Carey Price in goal and the defense altered to protect him, the Canadiens are looking tougher than they have in a long time.
Meanwhile, a coaching change in Ottawa has seen the Senators stay on the Canadiens’ heels at the top of the Atlantic Division. Under head coach Guy Boucher, the Senators have improved on defense, special teams and puck possession.
Out west, the Edmonton Oilers are gripped in the throes of the longest currently active playoff drought in hockey. 20-year-old Connor McDavid has ripped 14 goals and 36 assists this season. Though not old enough to drink alcohol when his team travels to our side of the border, McDavid is leading his team in their race for a playoff return.
Their Albertan rivals, the Calgary Flames, are neck and neck with the Oilers.
The Flames roster features all-star Johnny Gaudreau and Hart Memorial Trophy candidate Matthew Tkachuk. The Flames are scrappy, and have recorded upsets against higher-ranked teams such as the Ducks, Sharks and Bruins.
In one game against the Vancouver Canucks, who are on the playoff bubble after a midseason win streak, the Flames defense allowed only 13 shots, while their offense put up 46. But the Canucks came away with the win due to shoddy goaltending from Brian Elliott, which has cemented the brick wall of Chad Johnson as the Flames’ man in goal.
The following night, with Johnson’s goaltending, the Flames became the team that ended the Canucks’ impressive run. Though they began with a rough start, Vancouver seems to have learned from their losses and improved to being a scary team to face.
Vancouver are joined in the Canadian fringe by the Winnipeg Jets and the Toronto Maple Leafs. The young Leafs team is getting better, and the Jets continue to punch above their weight despite rampant injuries.
Whether or not all Canadian teams make the postseason cut, it has been quite a turnaround from last year.
Contact the author at journalsports@wou.edu
