There’s no gentle way to put this, hockey fans, but the Jets have been grounded.
That’s right, the Flames have been snuffed out, the Leafs have been raked into black garbage bags and the Oilers are selling for just pennies a barrel.
The Senators? Sub-poenaed. The Canadiens and Canucks? Bankrupted by a weak Loonie.
What I’m trying to say is that there is a very high probability that the upcoming NHL playoffs will be the first in two generations to proceed without a single participant from north of the US border.
As I write this Monday evening – and it would have been the same weeks ago – all seven Canadian-based clubs are out of the playoff picture.
Our best hopes at a postseason presence are the Senators (six points back, but with three teams in front), Canucks (seven points back, two teams in front) and Canadiens (eight points back, four teams in front).
So much would have to go right for the Sens, ’Nucks and Habs, and so much would have to go wrong for their nearest opponents, that there is little hope the big dance will be anything but a Yankee show this spring.
Now, before you conspiracy nuts launch into your tirade – “Bettman orchestrated it ’cause all he cares about are the TV ratings in the States, you see!” – let me point out that we should rather thank good old fashioned bad luck and, more so, mismanagement on the part of the seven squads.
Most dismaying is the situation in Edmonton. I realize that Connor McDavid missed 37 games with an injury, but for the love of a heretofore unknown Sutter brother, how are they still so dreadful after all those high draft picks?!?
Battling Toronto for a 30th place finish, the Oilers are actually so awful, it’s impressive. I’m almost as in awe of how consistently bad the current team is as I am looking back on how consistently awesome they were in the 1980s.
The Maple Leafs are, understandably, in full forward-looking mode with a roster that is only marginally distinguishable from that of an AHL club.
As Adam Gretz of CBSSports.com put it, Leafs management is “reduc[ing] the organization to a pile of rubble so they can rebuild it from the ground up.”
In Montreal some misfortune and what appears to be a dressing room that has stopped listening to the coach have contributed to a spectacular fall from grace. Oh, and Mike Condon and Ben Scrivens suck.
The Jets and Flames are mediocre teams masquerading as such. I’d love to see them both in the show, especially Manitoba’s team, but let’s face it, when you go down their rosters, there isn’t much to write home about outside of a few key pieces.
Ottawa showed it is serious about a playoff attempt by recently acquiring Dion Phaneuf, giving them an awesome one-two punch on the blueline with Erik Karlsson.
But – and it seems like I write this every year – the Senators are unspectacular in net. Andrew “The Hamburglar” Hammond has fallen far short of last season’s miracles, and Craig Anderson is, well, average.
It’s also hard to be impressed by the play of Vancouver’s puckstopping tandem of Ryan Miller and Jacob Markstrom. And minus-32, Radim Vrbata? Really?
The last time the NHL playoffs had zero Canadian clubs? 1970.
So while it appears there will be a repeat in 2016, we can comfort ourselves in the fact that this is a rare occurrence. Let’s hope it stays that way.
