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The extra time of Connor McDavid to overcome the United States in the final of the 4 nations last week was the best moment of Canadian male hockey of the last 15 years. Could it be the first parade of the Canada Stanley Cup since 1993 next?
The possibilities are not terrible, with three NHL teams based in Canada currently in the top seven in general, two more having a place in the playoffs and another in the search for the postseason. An betting site has the implicit probability of a Canadian team that wins the Cup by around 29 percent, while the title of the seven clubs on the Hockey-Stats website its sum up to approximately 25 percent.
Here is a fast check-in in the seven Canadian teams when they enter the last ~ 25 games of the regular season.
The Great 3
Leading the way is Winnipeg, who won his tenth consecutive game of the League last night to claim first place in Washington’s capitals. Mark Scheifle’s extra time goal, his 329º for Winnipeg, breaking the Thrashers/Jets franchise record of Ilya Kovvalchuk, gave him 32 in the season, which occupies the third place in the NHL. Kyle Connor is sixth in goals with 30 and tied in fifth place at points with 71. Together with the best record of the league, the jets (41-14-3) have the success rate of the best power play (32.5 percent) and the goals differential (differential (more-70).
Winnipeg also has the best NHL goalkeeper. Connor Hellebuyck leads the league in all the main traditional statistics: victories (35), an average goals against (2.04), savings percentage (.925) and bleached (6), as well as the advanced objectives saved above. It is a virtual block to win its second trophy in a row and third of your career, which would be a record for a player born in the United States, and Hellebuyck could even be in the MVP conversation too.
Toronto (35-20-2) is fifth in general, maintaining an advantage of a point in the Atlantic division over the Stanley Florida Panthers champion, which will not be without an eave Star Matthew Tkachuk for a while due to the injury of The groin that forced the Americans to see most of the 4 final nations from the bank.
While the current NHL goals champion, Auston Matthews, still seems annoying for the lesion at the top of the body that has made him lose 15 games this season, William Nylander has helped fill the vacuum with 33 goals, the Second more in the League. Mitch Marner has also taken a step forward. The end of free agent is tied with the jets connor for fifth place in the league with 71 points, which puts it in pace for its first season of 100 points. Marner was also fantastic in the final of the 4 nations, establishing the game of Sam Bennett and the winner of the McDavid AT.
Look | Canada celebrates its victory of confrontation of 4 nations:
The politicians of all the stripes joined the Canadian fans throughout the country in the social networks of the victory of the Canada team over the United States in the final of the 4 nations confrontation.
Of course, Leafs are famous for being good in the regular season and then failing in the playoffs. But there is hope of a different result this year, since the new chief coach Craig Berube has underpinned the team’s defensive game, while Joseph Woll and Anthony Stolarz supply a solid goal for a change.
Edmonton (34-19-4) occupies seven seven in general, thanks in large part to the efforts of (this will surprise you) McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. The latter is fleeing with the Rocket Richard Trophy with 42 goals, nine more than the second place Nylander, and its 86 points put Draisaitl only one behind Nathan Mackinnon Colorado for the leadership of the league. Despite losing a total of six games due to an ankle injury at the beginning of the season and a suspension, McDavid occupies the fourth place with 72 points, including 22 goals.
However, if the defending champions of the West Conference will catch Las Vegas for the leadership of the Pacific Division (the Golden Knights go up two points), they may need more of the inconsistent goalkeeper Stuart Skinner and the talented defender Ev Bouchard, whose numbers of Score are low while their defensive game is still unstable.
The other 4
In many ways, Vancouver is going through the season since hell. A dispute between their two best strikers, Elias Pettersson and Jt Miller, persecuted the team until Miller was changed to the Rangers a month ago. But the change has not helped Pettersson, who has zero goals and only two assists in six games from the agreement. Pettersson was useless in three games for Sweden in the 4 nations, and now more than a month has passed since its last goal. “He is not moving his feet,” said coach Rick Tocchet after Sunday’s defeat against Utah.
Meanwhile, the winner of the Norris trophy, Quinn Hughes, has lost the last six games with the un specified injury that kept him out of the 4 nations, and goalkeeper Thatcher Deny again injured after the first two months of The season with the unusual knee injury that hit him. of the playoffs last year.
The Flames lost the playoffs for 17 points last season, then clearly pointed out that they were in reconstruction mode by exchanging goalkeeper No. 1 Jacob Markstrom to New Jersey. But that turned out to be an intelligent movement when the young Dustin Wolf, the MVP of the American Hockey League two years ago, has a record of 20-11-3 and a savings percentage of .913.
Ottawa also obtains complete qualifications for resilience. The senators ended 26 in general last year, and are a great acquisition out of season, goalkeeper Linus Ullmark, everything was lost in January with an injury. But the young striker Tim Stutzle has again averaged more than one point per game, and Ottawa (29-24-4) clings to the final place of the wild card in the east, just ahead of Columbus, Boston and the Rangers.
An area of concern for the sens: striker Brady Tkachuk left early today due to the injury that bothered him in the 4 nations. He said that Winnipeg’s game could sit on Winnipeg so he can return at full speed and “be an animal the next 25 games.”
At the moment, Montreal (26-26-5) is the only Canadian team that we can probably discard from the playoff career. Habs are five points of a place in the east, which may not seem much. But they have lost eight of their last 10 and there are four teams between them and Ottawa. That leaves Habs with less than five percent possibilities to reach the playoffs, according to Money Puck.
