Which Canadian Team Will Go the Farthest?

[Hattrick Kane]

Not Edmonton if Ekholm is actually done for the season.

He covers so much for Bouchard’s gaffes.

 

[Bradely]

Ottawa has have great goaltending this year, let is see how it will go in PO.
Toronto is Toronto. Good on paper, but when PO time comes, they are usually a shadow of themselves.
Oilers, is Mac OK?

So my bet is on Montreal. I Think they really are the 2025 Canadian underdog !
Answer -: Montreal.

 

[Aashir]

They deserve more favourable sure, but not the massive difference in being a 1 or 2 seed playing a 7 or 8 while the 3 & 4's are playing each other in their quadrant of the bracket. And a 1 or 2 seed should never be locked in to playing the 2nd or 3rd best team in their conference in round 2.


Fwiw if I'm the Leafs I'd much rather play NJ instead of Ottawa.


Wrong. Those teams playing each other in rd 1 should never even be a possibility.


Wrong again. The last 3 years EDM/LA has been a 5v7, 2v5, 5v6 and likely 5v6 again this year. All of those are incorrect matchups, and three of the four years have been a more favourable matchup than either team deserves.

Montreal's 1st round matchup isn't an issue. The fact that if they win, they'll be guaranteed to play either 4 or 7 in the 2nd round which is all kinds of wrong.

You say the regular season matters, I agree with that principle. However this format clearly throws the regular season out the window with this awful bracket.


See my points above. Edmonton & Ottawa have more favourable 1st rd matchups than they otherwise should. Toronto & Winnipeg are neutral for rd 1, hurt in rd 2. Montreal is neutral in rd 1 but would have a much easier rd 2 than they should.

I guess you still prefer the 1-8 formate seeing as you used it for the most part.

So would you say a playoff reseeding would be better in the second round?

What I mean is if say:
Montreal beats washington
Toronto beats ottawa
Florida beats tampa
Carolina beats devils

Leafs (1) v Habs (4)
Carolina (2) gets florida (3)

This doesn’t get rid of your first round matchups with florida/tampa and Colorado/stars but it gives better teams even more of an advantage on paper.

Tbh I don’t like this or the idea that the playoffs need “fixing”. What’s so wrong with Dallas and Colorado facing off in the first round?

they don’t do this every year, as last year it was the second round matchup between the two.

Let’s say they don’t and instead faceoff in the second round, what’s the difference? Let’s say Colorado wins the series, does it matter that Dallas lost in the second round vs the first?

I don’t mind having some heavy weight matchups in the first round. It keeps first round hockey exciting and entertaining too, unlike basketball where most series’s are almost always decided before the balls even dropped.

 

[JKG33]

I guess you still prefer the 1-8 formate seeing as you used it for the most part.

So would you say a playoff reseeding would be better in the second round?

What I mean is if say:
Montreal beats washington
Toronto beats ottawa
Florida beats tampa
Carolina beats devils

Leafs (1) v Habs (4)
Carolina (2) gets florida (3)

This doesn’t get rid of your first round matchups with florida/tampa and Colorado/stars but it gives better teams even more of an advantage on paper.

Tbh I don’t like this or the idea that the playoffs need “fixing”. What’s so wrong with Dallas and Colorado facing off in the first round?

they don’t do this every year, as last year it was the second round matchup between the two.

Let’s say they don’t and instead faceoff in the second round, what’s the difference? Let’s say Colorado wins the series, does it matter that Dallas lost in the second round vs the first?

I don’t mind having some heavy weight matchups in the first round. It keeps first round hockey exciting and entertaining too, unlike basketball where most series’s are almost always decided before the balls even dropped.

Re-seeding for rd 2 is simply polishing a turd. A slight improvement maybe, but the 1st rd is so f***ed that it doesn't even matter.

Sure Dallas and Colorado don't face-off every year in the 1st round, but basically every year since the inception of this shit there's been some kind of imbalance leading to one division having higher seeds and another having lower seeds.

The first round is exiting no matter what the matchups are because there's 4 games per night, and every game matters. But come round 2, there's essentially only one game on at a time, this is where the best of the best should be showcased.

 

[albator71]

Not Ottawa sadly if I had to guess. Tkachuk coming in cold AF then being needed in a key role could spell disaster for their playoff run.

Probably but as a Sens fans I'm not expecting them to win the cup this season, I would be very happy with a 6 or 7 game series. This year for us is to gain playoff experience, this is still a young team. The best is yet to come for the Sens.

 

[swiftwin]

Hits were nearly dead even, Ottawa had one more, and that’s without Xhejak and Tkachuk in the line up. + an even back and forth wild scrap. Anderson had some huge hits. Both teams played the body well. I don’t think it’s a softness issue personally. The Habs have looked fatigued and putting out weak efforts in during their 6 game win streak, it finally caught up to them. Ottawa just simply outplayed them and was faster all night for the first time this season.
Just my 2 cents though.

All that said, I agree that Ottawa does have a tougher team, but that doesn’t always matter / win games.
(Also didn’t help that Slafkovsky is back to being invisible and playing soft as shit, when he’s more than capable of playing a strong physical game when he feels like it.)

The playoffs is not about how tough and physical your bottom players are. It's all about your best players and their willingness to fight through the tough stuff and get in the dirty areas. Slaf has potential there, but Suzuki? Caufield? Hutson? I'm not so sure. Stutzle alone has as many hits as Suzuki and Caufield combined this season.

I'm also looking at the style of play. The Habs play a more open counter-attacking game, a style that becomes less effective in the playoffs. Defense dominates in the playoffs, and the Habs are not a defense first team.

 

[JoeSakic13]

Probably but as a Sens fans I'm not expecting them to win the cup this season, I would be very happy with a 6 or 7 game series. This year for us is to gain playoff experience, this is still a young team. The best is yet to come for the Sens.

Agreed. I hope they are able to win a series, but in actuality they’re in a year where experience is the best thing for them.

 

[Stealth1616]

Lots of people saying Edmonton who havent been following the current events of the team

 

[Deno]

Probably but as a Sens fans I'm not expecting them to win the cup this season, I would be very happy with a 6 or 7 game series. This year for us is to gain playoff experience, this is still a young team. The best is yet to come for the Sens.

As a Jets fan the team I'll be cheering for out of the east is the Sens. Would love to see them take out the Leafs.

 

[BB79]

If Leafs and Sens met up in the first round and the Sens won? Goodbye HF servers.

HF servers go down if the winds gust past 30mph

 

[Duder54]

Not Edmonton if Ekholm if he’s actually done for the season.

He covers so much for Bouchard’s gaffes.

Sad but true.

Edmonton missing their best d-man maybe gets through L.A., but they're not winning the Cup without Ekholm at his best.

 

[Rhaegar Targaryen]

The wheels are falling off in Montreal

 

[CanadienShark]

Montreal to the finals.

 

[Strangle]

C’mon, why do posters constantly have to correct what you type, no wonder there is no credibility.

Matthews was 23 years and 7 months old, so no, he was not 22, and no he was not younger than Stutzle. Good grief, maybe once avoid the hyperbole.

I’ll never stop being flattered by supposed fans of other teams knowing more about the maple leafs than fans of the team do.

Just admit it, you love the leafs just as much as we all do. I don’t know Matthews birthday, but I love that you do!

 

[MCR74]

I’ll never stop being flattered by supposed fans of other teams knowing more about the maple leafs than fans of the team do.

Just admit it, you love the leafs just as much as we all do. I don’t know Matthews birthday, but I love that you do!

Worse is he knows more about the Leafs than his own.

 

[SeanMoneyHands]

If it's true that Ekholm is out for the year, that's a massive blow to the Oilers. That would be the worst possible blow after losing McDrai. Their defense isn't the same without Ekholm and Bouchard turns into a muffin.

 

[Finnflash]

Seed​	Cup Wins​	Approx. % of Time​
1st	8	~27.6%
2nd	6	~20.7%
3rd	5	~17.2%
4th	3	~10.3%
5th	2	~6.9%
6th	3	~10.3%
7th	1	~3.4%
8th	1	~3.4%

Since 1986

• Top 3 seeds win the Cup over 65% of the time.
• 1st seed has the best odds, but it’s far from dominant.
• Middle seeds (4–6) can go deep and win, especially with hot goaltending.
• Low seeds (7–8) rarely win, but it has happened (e.g., 2012 Kings as an 8th seed).

So while being a top seed helps, playoff success depends more on timing, health, matchups, and momentum than regular season dominance.

 

[Heldig]

I say this is the year the Maple Leafs go deep in the playoffs.

 

[The Gr8 Dane]

The wheels are falling off in Montreal

What do you mean we are gonna make the post season in year 4 of a full blown rebuild lol
nothing is falling off it's all house money


Took your little franchise 8 years to get where we are

 

[Golden_Jet]

I’ll never stop being flattered by supposed fans of other teams knowing more about the maple leafs than fans of the team do.

Just admit it, you love the leafs just as much as we all do. I don’t know Matthews birthday, but I love that you do!

There is this site called hockey-reference.com , where you can check the info on players, and wait, get this, they have the birthdates listed. Weird you don’t know about this.

Should posters just ignore when someone types lies, more than once, to make their point sound better, when it’s actually wrong. No idea if done on purpose or not.

 

[Rhaegar Targaryen]

What do you mean we are gonna make the post season in year 4 of a full blown rebuild lol
nothing is falling off it's all house money


Took your little franchise 8 years to get where we are

Dominated and bullied by Ottawa on Friday and then turned around and put up like 10 shots vs Toronto the next night, trying to clinch a playoff spot.

Washington is gonna have a lot of fun playing Montreal. That’s as close to a first round bye as it gets

 

[The Gr8 Dane]

Dominated and bullied by Ottawa on Friday and then turned around and put up like 10 shots vs Toronto the next night, trying to clinch a playoff spot.

Washington is gonna have a lot of fun playing Montreal. That’s as close to a first round bye as it gets

Like I said , season is already a success for us regardless of what happens lol, not sure why you hate montreal so much we aren't even rivals. Not to mention your franchise is a joke league wide

 

[Rhaegar Targaryen]

Like I said , season is already a success for us regardless of what happens lol, not sure why you hate montreal so much we aren't even rivals. Not to mention your franchise is a joke league wide

Habs will need to add some grit to their core or their rebuild will be a massive failure. Might be the softest team we’ve played this season.

 

[Summer Rose]

I’ll never stop being flattered by supposed fans of other teams knowing more about the maple leafs than fans of the team do.

Just admit it, you love the leafs just as much as we all do. I don’t know Matthews birthday, but I love that you do!

I only have his birthday committed to memory because it’s September 17th. Two days earlier and he would have been in the same draft as McDavid and Eichel, which means that he presumably would have been drafted by the Coyotes at third overall.

 

[MXD]

Habs will need to add some grit to their core or their rebuild will be a massive failure. Might be the softest team we’ve played this season.

Be ready to cheer for a midwest team sooner or later.