It’s NHL playoff season again, which is always a great time of year.
But sprinkled in with the great playoff action is one annual playoff tradition that drives me around the bend.
For the past decade or so, the NHL playoffs have come with a national hand-wringing over which team will win the Stanley Cup and, more specifically, where that team is based.
The Canadian media, as well as many hockey fans, get into this big frenzy about the Canadian teams in the playoffs hoping one of them will win the cup. Considering it has been 17 years since a Canadian-based team has won the cup, people seem to get pretty worked up about this issue.
Well, I don’t buy it. This whole idea that a Canadian-based team must win the cup is hot garbage. As a Toronto Maple Leafs fan, I don’t like the Ottawa Senators or Montreal Canadiens and I will not cheer for either of those teams in the playoffs. But that doesn’t make me any less of a Canadian.
While the NHL is becoming more international, the nationality of a majority of players is still Canadian and that means that most teams can be considered Canadian teams because the majority of their players are Canadian.
Instead of blindly supporting the three Canadian-based teams in the playoffs (Montreal, Ottawa and the Vancouver Canucks) just for being inside this country’s borders, how about supporting the team with most Canadians?
A look at the rosters of the 16 teams in the playoffs shows the most Canadian teams are not Montreal, Ottawa and Vancouver but the Philadelphia Flyers (17 of 25 players are Canadian for 68 per cent), the San Jose Sharks (15 of 23 for 65 per cent) and the Chicago Black Hawks and Washington Capitals (both have 16 of 25 for 64 per cent).
Vancouver is the only one of the three Canadian teams in playoffs with more than 60 per cent of its roster consisting of Canadian players (17 of 28 for 61 per cent). That’s good enough to make Vancouver the sixth most Canadian team. Besides the four mentioned above, the Nashville Predators (15 of 24 for 62.5 per cent) is also ahead of Vancouver.
Ottawa is the eighth-most Canadian team at 55 per cent (16 of 29) and Montreal is next at No. 9 with 54 per cent (13 of 24).
There are five of the 16 teams with rosters consisting of less than 50 per cent Canadian players — New Jersey Devils (13 of 27 for 48 per cent); Phoenix Coyotes (14 of 30 for 47 per cent); Detroit Red Wings (11 of 27 for 41 per cent). And the two least-Canadian teams in the playoffs are the Los Angeles Kings and Buffalo Sabres (both are nine of 24 for 37.5 per cent).
Besides looking at which teams have the most Canadian content, if you’re looking for teams to root for in the playoffs, you could always support teams with ex-Moose Jaw Warriors on them.
There are seven teams with former Warriors on them — Los Angeles Kings (Ryan Smyth); Boston Bruins (Johnny Boychuk); Washington Capitals (Brooks Laich and Tomas Fleischmann); Nashville Predators (Dustin Boyd); Chicago Blackhawks (Troy Brouwer); Vancouver Canucks (Aaron Rome); and Pittsburgh Penguins (Deryk Engelland, who was just called up this week).
So, if you don’t feel comfortable cheering for Montreal, Ottawa or Vancouver, remember, you’re not un-Canadian for choosing another team and you have at least one other person just like you.
Jason Small can be reached at 691-1255.
