Oh, no, Canada.

The country that prides itself on being the birthplace of hockey is facing the real possibility of a national embarrassment: If the season ended today — and less than two months remain — none of its NHL teams would qualify for the playoffs.


In 1970, the last time the stars aligned in such a way, the 12-team NHL had only two franchises north of the border: the Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs, a pair of Original Sixers. Now there are seven Canadian franchises in a 30-team league that sends 16 to the playoffs each year.
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How did it get so bad?

"They all arrived here by separate means," said Bruce Arthur, a columnist for the Toronto Star. "Someone's taking a bike. Someone's taking a car and someone's taking a streetcar. It is remarkable because they're really bad. This is a lot of really bad teams at one time."

American teams — albeit with plenty of Canadians — are taking advantage. Not having a Canadian presence in the playoffs could represent a problem for the league, which has a $5.232 billion deal — in Canadian dollars — over 12 years with Rogers Communications to broadcast games in Canada. That's compared with a 10-year, $2 billion deal the league has with NBC.
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"If you run a sports league that has 30 clubs, the situation in which seven specific clubs don't make the playoffs is always a possibility," NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said. "Is it ideal that we won't have representation in a Canadian market place? No. But ... I'm very comfortable letting the season play out and wherever the chips fall, they fall."

Given how ardent Canadian fans can be, the potential loss of viewership could be a hard hit to the boards for the league. And it could be a check on pride for Canadians, though it depends on your perspective.

Some Canadian players said when they were young, if their team was eliminated or didn't qualify for the postseason, they would root for other Canadian teams in the playoffs. Wild goaltender Devan Dubnyk remembered people cheering for the Flames when they advanced to the 2004 Stanley Cup Final before losing to the Lightning.