Which of Canada’s seven NHL teams is the best right now?
While Montreal, Ottawa, Calgary and Vancouver have gotten off to solid — and in some cases surprising — starts this season and Edmonton is still finding its legs, I’m confident in saying that Winnipeg and Toronto remain the class of Canadian hockey.
The question will take on added significance this week when the Toronto Maple Leafs and Winnipeg Jets play a home-and-home series.
Game one will be held Wednesday night at Bell MTS Centre and the season series between the Eastern and Western Conference foes will conclude Saturday night at Scotiabank Arena.
They split their season series last year, and the year before that.
Winnipeg and Toronto were the only two Canadian clubs to make the playoffs last season, and both squads have picked up where they left off through their first nine games this year.
Both teams are loaded with young and talented players like Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, Patrik Laine and Mark Scheifele — four of the best players in the league who are 25 or younger.
I like the Leafs’ forward unit a lot more than Winnipeg’s, but the Jets have a superior blue line corps.
The goaltenders, Toronto’s Frederik Anderson and Winnipeg’s Connor Hellebuyck, are both great, so we’ll call that a tie.
And I’ll give Toronto the edge behind the bench with Mike Babcock bettering Paul Maurice. The latter has three more wins (654-651) but has coached for five more seasons.
Adding up the scoresheet, it appears the Leafs are No. 1 in Canada, at least on paper.
Now we get to sit back and enjoy their two battles where it matters — on the ice.
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