In my last blog, I took a look at how the Vancouver Canucks would stack up against Canada's three Western Conference teams if the NHL does start its 2020-21 season with an all-Canadian Division.
Now it's time to tackle the East — the three Canadian teams that normally bring out the die-hard fans when they make their annual pilgrimages to Rogers Arena.
Toronto Maple Leafs
Last season, the Canucks went 0-2-0 against Toronto, dropping a 4-1 decision at Rogers Arena when they were in their funk in early December, then losing 4-2 at Scotiabank Arena in late February.
Both those games came with Sheldon Keefe behind the Toronto bench, after Mike Babcock was let go on Nov. 20.
The Leafs, of course, ended up with a third-place finish in the Atlantic Division when last season was paused. In a normal year, that would have earned them a first-round date with Tampa Bay instead of Boston. I wonder if that would have worked out any better for them?
Instead, with the 24-team playoff format, the Leafs were matched up against the Columbus Blue Jackets — who finished the season with the exact same .579 points percentage as Toronto, but played spoiler for the second-straight year as they eliminated the Leafs in five closely contested preliminary-round games.
Without much salary-cap space to maneuver, Toronto put a premium on veteran experience and a little bit of nastiness in this offseason — bringing in Joe Thornton, Wayne Simmonds and Jimmy Vesey up front and signing T.J. Brodie and Zach Bogosian on the back end.
To make room, they traded away Kasperi Kapanen and Andreas Johnsson. They also said goodbye to defensemen Tyson Barrie and Cody Ceci and forward Kyle Clifford.
One place to expect the Leafs to improve next season is in the faceoff circle, after they lured Manny Malhotra away to become their new assistant coach. They were already good in the circle, ranked third during the regular season last year, one spot below Vancouver, at 52.5 percent overall. John Tavares and Auston Matthews took the bulk of the draws, and were both over 55 percent.
Malhotra will join former Canucks assistant general manager Laurence Gilman on the Toronto payroll and will be assisting Keefe on the bench along with two former NHL head bench bosses, Dave Hakstol and Paul MacLean.
CapFriendly is currently showing the Leafs at about $1 million over the cap ceiling with 23 players signed. That's probably close enough that they'll be able to maneuver their way to compliance for opening day.
Ottawa Senators
Even though the Senators finished last season in 30th place in the NHL standings, they went 1-1-0 against the Canucks. In early December, Vancouver skated to a 5-2 win at Rogers Arena, but Ottawa pulled off a 5-2 win of their own on home ice in late February — Bobby Ryan's big hat trick game when he returned to the team after taking time off to deal with his substance abuse issues.
Ryan is gone now, of course — bought out by the Senators and ready for a fresh start in Detroit. Also gone, long-time Sens from Craig Anderson to Mark Borowiecki, still-unsigned Anthony Duclair, and new Canuck Jayce Hawryluk.
The team will have a brand new look when it steps on the ice for the new season, led up front by Evgeni Dadonov, Alex Galchenyuk and Austin Watson, with Erik Gudbranson returning to his hometown on the back end and Matt Murray signed to a lucrative deal to be the Sens' next franchise goaltender.
CapFriendly is now showing the Sens at $69 million with 22 players signed — well above the salary-cap floor of $60.2 million, but still with room to maneuver if a team wanted to make them an offer they couldn't refuse to help clear up its own cap issues.
I'd say the Sens are one of the teams that might still make significant roster changes between now and opening night — although I'm guessing that with the way things ended between the team and Mike Hoffman the first time around, he's probably not on their wish list if they're looking for more scoring.
I don't imagine that Ottawa will suddenly be a playoff team this year. I guess the question is whether they've now created a good environment for young talent like Brady Tkachuk, Thomas Chabot and Colin White to continue their development.
Montreal Canadiens
Will emotions run high the first time the Canucks play against Tyler Toffoli in a Habs uniform?
Let's put it this way: I don't think that rivalry is going to carry the same kind of juice as the Calgary situation.
Toffoli actually got the game winner for the Canucks in overtime when they visited the Bell Centre this year on Feb. 25, a 4-3 victory. I wonder if that's how Marc Bergevin remembered him as they went into negotiations?
Earlier in the year, Montreal earned a 3-1 win at Rogers Arena on Dec. 19.
In addition to Toffoli, Montreal's other big offseason acquisitions were power forward Josh Anderson — acquired from Columbus in the trade that sent Max Domi the other way — as well as defenseman Joel Edmundson and backup goalie Jake Allen. Promising young Russian defenseman Alexander Romanov has also joined the team and is expected to make his NHL debut this year.
CapFriendly shows the Habs basically maxed out, cap-wise, with 21 players signed. They're taking a hit of nearly $4 million this year after buying out the last two years of the contract of Karl Alzner, who remains unsigned after having spent most of last season in the minors and been left off Montreal's expanded playoff roster.
Of course, despite having barely squeaked into the playoff bubble, Montreal made a good showing — thanks in no small part to the still game-changing Carey Price. Claude Julien's club was able to lock things down, giving up just 19 goals in 10 total postseason games as they knocked out the Pittsburgh Penguins in the preliminary round, then hung in for six games against the Philadelphia Flyers.
If all goes according to plan, Bergevin is hoping that Anderson and Toffoli will make Montreal more of an offensive threat, while Allen will be able to carry enough of the load to keep Price more rested, and playing more often at the top of his very formidable game.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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