Has the NHL ever been better?

In the absence of fascinating postseason races, the NHL is still delivering highly entertaining action on a night-to-night basis. Justin Cuthbert and Julian McKenzie discuss the enhanced state of the game.

Video Transcript

JUSTIN CUTHBERT: The NHL has been terrific over the last month, two weeks. I missed some great hockey. And I kept asking myself when I came back and I was trying to catch up and watching all these fantastic games. Florida, five unanswered goals to come back against Jersey yesterday. Has the NHL ever been better? Honestly, like think the eight teams we've known are going to be in the playoffs in the Eastern Conference, no intrigue at all. And yet it is so exciting every night watching either Florida or Toronto or Tampa or Boston or Pittsburgh or Carolina. It doesn't even matter, they're just jockeying for position and the stakes seem high and the entertainment value is through the roof. There's really only one race it's, Vegas or Dallas, maybe Edmonton you can throw in there, maybe LA. But it all comes down to nine teams for eight spots, it seems in the Western Conference. And yet the Edmonton Oilers are appointment viewing and everything else that's going on out West, Colorado, Calgary. I want to watch some all the time. If you're watching 10 teams the hockey has never been better in the NHL, at least for me, with all these teams running up scores, comebacks, blown leads. It just seems like, in this moment in time, the product is as good as it's ever been. And I've mentioned this on the show a few times. Jamie Benn, 2015 won the Art Ross with 87 points. Five players have exceeded 87 points already. We're going to have two 60 goal scorers maybe. We can have a handful of 50 goal scorers, we could have a handful of players that exceed 100 points. I mean this is like a completely different game than it was seven years ago when I was calling out Tristan Thompson at the TSN newsroom. Everything is different, It seems in the NHL and there are bad teams and there are some embarrassing stories and bad things happening at the lower end. Actually, they haven't proved like Montreal is better Phoenix, Arizona I mean better. A lot improvement. Buffalo is respectable now. But despite the lack of intrigue in terms of playoff races, the NHL right now is on fire. Do you agree with me JULIAN MCKENZIE: I was thinking about this and there's no other time that I've watched the NHL where I've seen the scoring as much as it has. Because I think the amount of goals per game in games is the highest it's been in over 20 years, Or since 96. It's been a while since we've seen this many goals in a game. The blown comebacks, like even Tampa against Montreal had like a 3-1 lead they, blew that lead and lost in a shootout against the Canadians. I watched the game earlier this week with-- you could tell obviously watching the Canadians a lot, they've lost a game against the Panthers like 7 to 4. There was like an 8-4 game against the Jets earlier this year too with the Canadians. There's been so much scoring, it is interesting to see that it has been as good and we've seen the back and forth between teams. So Yeah I can't think of another time where at least the on-ice product on top of the fact that guys like Trevor Zegras are just casually doing the lacrosse moves in a game, which I know we'll get to later. Yeah I think for me with the on-ice product, it's really good to see that we're getting these types of games, especially now as we're approaching the end of the year. We're getting all of the lull of the trade deadline. There was a point earlier in the year like after Christmas where I think with COVID and everything going on, I think people were starting to check out with everything going on. Now is like a really good time ahead of the playoffs to dial yourself back in and get yourself ready for those first round series. Because we all know when it comes to the Stanley Cup playoffs, as great as they can be throughout the entirety of it, a lot of those really great matchups and a lot of those really great games, they tend to happen in those first two rounds with like just wall to wall playoff hockey all day. The one thing that I just have a small gripe with-- well, maybe not a small gripe, it's a gripe that we've talked about a lot on the show. But it just feels-- I'll explain why it's minuscule in a second. I just wish was just a little bit more personality driven. I just think the personalities for a lot of those different teams. Obviously, they're just not on the same level as so many other leagues in the big four of North American sports. But I just have this weird feeling with the way that Trevor Zegras has been made out to be a star. And again, we'll talk about some of the stuff that he said later in light of some stuff that's happened. The way that he was able to put himself in front. A guy like Jack Hughes who I think is maybe under-covered as a star and I think he is showing signs of personality. Or I don't know, if you caught the last episode of Zone Time, we were talking about guys on the Leafs who are interesting and a point was made that maybe William Nylander should be hyped up as more of a celebrity because the fact, he just doesn't care. There are personalities who could be helping to drive this league, they just haven't done a sufficient job of it. And I think that would also help to prop up the excitement in this league right now. Because you're right like the games that we're seeing, there's some really exciting stuff happening every night. But there's something missing in order to really make it good. And I mean, don't get us started about how the NHL should be marketing all of this and maybe they're not necessarily doing the greatest job. But if you are paying attention and you're watching, there's good stuff.