Canada's North Division winner may be forced to play in United States for playoffs
The NHL's North Division, including all seven teams from Canada, has been one of the most exciting divisions to watch this season, but there could be a problem come this postseason for these teams. They could be forced into playing in the U.S. due to the border issues from COVID-19.
This will likely remain an issue come June when the Stanley Cup Playoffs begin. Each division will have four teams that will qualify for the playoffs, so the first two rounds of the postseason will be fine for the playoff teams as there would be no border crossing. But, the semifinal and Stanley Cup Final are where problems arise. There is no way that the NHL could afford a 14-day quarantine in the middle of a best-of-seven series featuring the Canadian division winner and a U.S. counterpart during June.
Canada's federal government could drop the quarantine requirement to the training camp length of seven days, but that would still be problematic for the NHL during the playoffs. It makes much more sense to relocate the Canadian division winner to play in the United States to avoid a week or two-week long quarantine.
As weird as it may seem, Buffalo could see playoff hockey for the first time in years, although the matchup would not feature the Buffalo Sabres. The Toronto Maple Leafs would likely relocate there, and the Jets would likely move to Minnesota if they were to make it that far in the postseason. The Alberta teams could be facing a bigger trip away from home, possibly having to play in Seattle, or even Grand Forks, North Dakota, home of the University of North Dakota Fighting Hawks, who made a very strong pitch to be a hub city for last season's Stanley Cup Playoffs.
League officials will try their best to get special exemptions, but that depends on how the situation looks in June. For example, the vaccine rollout is going much faster in the U.S. than it is in Canada. Hopefully, everything regarding the pandemic will be much better come June, but only time will tell whether or not the NHL will make the Canadian division winner play in the U.S., or if they are lucky enough, stay in Canada and play in front of their fans.
The Leafs play out of Buffalo? The Jets play out of Minnesota? The NHL's Canadian division winner could relocate to the U.S. for semifinals, Stanley Cup final. My weekend piece: https://t.co/Ndqdru4sE3— Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) March 5, 2021
| G | A | PTS | ||
| Taylor Hall | 3 | - | 3 | |
| Brayden Point | 3 | - | 3 | |
| Brock Nelson | 2 | 1 | 3 | |
| Bryan Rust | 2 | 1 | 3 | |
| Pavel Zacha | 2 | 1 | 3 | |
| Quinn Hughes | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| Carter Verhaeghe | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| Erik Karlsson | - | 3 | 3 | |
| Elias Lindholm | - | 3 | 3 | |
| David Pastrnak | - | 3 | 3 | |
| Tim Stutzle | - | 3 | 3 | |
| Adam Gaudette | 2 | - | 2 | |
| Dylan Holloway | 2 | - | 2 | |
| Brad Marchand | 2 | - | 2 | |
| Aleksander Barkov | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Sam Bennett | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Sean Couturier | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Alex DeBrincat | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Jack Drury | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Cutter Gauthier | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Complete stats | ||||
| STANDINGS 2024-2025 | ||||||
TOP 10 | GP | W | L | OL | PTS | |
Jets | 23 | 18 | 5 | - | 36 | |
Hurricanes | 22 | 16 | 5 | 1 | 33 | |
Wild | 22 | 14 | 4 | 4 | 32 | |
Devils | 25 | 15 | 8 | 2 | 32 | |
Capitals | 22 | 15 | 6 | 1 | 31 | |
Golden Knights | 23 | 14 | 6 | 3 | 31 | |
Maple Leafs | 22 | 13 | 7 | 2 | 28 | |
Flames | 23 | 12 | 7 | 4 | 28 | |
Panthers | 23 | 13 | 9 | 1 | 27 | |
Kings | 23 | 12 | 8 | 3 | 27 | |
| Conference | Cumulative | ||||||