How would the Montreal Canadiens fair in an all-Canadian division?

It’s an interesting thought experiment and one that has a lot of factors involved. One quick example is the Habs aren’t the only team to make changes/adjustments to their goaltending.

Take the Canucks, for example, who lost Jacob Markstrom to Calgary but signed Braden Holtby. It doesn’t seem as if the expectation is to give Holtby the full reigns in net considering what Thatcher Demko put on display in the playoffs against the Vegas Golden Knights. The three-year-old franchise got the final decision, but Demko made it ridiculously difficult.

A Holtby-Demko pairing may be one to rival what Montreal has in Price and Allen. Then there is Winnipeg, who had Connor Hellebuyck drag them all season on his way to a Vezina trophy.

Marc Bergevin did do well in improving the team’s projection of their identity. The players they’ve added have only helped with their mindset in competing and fighting for time and space. That will help when taking on the Edmonton Oilers more often. Connor McDavid is Connor McDavid, and he’ll be difficult to contain, which makes the blue line tweaks all the more important.

Again, the Leafs have changed and are definitely slower. The Canadiens usually play them well anyway, but Toronto could easily be one of those teams who play with more confidence given the new voices in the organization.

There’s no clear-cut way of figuring this out. That said, it doesn’t hurt to get the conversation going. The Montreal Canadiens do have the tools to properly compete and succeed against the other six Canadian teams; it just depends on whether all those parts execute well.