Daily Faceoff Live: Are the Calgary Flames Canada’s best bet at the Stanley Cup?

On Wednesday’s edition of Daily Faceoff Live, Frank Seravalli and Mike McKenna discussed which Canadian team is the most likely to go on a serious run for the Stanley Cup this season.

Seravalli: “When you take a look at the 5-1-0 start by the Calgary Flames to this point, are you ready to say now that the Flames are the best-positioned Canadian team to chase the Stanley Cup this season?”

McKenna: “They are right now, but I’m not sure about by the end of the season.

I think for Calgary, all of the offseason additions have made sense and it’s worked out. Nazem Kadri is a top-10 player in the league, he’s been one of the best overall players across the board in the NHL. The rest of the group, Jonathan Huberdeau scored last night, MacKenzie Weegar has been great, and they’ve been getting great goaltending.

My pick, I still think by the end of the season that Edmonton is going to be the best bet out of Canada. Their shooting percentage is down a little bit, but at 5-on-5 that team has made strides. Once Edmonton starts finishing a bit more at 5-on-5 and if they can get their defense a little bit more active in the scoring I really believe that team is going to be there at the end of the season. What about you?”

Seravalli: “As good as Calgary’s start has been record-wise, I think they can actually get to another level. Kadri has been unbelievable, and Huberdeau has some room to grow and get accustomed to his new teammates.

You mentioned the Oilers, but how come nobody has mentioned the Toronto Maple Leafs yet? They put up 115 points last year, I know the first-round flameouts are connected to how we view this team’s chances to chase the Stanley Cup.

But they’ve been more or less mediocre to start the season, yet, at this point, they have a 4-3-0 record, so they’re above level ground. And, on top of that, Auston Matthews has one goal in seven games. How often are we going to see an Auston Matthews run with one goal in seven games the rest of this season? Probably never? He had a stretch last year with 53 goals in 56 games.

I imagine at some point soon, he’ll be getting close to that level again, and look out when the rest of that team starts to put it together. I’ve been a big believer in Ilya Samsonov all along in terms of his ability to take that job and run with it.”

McKenna: “I just don’t believe in the team in Toronto. I’m supposed to be an analyst, I’m supposed to look at everything, I see all of the reasons you’ve listed, but I’m also from the show-me state, so I’m not going to believe anything until I see it. Toronto just hasn’t been able to get there in the past and they might prove me wrong, I do think Samsonov has been great, but I don’t have that gut feeling about the Maple Leafs.”

You can watch the full episode here…