Earlier in the season, I wrote about how the NHL can implement in-season tournaments relatively easily as a way to increase engagement, grow the game at home, stoke rivalries, and most importantly generate revenue for the NHL. The league could start this right away by bringing back an iconic trophy from hockey’s past, the Canada Cup, capitalizing on older fans’ nostalgia and igniting a new passion for the Canada Cup among younger fans.
The in-season Canada Cup
Check out the introduction on how the NHL’s in-season Canada Cup would work. Here’s the TL;DR version:
- This in-season cup is awarded to the Canadian franchise with the best record against all the other Canadian franchises at the end of the season.
- No additional NHL games would need to be added to the calendar, simply Canadian matchups would qualify for the regular NHL standings as usual, but also count towards the Canada Cup.
- While the NHL doesn’t have this as part of their calendar, the schedule naturally evens out fairly well in terms of games played—this year every Canadian franchise organically plays either 15 or 16 games against the other Canadian franchises.
Since our last update, four more all-Canadian matchups have taken place, and the standings have changed quite significantly.
Here’s your November 2024 Canada Cup update.
Canada Cup standings as of November 7, 2024
In our introduction of this in-season tournament, only four of the seven Canadian teams had played qualifying games. Since then, all teams have at least one game played, the Calgary Flames leading the charge with five games already completed. The Vancouver Canucks and Ottawa Senators each have just one game played so far, but have more coming up in the next week.
| Team | Pts | Pts% | GP | W | L | O | GF | GA | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MTL | 5 | .833 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 4 | 3 |
| WPG | 4 | .667 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 15 | 9 | 6 |
| CGY | 6 | .600 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 18 | 17 | 1 |
| TOR | 2 | .500 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 5 | 1 |
| VAN | 1 | .500 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 6 | -1 |
| EDM | 2 | .333 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 12 | -7 |
| OTT | 0 | .000 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 | -3 |
The Canadiens are atop the leaderboard for the first time this season, thanks to a point earned in an overtime loss to the Calgary Flames this past weekend. They may not have the most points, but have the best record at 2–0–1 and the second-best goal differential on the table.
The Flames actually lead in points but have played the most games. They’ve scored the most goals with 18, but more importantly, have allowed the most goals with 17. The Oilers are the next closest team in terms of goals against with 12, significantly fewer than the Flames.
The Senators have played just one game so far, a 4–1 loss to the Canadiens all the way back on October 12. However, it’s the Oilers that appear to be in the worst shape. They have just one win in their three games, and have a dreadful minus-seven goal differential which is by far the worst among the Canadian teams.
Upcoming Canada Cup games
In November there are 11 total Canada Cup games. One was the Battle of Alberta on November 3, and another was the excellent Flames and Canadiens game that went to overtime on November 5.
On Saturday night, two all-Canadian matchups feature on Hockey Night in Canada with the Maple Leafs and Canadiens facing off in the early game, and the Oilers and Canucks facing off in the late game.
The rest of November has seven more Canada Cup games:
| Date | Time | Visitor | Home |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-11-03 | 8:00 PM | EDM – 4 | CGY – 2 |
| 2024-11-05 | 7:00 PM | CGY – 3 | MTL – 2 |
| 2024-11-09 | 7:00 PM | MTL | TOR |
| 2024-11-09 | 10:00 PM | EDM | VAN |
| 2024-11-12 | 7:00 PM | OTT | TOR |
| 2024-11-12 | 10:00 PM | CGY | VAN |
| 2024-11-16 | 7:00 PM | EDM | TOR |
| 2024-11-18 | 7:30 PM | EDM | MTL |
| 2024-11-19 | 7:00 PM | EDM | OTT |
| 2024-11-23 | 7:00 PM | VAN | OTT |
| 2024-11-25 | 7:30 PM | CGY | OTT |
So far, the all-Canadian matchups have been great games to watch. The Canada Cup is an easy tournament to implement and has literally no downsides. The NHL should officially do it, but until then, you can follow along here for what the Canada Cup could have looked like if it was happening this season.
