No matter how much I rehash it from all angles, there isn't a good team in the NHL that doesn't have at least one superstar.
We can clearly see that the Canadian is making progress. But I don't see who this famous stallion will be in the medium term. The one (or ones) who can change the course of games quite often.
A guy who would be one of the top 20 scorers in the NHL, for example.
For CH it has happened once in the last 16 years and it was Alexei Kovalev.
If we do the somewhat simple math, I agree that a team has a 33 percent chance of having a top 20 scorer every year, while the odds of only having one in 16 years are 1 in 20 million lies.
No team in the NHL has had so few good scorers in all these years.
Even since 1986, the Nordiques have had more scorers in the NHL's top 10 than the CH, which has 0. (Sorry, that was too easy).
Martin St-Louis has managed to reach the top 20 seven times in his career.
That's the kind of superstar I'm talking about. It's fun to have him as a coach, but I would also take one on the ice.
I'm asking a lot, Santa, but if CH could finally have a player like that at some point, I think I'd be more convinced that the team could really aspire to go all the way in the next few years. We see it night after night, win or lose. It's always complicated. The Canadians are the only team that hasn't won a single game by three or more goals in the league this year.
If we compare CH's top scorer with St-Louis' offensive stats every year from 2005 to 2015, the latter is ahead with 98 points. And especially during Kovalev's good years in Montreal.
Superstars
Most teams that are still rebuilding have some players who have the potential to become superstars.
The Ducks rely on Leo Carlsson, Trevor Zegras, Mason McTavish and Jamie Drysdale.
The senators are Jake Sanderson and Tim Stutzle.
The Blue Jackets have Adam Fantilli. The Kraken has Matty Beniers.
The Red Wings are Moritz Seider and Lucas Raymond. The Wild has Matt Boldy. The Sharks are pitiful but waiting for Will Smith.
Chicago obviously has Connor Bedard.
Archive photo, Getty Images via AFP
Could it be Cole Caufield at CH? We can hope so, but he's showing this year that he alone can't change a trio.
Nick Suzuki? Maybe, but at 24 years old he seems more like a very responsible 60-70 point player.
Juraj Slafkovsky? It's not impossible, but it doesn't have the profile of a points machine.
Kirby roof? It's starting to cause a lot of injuries.
The general in defense
Defensively, every team that wins the Cup has something in common, a superstar defender: Alex Pietrangelo, Cale Makar, Victor Hedman, Kristopher Letang, Ducan Keith, Drew Doughty…
Who will this defender be at CH? Kaiden Guhle? He's great, but does he have the offensive potential to get there? Not sure.
David Reinbacher doesn't have this profile either. Logan Mailloux and Lane Hutson are candidates for the offensive aspect, but can we compare them to the defenders in the previous paragraphs? That seems a bit risky to me.
Check out the teams dominating the rankings this year. Whether they went through the rebuild or not, they have one thing in common: superstars.
The Bruins have missed the playoffs twice in the last 16 years. They are afraid of reconstruction. But they have David Pastrnak, Brad Marchand and Charle McAvoy.
The Rangers are quickly going through a difficult few years, but their influential players have nothing to do with this rebuild. Their top three scorers this year came via trade or the free agent market: Artemi Panarin, Vincent Trochek and Mika Zibanejad. Trochek may not be a superstar, but the point is that he didn't make the team during the lean years in New York. He appeared as a free agent. Zibanejad may not be a huge superstar either, but we haven't seen his 91 points last year in Montreal in 34 years.
Their best defender, Adam Fox, chose not to play in Carolina and the Rangers were able to get him.
The Avalanche missed the playoffs six of seven years before rising back to power. CH has been there four times in the last six years. But the Avalanche rely on Makar, Nathan Mackinnon and Mikko Rantanen. That is the difference.
The Canucks are an interesting example. It's been three years since the team made the playoffs, but management hasn't always been willing to commit to a rebuild and has made several poor decisions. During those three years, the team traded away 13 draft picks, including two first-rounders and three second-rounders.
But Vancouver is still dominating this year, it was no drama to try. Because the team counts on its superstars: Elias Pettersson, JT Miller and Quinn Hughes. Tatcher Demko is also stunning.
Archive photo, Getty Images via AFP
Please Santa Claus
Anyway Santa, this year I want a Martin St Louis type or a superstar for the Canadian. If the CH already has it, help us Santa Claus shine his superpowers in a few years.
I think the team really needs it if they want to be contenders for major awards. I would love that so much, to open the statistics page of my newspaper and see a CH player in the first column of points.
The last time it happened, a new baby came into our lives: the iPhone.
It's been too long.