from Sean McIndoe of Grantland,

Is this godforsaken season going to be over any time soon? I’m asking for an entire country.

And no, I don’t mean winter, although come to think of it, that works, too. I mean the NHL’s regular season. Or, as it’s known in six of the league’s seven Canadian markets, the only part of the season we’re going to get.

Apparently we Canadians used up all our hockey karma in Sochi, because the country’s NHL teams are all going through various stages of misery. If the season ended today (and 80 percent of Canadians would vote for that if we could), the nation would send only one team to the playoffs for the first time in more than four decades. And even that one team isn’t considered a real contender.

The question isn’t whether this had been a bad year for Canadian NHL teams; it’s whether it’s been the worst year ever. In fact, it would be tempting to break out Al Pacino’s Any Given Sunday speech and tell the entire country that “We are in hell right now, gentlemen,” except that couldn’t be true because at least hell is warm.

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