from Kevin McGran of the Toronto Star,

Sure you might lose one of hockey's greatest rivalries -- a Montreal-Boston playoff series, unless both meet in what would be the conference finals. Toronto would say goodbye to Buffalo and Detroit, but that's about it really.

The Maple Leafs are making their annual trek west -- they picked up a win in Edmonton in a building that seemed filled with Leafs fans -- and head to Calgary tonight for the second of back-to-backs.

Leafs-Oilers (Matthews-McDavid, or Kadri-McDavid, or Rielly-McDavid) seems like a rivalry that would grow if they'd only play each other more. Ditto Leafs-Jets, where Patrik Laine seems built for the spotlight of showing up the team that passed over him. Really Leafs-AnyCanadianTeam. Same goes for the Canadiens and the Canucks, with cross-country followers, and Oilers, as long as McDavid is healthy.

Yoiu've got to think networks on both sides of the border would love it. There'd be more big American games for NBC to show. They could ignore us completely.

And don't worry about the travel. They fly in really nice planes. And your opponent for the first two rounds of the playoffs (as I see it, anyway) would be from the same division, with the same travel schedule.

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