I have another post featured on The Good Point this week. In today's article I discuss whether 'Canada's team' actually exists or whether this is just concocted by the media.

Well, there is a 'Canada's team', but they only play in IIHF hockey tournaments; they are not the Canucks. Canada's team won't ever be the Leafs, Sens, Oilers, Flames, or Canadiens either. Maybe the Jets will become Canada's team, but that's just because no one wants to see them leave again.

Take a slap shot to the face in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Final. Come back to the ice after missing only five minutes. Just another day in the playoffs.

It's the end of the week and if anyone else is like me, that means keeping yourself hard at work will be difficult. In fact, keeping yourself motivated with the weekend looming is impossible, so you might as well give in and check out a few new posts I have over at The Good Point.

First, is a post about Canada's demise at the World Hockey Championship. For the second straight year Canada failed to medal. If people in Canada cared about the WHC they'd be pissed.

Second, is a look around the league at the unfortunate teams who missed this year's post-season. What are they doing? What are their plans? Well, hopefully they're working diligently to make sure they aren't on the outside of the playoffs again next season. If they are, I've listed their major priorities for the summer.

The playoffs are a time when relatively unheralded players elevate their play and become household names. Throughout the regular season many of these players receive attention within their local cities and are probably recognized throughout the league, but not many people around the league know how truly good some of these players really are. These are the underrated and underappreciated.

After a successful post-season many of these players will no longer suffer from a lack of appreciation. Praise is nice, but it can sometimes become a curse. With accolades come expectations; with expectations come pressure. Players can quickly turn from underrated to overrated.

Let’s take a look at a list of players who elevated their game during the playoffs and helped turn more than a few heads. Whether these players continue to play at this level will become evident over the next few seasons. In the meantime, they should enjoy the increased coverage.

After years of trouble in Phoenix, accompanied by constant rumours of relocation, Winnipeg will finally get an NHL team back, although it isn’t the one they were expecting. According to reports, True North Sports – the group which owns and operates the Manitoba Moose and the MTS Centre – are close to completing a deal for the Atlanta Thrashers, which would subsequently be moved to Winnipeg. In fact, the highly reputable Stephen Brunt is reporting that the deal is done. As in complete. Brunt indicates the league will announce the deal on Tuesday. TSN and CBC are both reporting the deal is close – but not done. Regardless, it appears like a matter of when, not if the Thrashers move.

After this series one team will finally shed the baggage of being a well documented underachiever by making a trip to the Stanley Cup Final. Both teams have overcome huge obstacles this post-season to make it this far and neither will gain any satisfaction with merely making the Conference Finals. This is a franchise defining series for both teams and will be exciting to watch.

Break it down!

The second round of the playoffs wasn’t able to live up to the lofty expectations set by the fantastically exciting first round. The Eastern Conference Final match-up was set almost a week ago, while the Western Conference was only solidified after last night's big game 7 between the Wings and Sharks.

Thankfully, the Wings and Sharks prolonged their series, which at one point looked like it would be the third sweep of the second round. Not only does this add some drama and suspense to the second round, but I was away for a week and unable to post a conference final breakdown. Let’s first break down the Eastern Conference Final and tomorrow we’ll set up the Western Conference Final.

Recently, the University of Toronto’s Mowat Centre published an article that argued that Canada could support six more teams, increasing the total to 12. The paper, written by Tony Keller and Neville McGuire, is an extremely interesting read that makes a compelling argument that Canada has only six teams because of politics, not feasibility, and certainly not demand.

The paper suggests that Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver can all support another NHL franchise, provided that the new teams share the existing NHL arenas in each city. In addition to another franchise in Toronto, Southern Ontario can support another team in Hamilton, Kitchener-Waterloo, or London. Finally, both Quebec and Winnipeg can support a team – a notion being discussed endlessly with the precarious settlement of both the Phoenix Coyotes and Atlanta Thrashers.

The paper argues that because the NHL largely derives their profits from ticket sales and concessions (in contrast to a league like the NFL which has a lucrative television contract), having a small market that generates big interest in hockey is much more valuable than a large market with less interest. Winnipeg > Phoenix.

The paper uses Edmonton as a benchmark because it is one of the smallest markets in the NHL and houses the smallest arena in the NHL. However, because of the fanatical nature of Edmonton fans, the Oilers are not only able to survive, but strive. According to Keller and McGuire, ticket and in-arena concession revenue makes up approximately 50-75% of a team’s total revenue; in 2007-2008, the Oilers generated approximately $1.2 million per home game from tickets alone.

I highly recommend reading the entire article. Based on the variables examined in the paper, it is clear that Canada can support an additional six teams. The demand is evidently there. And, for the most part, so is the infrastructure. However, the authors do not look at other important variables when examining each city's viability. When they do mention certain drawbacks they do not expand on them and leave them largely ignored. The authors freely admit this stating that their objective was to discover the cities that the free market would support, not what the NHL would allow.

I believe the amount of Canadian teams in the NHL needs to increase, but there could be major repercussions to expanding the NHL’s presence in Canada.

The most likeable Hab.

Recently, I was offered a position at The Good Point as one of their hockey writers. The Good Point is a feature-based online publication affiliated with the Score that was started a few years ago and is increasingly their weekly output (hence my acquisition).

Tonight, my first article ran. Unfortunately, I wrote about the Montreal Canadiens. It was an unbiased piece, which is something of a change from the usual Montreal jokes I toss around here (although, I've occasionally managed to write with some objectivity on the subject).  Maybe it was because I recently spent a weekend in Montreal and reminded myself why the greater Montreal area is one of my favourite places in the world.

I will be writing a weekly column for The Good Point (except for next week), but will still have time (hopefully) to write at least once a week here at Five Minutes For Fighting.

Thanks to anyone who has shown an interest in this site and my writing. A big thanks to anyone who has kept me honest by pointing out everything from typos to huge oversights.

So go check it out!