[19Yzerman19]

Your premise is flawed. Each team is unique in its circumstances.

Montreal's pretty good, and really doesn't show any signs of getting bad any time soon, as they have a pretty good balance. There's really not much to worry about there.

Vancouver HAS been very good, and is now on the downhill slope, while Calgary is pretty much at the bottom of the downhill slope - both of which are natural states of evolution for hockey franchises. Again, not the brightest short term future but nothing really to worry about; this is how it goes, there are peaks and valleys.

Toronto and Edmonton are victims of terrible management for the past decade or so. This has nothing to do with being in Canada, other than the fact that increased media scrutiny may have precipitated some bad decisions. They will be capable of being competitive when they stop being run like a tire fire. While an unpopular opinion, and in spite of Kevin Lowe still being there, I think Oilers management has made some very good decisions this year that are being overshadowed by the embedded problems within the organization, which will take some time to purge.

The Jets have basically the same problems as the Thrashers. If they were still in Atlanta, they'd be much the same team, but with lower attendance figures. This isn't a "Canada" problem; again it's specific to the organization. There have been player management decisions that didn't work - crucially the Kovalchuk trade, with Bergfors and Cormier failing to become contributors, and the Hossa trade, with Angelo Esposito not panning out - and it takes some time to recover from that.

I don't think any of these situations is linked to the team's Country of residence.