It was expected to be such a down year that even the bookies were taking action on it.

But while the over-under for "how many Canadian NHL teams will make the playoffs?" was set for 2.5 by oddsmakers back before training camps opened, Canada's seven NHL teams have so far defied those odds.

Most of them, anyway.

Even after a weekend full of losses, if the playoffs started today in the NHL, five Canadians teams would make the postseason. On average, Canada's seven teams were on pace for 93 points after Sunday's games – and that's with Edmonton dragging them way, way down.

Minus the Oilers, the other six are averaging nearly a 100-point pace, led by Vancouver (111), Calgary (105) and Montreal (102).

Add in Toronto's strong start (98) and Winnipeg fending off a tough Central Division (97) and it's all rather impressive.

And unexpected.

2013-14 This season Team Points Pt-pace Possession Strengths Weaknesses VAN 83 111 10th All-around game Goaltending CGY 77 105 27th Pluckiness Possession MTL 100 102 20th Carey Price Possession TOR 84 98 25th Offensive depth Defensive play WIN 84 97 13th Goaltending(?!) Scoring OTT 88 82 28th Goaltending Numerous EDM 67 58 22nd Nothing Everything AVG 83.3 93 48.3%

In fact, the Canadian NHL teams haven't averaged more than 92 points as a group since 2006-07, which was also the last year they had a better overall record than U.S.-based teams.

Because it's still relatively early in the season and few saw this coming, it's worth asking if all these surprise showings are for real. Can they keep this up?

Well, already, the Canadiens are starting to falter. Their loss to Dallas on Saturday dropped Montreal to 1-5-1 in their last seven games as they prepare to face Vancouver on Tuesday at the Bell Centre.

That wasn't altogether unexpected, and there could be more pain for the Habs here as they try to turn things around.

The other team that's primed for a tumble is Calgary, as like the Habs, the Flames are not a strong possession team and have at times relied too heavily on shooting and save percentages early on.

That said, the Oilers are going to win more games the rest of the way and balance things out – no matter how bad you think they are, they're not 50-points bad – and the other three teams are all relatively close to where they deserve to be.

It's highly possible, in other words, that Canadian teams do end up at that 92 points or better mark.

If that happens, at least three or four of them will make the playoffs, with an outside shot that five Canadian teams are there for the first time since 2004.

That's a long way from last year when Montreal was the only one that made it, and it's a credit to the teams that have managed to rebuild a little quicker than pundits imagined they would.

Except for Edmonton. They're dragging everybody down.