If you are a fan of a team that didn't make the playoffs, or perhaps you just don't (can't?) have high hopes that your team is going to go on a deep run, this can be a tough time of year.

You could root against the team(s) your team hates. That's always a worthy exercise. But what about if you want to root for teams that are just cool and fun to watch? That's also good to do.

But maybe you're like a lot of NHL fans and you watched 60-plus games of your own team but maybe not so many of the other teams. How do you know which teams are gonna scratch the itch if they make a deep run?

I have ranked them for you, in order from least-cool to coolest: