May 22: The NHLPA executive board is expected to approve the return to play proposal, according to Bob McKenzie of TSN. 24 teams will take part in the conclusion of the 2019-20 season, though the announcement of approval is not expected to come with any timeline on when hockey will actually return.
May 21: Even though there are no clear timelines or even a full logistical plan on how it will work, the NHL is getting closer to a format for the resumption of the 2019-20 campaign. Elliotte Friedman and Chris Johnston of Sportsnet reported last night that the league will be proposing a 24-team “bracketed” playoff structure to the players, perhaps as soon as today. If the players sign off on it, the NHL will finally have a plan in place for what will happen when the season resumes, though there are still countless details to work out about how it would actually take place.
The important questions for fans are which teams would be involved, and what would the matchups look like. Friedman has you covered on both bases, indicating that the tournament would be based on points percentage and have a play-in round between seeds 5-12 in each conference. That means the Boston Bruins (1st in East), Tampa Bay Lightning (2nd), Washington Capitals (3rd), Philadelphia Flyers (4th), St. Louis Blues (1st in West), Colorado Avalanche (2nd), Vegas Golden Knights (3rd) and Dallas Stars (4th) would all have “byes” for the play-in round, but would also participate in a three-game tournament (the details of which are not clear.)
According to Friedman, thee play-in round would look like this:
5. Pittsburgh vs. 12. Montreal (winner plays four seed)
6. Carolina vs. 11. Rangers (winner plays three seed)
7. Islanders vs. 10. Florida (winner plays two seed)
8. Toronto vs. 9. Columbus (winner plays one seed)
5. Edmonton vs. 12. Chicago (winner plays four seed)
6. Nashville vs. 11. Arizona (winner plays three seed)
7. Vancouver vs. 10. Minnesota (winner plays two seed)
8. Calgary vs. 9. Winnipeg (winner plays one seed)
That round would be a best-of-five with best-of-seven series to follow, and the playoffs would not include re-seeding at any point. As Johnston points out in his talk with Arash Madani of Sportsnet, that would allow for a sort of March Madness-style bracket system that could be very exciting for fans.
As with any plan from the NHL right now, it is important to remember that this is just a proposal and is still contingent on the advice and recommendations of medical professionals across North America. The league will not be coming back without sufficient testing and a plan in place to keep their athletes, support staff, and the public safe. In fact, Johnston tweeted yesterday that the proposal “does not cover other critical issues, such as testing protocols, hub cities, visas and many other things.”
There is still a lot of work to be done.
As much as people want to argue about why adding 8 teams would be bad, they have to realize that plenty of teams are still fighting for a playoff spot. Just because a team like MTL or CHI would get in with an uphill battle currently facing them, doesn’t mean they couldn’t surprise in the postseason. Experienced guys like Toews, Kane, Price, and others could be season wreckers in the post season. And if it all boils down to it, they’ll give the higher seeds a decent warmup before they face superior opponents.
The Pens have the 6th best record in the entire NHL. The idea that they’d be forced into a coin flip play-in game is BS.
Let the 7 and 8 seeds host the 9 and 10 seeds for one game each, like baseball, and then have a normal playoff.
If you want to argue going straight to the playoffs is unfair to teams on the bubble, OK. But the 23 and 24 seeds?
C’mon.
They are just trying to crowbar large markets like CHI and MTL into the playoffs.
How is a best of 5 series a coin flip play in game?
What a Pittsburgh homer, these are extraordinary times, if the penguins didn’t want to play in a play in series they should’ve had the 4th best record in their conference, they did not to the play in tournament they are banished where they will be absolutely obliterated due to Sidney Crosby being 45 and Malkin having a worse contract than Brent Seabrook
Uhh…how about if the Habs or Hawks or any of the other scrub teams wanted to make the playoffs they should have had a top 3 seed in their division or been one of the two wild card teams?
I missed that part, but that’s worse, because it’s unfair to the top seeds to have to sit around for best of 5 round only to face teams that are playoff ready.
Just Iike every Year you have Win every round to win the cup! If the pens lose to Montreal do they really deserve to be there? No matter what way the league does it people are going to complain! DEAL WITH IT! Just be happy hockey might be back on
as a Flyers fan i dont want to play the darn Pens again in the first round
The “pause” has gone on almost as long as a regular offseason and by the time they get things sorted it will have been just as long. Unfortunately too much time has passed to resume the season and crown a legit 2019-20 champion. Doesn’t matter who wins, there will always be an asterisk beside there name and as much as players like Matt Duchene don’t want a “Covid cup”, that’s exactly what they’re going to get. That’s the best case scenario on resuming play. Worst case, they resume play and players/staff start testing positive and someone dies as a result. If the safety of the players and staff was really everyone’s main concern, the season would be canceled and they would start working on a plan to safely start the 2020-21 season in September, which isn’t that far away.
there likely isn’t much difference in your Sept scenario. precautions are probably similar but with a 2nd wave predicted for Sept or Oct, why even start then
I want to see Calgary and Edmonton. Don’t care how it happens
neither can play at home though. they gotta play on the moon or something.
@DarkSide830 – Man, that IS a neutral site! Just think, though, one well-placed hip check and guy could end up in the Asteroid Belt!
yeah fun skating on Saturn’s rings Go Blackhawks!!!
There you go, again, G! You ‘Hawks homer, you! :) Hope all is well there!
Jupiter’s “eye” is watching you!
Thank Mac, all is well here as could be spending most of time jamming on music live streams , animal livestreams and Hockeybuzzcast with Pelle Eklund , yes the Pelle Eklund Monday -Friday and hockey rumors for my fix , if you haven’t seen Hockey Buzz Cast on youtube check it out am on there with same id , Take Care my friend. yep just a little river rat from Tennessee that loves my Blackhawks.
I took a peek at a couple of recent episodes and after seeing Pelle for the first time in years, noticed he bears a slight resemblance to one of my cousin-in-laws. Pelle’s got a little less hair, but looked pretty good.
To elaborate, everything hinges on nothing going wrong and stopping play again. Covid is not going away, should be playing with less teams not more teams and just hope you get a champ before things lock down again.
They wouldn’t even start for another month most likely. Cancel the season or have a 8 team playoff with a play in game if need be, this whole 24 team playoff to be fair, there is no fair in any which way they come up with. Top 4 each conference, get it done with and done with the best teams, just wishing you will be able to play for months on end without problems is wishful thinking
@AaronV – Thank you for echoing my sentiments! Well put! Bettman & Co. conveniently “forgot” in their haste to jam their pockets with $$$, that screw-jobbing the top teams with byes mean they will be at a severe competitive disadvantage due to the affliction known as RUST! Give the league dopes a 25th asterisk for that ill-conceived junk! Sixteen teams or less, and close monitoring of players and their families, if allowed to travel with them. And, above all else, ensure safety for ALL involved, including the arena & hotel personnel.
The top 4 teams are also laying a round robin for seeding they shouldn’t have any more rust than any of the other teams?
@Sillysundin – Yeah, over the last couple of hours I’ve heard Dregs & Bobby Mac both talking about that change, so that would, indeed, negate the rust angle. In my mind (and apparently others’), this 24-team crap should just be scrapped to maintain *some* degree of integrity for the season. Treat it like the previous lockout years, and most people would be OK with the not-so-artificially shortened season. Bettman & Co. want to stooge some “casual fans” into getting new interest in the NHL, but forget that next year, said “casual fan” will ask, “Where are the other 8 teams for your playoffs?”
@MacJablonski – I’m not usually a Bettman apologist, but I’m not sure money is the big factor here. No fans in the arena means drastically reduced revenues, though people being locked in their homes may increase TV viewership (hehe).
If they do resume the season, they may as well play out the regular season because teams will need a type of “pre-season at this point anyway. Reduce the first two rounds to 5 game series, which could shorten the playoffs by up to two weeks.
@Gbear – I think resuming would be good, if not for having two months of idle time for the players. You’ve no doubt read/heard that those who aren’t in contention for a playoff spot would rather just stay home and prepare for next season. Common sense dictates that pre-season type warmup games are an absolute must, just to prevent injury. It would be interesting to know how the league will be able to make up some of the lost revenue without “butts-in-the-seats.” There might have to be some sponsor incentives to the viewers to purchase their products, as well as the league getting creative with selling merchandise at a more palatable price for the fans. Not exactly Win-Win for the fans, NHL, and sponsors, but “any port in the storm”…
@MacJablonski– I’d like to stay home from work and get my full salary to, but if I have to tough it out, so do the Red Wings. :D
@Gbear – That’s what I like about you – tough, but fair! :)
so even in a year where the leafs avoid the Bruins in the first round, really they still get them
I don’t think it matters lol our defence is just not good enough to contend yet!
To those promoting the “2nd wave of corona virus” in the fall (no real evidence for that, but that’s another topic), your best bet for hockey is to play during the summer. If wave #2 actually happens, it’ll be the 2020/21 season that would be effected by it.
Just play all future games at large box stores, as the virus apparently is afraid of those places. (Sarcasm intended).
@Gbear – That big box store idea may not be as sarcastically bad as you think! We have a few people here that do keep their distance, but only a few. But, the 2nd wave prediction is gaining more momentum, and I’ve spoken with a lady from our local Health Department who said it is expected this fall/winter. This was a couple of weeks ago, too. That may come from analysis of how tough it is to treat it and that the test vaccines are probably not strong enough yet. That, and the fact, as you and I have discussed before, if this is a mutating monster, we may not see much progress for years. My local case count keeps going up, but I think both you and I (along with the rest of our PHR brethren) would like things to just get back to normal and deal with the rest of everyday life as it comes. What are the odds we’ll get our wish?
@MacJablonski– the flu comes back in various forms every year, so I imagine corona viruses will as well (the cold is a corona virus, BTW), but we should know by now that we need to protect the vulnerable, not lock away healthy people.
As for getting our wish for life as we knew it, I guess it depends on who your Governor or Canadian equivalent of that is. I’ll leave it at that. :)
Asterisk season TBS
@brucenewton – Welcome to the club! This is one of the only times in human history where I’d vote for a more extended quarantine, just to jam Bettman’s asterisk-infested 24-team Joke-A-Thon!
So teams that would have clearly made playoffs are forced to possibly play an additional 5 games? Absolutely ridiculous especially considering these will likely be neutral site. M
so they’re going right to the playoffs in this scenario, right?
Also a little ridiculous that teams in the lottery are in the playoffs
One question. Who would really want to hoist a Cup this year and feel like it was the real thing. The season was ruined. It’s like trying to salvage a trailer park that got leveled by a tornado! Let it go!
why dont you ask the players what they actually feel? i bet you’ll be surprised.
I would never watch an NHL regular season game again. Why would anyone? The current system is too big.
because of one season? that’s absurd.
I really think everyone should just quit talking so much about hockey. The powers that be want all of us to be focussing all our attention and fears upon Covid-19, and if they perceive all this hockey talk is distracting us and providing hope they will surely implement restrictions to quash any hopes of the season starting
HockeyDude777 gets it!
This is all political at this point. Stop the spread became flatten the curve which became more testing which became wait for the vaccine to now waves #2 and even #3! Hockey and other sports are collateral damage in the game of politics. Frankly, I’m disappointed more atheletes aren’t speaking out about it.