Today’s article was supposed to be part 2 of my 2022 Winter Olympics series, but given the announcement by the NHL on Tuesday, I thought I should talk about that!
The NHL announced its 24 team return to play plan on Tuesday afternoon.
The top 12 teams in each conference based on points percentage as of March 12th qualified for the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The top 4 teams in each conference will play in a round robin tournament to determine seeding, while the other 8 teams in each conference will play in a qualifying playoff round. The round robin tournament will use regular season rules (3 on 3 overtime, followed by a shootout if necessary). The qualifying round will use playoff rules (5 on 5 continuous overtime). The qualifying round matchups are:
Eastern Conference
(5) Pittsburgh Penguins vs (12) Montreal Canadiens
(6) Carolina Hurricanes vs (11) New York Rangers
(7) New York Islanders vs (10) Florida Panthers
(8) Toronto Maple Leafs vs (9) Columbus Blue Jackets
Western Conference
(5) Edmonton Oilers vs (12) Chicago Blackhawks
(6) Nashville Predators vs (11) Arizona Coyotes
(7) Vancouver Canucks vs (10) Minnesota Wild
(8) Calgary Flames vs (9) Winnipeg Jets
In the East, Boston, Tampa Bay, Washington, and Philadelphia get a bye and will participate in the round robin tournament to determine seeding. In the West, St. Louis, Colorado, Vegas, and Dallas get the bye.
Phase 2 of the NHL’s return to play can begin as early as next week! It involves individual and small group on-ice and off-ice workouts.
Phase 3 can begin no earlier than July 10th and will consist of likely a 3 week formal training camp as well as 2 exhibition games per team.
Phase 4 is when playoff games begin. Given that phase 3 will be around 3 weeks long and being sometime in the middle of July, that puts the NHL on track for an early August return to meaningful games!
All of this is dependent on how the COVID-19 situation unfolds. The health and safety of players, coaches, and all people behind the scenes is priority for the NHL. If they don’t seem that it is safe to return, then it won’t happen. But given how infection rates are slowing, it’s more and more likely we will see hockey this summer.
There are still a handful of issues that have to be figured out prior to the puck dropping, likely in the second half of July.
The first thing that needs to be finalized is the series length. The qualifying round will be a best of 5, but the return to play committee is still trying to determine whether the first and second round of the playoffs will be a best of 5 or best of 7. The answer to that is expected to come by the end of this week.
The other big thing that needs to be figured out is who the hub cities will be. During his announcement Tuesday, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman mentioned the league has narrowed the list of hub cities to 10. They include: Chicago, Columbus, Dallas, Edmonton, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Minnesota, Pittsburgh, Toronto, and Vancouver. Las Vegas is expected to be one of the two hub cities. Each hub city will host a conference for at least the round robin, qualifying round, first and second rounds, while it is still undetermined where the conference finals and Stanley Cup final will be played. It is possible it will be at one of the hub cities, but depending on how the spread of COVID-19 is, it is also possible both conference finals as well as the Stanley Cup final will be played in each teams home arena.
Now that I have listed a good chunk of facts for the 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs, I thought I would share my opinion, in a non-biased way as much as possible.
To start, I am a big fan of this format, mainly because we get hockey in the middle of the summer and the Stanley Cup will be awarded. Regardless of how the return to play committee decided on the format for the playoffs, I would have enjoyed it either way.
We are going to be in for some amazing hockey everyone. From the time of the pause (March 12th) to the start of formal training camps (as early as July 1st) players will have been rested for three and a half months, giving them time to recover from minor and major injuries or just wear and tear from the 70ish games teams had played prior to the pause.
Do I think the format is fair? For the most part yes, their are certain teams who don’t necessarily belong to be in the playoffs, such as my Habs. We didn’t have a good season at all, but this is the format the NHL has chosen and as a die hard Habs fan, I am ecstatic to see us involved in the 24 team playoff. For us to be in this format, anything can happen. In a short series (best of 5), Carey Price will thrive, in pressure situations he always proves that he is among the best goalies in the world. Any of the 8 teams in each conference’s qualifying round can win, there is going to be some very close, and tight series’, so if your team happens to be involved in this format, you should be over the moon.
There are people out there who are going to say the return of sports shouldn’t happen because it’s not important at this time or essential. People are entitled to their own opinions but in this case I have to say those people are wrong. Sports are going to help communities recover and being back some sense of normalcy. It will also help with many people with their mental health. Sports bring a tremendous amount of joy to people, including myself, and without sports it has been awful, and I know many other people who feel the same way.
Whichever way the NHL went with this there will always be people who are happy, and some who are pissed off, but this is uncharted waters for all of us, no format is going to be perfect, but we should all be excited about the return of the NHL and sports in general.
One final thing I would like to address is the fact that some fans believe there should be an asterisk beside the name of the team that wins the Stanley Cup. That is absolutely ridiculous, no there shouldn’t be an asterisk beside the team who wins. Teams played 85% of their regular season schedules. The season was stopped on March 12th due to the coronavirus pandemic which is out of the players hands, its not their fault there is a global pandemic going on! Is there an asterisk beside the 1994-95 New Jersey Devils and 2012-13 Chicago Blackhawks after winning the Stanley Cup in 48 game lockout shortened seasons? No. So this talk of an asterisk beside this years Stanley Cup winner is childish and needs to stop.
I will write verbatim what TSN’s Frank Seravalli said on twitter this morning.
“I don’t see why it would carry an asterisk at all. 70 game regular season and 16 of 24 teams would need to win 5 round in order to hoist the Cup. All after a 4-month layoff at the very least. It might be more difficult to win than ever, the way I see it.”
A huge shout out goes to the NHL return to play committee for all the work they have done just to get to this point. Many more hurdles to clear, but there will be hockey this summer, that’s for certain.
Thanks for the continued support on my blogs, I really appreciate it!
-Cooper.