NHL unveils plan for 24-team tournament

The coronavirus will have the final say on whether the National Hockey League will be allowed to award the Stanley Cup, but Commissioner Gary Bettman unfurled the joint NHL-NHLPA Return to Play play on Tuesday, his hopes high that a fitting end to the 2019-20 season can be found.

And, yes, the Bruins are getting screwed a tad, but more on that later.

Provided the league receives all the appropriate green lights from from the governing health and civic authorities through Phase 2 (limited workouts at team training facilities that are expected to begin in early June) and Phase 3 (training camps that will begin no earlier than July 1), the NHL will play a 24-team tournament, presumably beginning in the late summer and going into the fall.

Whether this plan can be taken to fruition remains to be seen, but Bettman clearly viewed the unveiling as a momentous occasion.

“It’s been an important day for sports and the NHL in this incredibly unique, difficult and trying time,” said Bettman on a Zoom call with media. “We hope that this is a step back toward normalcy. Obviously, everything we’re focused on starts with health and safety and everyone’s well-being. But we think we’ve been able to work very collaboratively with the Players Association and players to come up with a framework that is fair, has integrity and should result in a terrific, competitive playoffs.”

Based on points percentage, the top 12 teams from each conference will travel to two separate hub cities that have yet to be determined. The top four teams from each conference will play a three-game round robin series — played under the regular season point system with a five-minute overtime and shootout — to determine the top four seeds while the bottom eight teams will play best-of-five play-in series under playoff rules (i.e. sudden death overtime).

A couple of key points remain to be resolved concerning the format. Once the tournament gets through the round robins and play-in rounds, it has not yet been determined whether the next two rounds will be best-of-five or best-of-seven, though the conference finals and Cup finals will be best-of-seven.

Also, it has not been determined whether the playoffs will continue in a bracket or seeding basis. It was once believed the the Bruins, if they had been the No. 1 seed, would play the winner of the Toronto-Columbus series but that decision has not been reached.

As for the B’s, they had not clinched the top seed in the East, but they were clearly in the driver’s seat. They had an eight-point lead over the the second-placed Lightning with 12 games to play, half of which were to be played against non-playoff teams. Now they’ll have to fight it out with the three best teams in the conference for the best seed. The B’s, who had been in the process of running away with the Presidents Trophy, could start the 16-team playoff with a seed as low as fourth in the east. They won’t be playing for any home ice advantage but it could determine if they have an easier path to the Cup.

“By getting a bye, they’re going to be facing a team that just came out of a competitive series,” explained Bettman. “The concern was they needed to have some competition that might not put them at risk in terms of the playoffs but would give them an opportunity to play some real games and that was the thinking that went into this.”

Ten cities are under consideration to be hub cities. They include three Eastern Conference cities and seven Western Conference cities — Columbus, Toronto and Pittsburgh in the East and Las Vegas, Chicago, Edmonton, Dallas, Los Angeles, Minneapolis and Vancouver in the west. Bettman said that a decision on the two cities — regardless of whether they are in the east or west — will be made in three to four weeks and it will be based on the level of COVID-19 prevalence in the cities at that point.

Giving the league a wide berth to shift plans, Bettman did not give a firm date for the start of any of the remaining phases, saying that information gleaned from Phase 2 will determine how long training camps need to be. Though the plan is still to play a full schedule in the 2020-21 season, Bettman suggested next season could start as late as January.

The testing will be extensive. The plan is for players to be tested twice a week for the upcoming Phase 2 (small group workouts) and the frequency would increase in Phase 3 (training camp). Individual teams bear the responsibility and cost for Phase 2 and 3 testing. Once the tournament starts at the hub cities, the testing would occur daily, and would be covered by the league. Bettman estimated the league will need 25,000 to 30,000 tests and it will cost “millions.”

What exactly would trigger a shutdown is not clear, but Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly said that a small number of positive tests would not necessarily end it.

“The bottom line is that’s a key question and something we’ve been in constant communication with our medical advisers on,” said Daly. “Their thought process at this point in time is that one single positive test, depending on the circumstances, should not shut the whole operation down. Obviously, we can’t be in a situation where we have an outbreak and that will affect our ability to continue playing. But a single positive test or isolated positive tests throughout a two-month tournament should not necessarily mean an end to the tournament.”

Meanwhile, there is no ambiguity for the Senators, Sabres, Devils, Red Wings, Kings, Sharks and Ducks. Their 2019-20 season is officially over. And it’s anyone’s guess when they’ll be playing hockey again.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3goSOKc