It appears the National Hockey League is skating a little closer to the resumption of its suspended 2019-20 season.
The Return To Play committee met virtually over the weekend to discuss when, and how, the season would restart and the details were discussed in a conference call by the board of governors Monday afternoon.
It’s safe to say that players, coaches, officials and arena staff will need to be tested before every game to help prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus.
Beyond the testing component, there are some key questions the league and players’ association will have to answer before the puck can be dropped again.
Will the league play out the regular season or jump right into the playoffs? If the NHL goes straight to playoff mode, how many teams will be included and what will the playoff format look like? And where are the games going to be played?
Talk of holding games in hub cities is gaining steam with as little as two American destinations on the table if the Canada-U.S. border remains closed to non-essential travel, and four cities (with six teams housed in each community) if Canada is a hosting option.
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Two cities could work, but excluding any Canadian city from this process wouldn’t sit well with fans in the Great White North.
The most popular return to play idea seems to be a 24-team playoff, 12 teams from each conference, which would include clubs like Chicago (last in the Central Division when the season was halted in March) and Montreal (10 points out of a playoff spot).
The NHL should stick with 16 playoff teams and have every team get to the 75 game mark (teams have already played between 68 and 71 games) to ensure they have all played the same number of regular-season games as opposed to using points percentage to determine the playoff seeds.
There isn’t an easy answer to any of these questions but I’m sure that whatever the league and NHLPA comes up with will be celebrated by fans, even if they will have to cheer the return of hockey from the comfort of their own homes.
Rick Zamperin assistant program director, news and senior sports director with Global News Radio 900 CHML in Hamilton.
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