I understand we're no closer to figuring out whether the NHL can try to resume its season or not as we were when the league first suspended play, but Gary Bettman seems committed to having a legitimate finish to the 2019-20 season that ends with the awarding of the Stanley Cup. Even if that means coming back in mid-June (which is usually right around when the Stanley Cup Final ends) and playing throughout the summer, which brings about plenty of its own issues.
Since the league office is committed to finishing the season, you'd have to believe they'll do everything they can to make sure that happens...within reason. Next season will almost certainly be affected, as well, so they can't wait too long. But, assuming the NHL is able to take the ice again this season (even if it's in empty arenas), what will that look like?
One idea being floated about (and seriously considered) for the NBA is getting a bunch of teams together in one or two central locations (Las Vegas has been mentioned) and playing as many games as possible behind closed doors in that controlled environment. That's a great idea, but one that I'm not sure would work for hockey.
For starters, hockey games take longer. Not just the game itself, but between resurfacing the ice and letting it set and allowing the appropriate warmup time, you're talking at least four hours. So, the most games you could play in one day at a given arena is maybe three. A basketball court is pretty much ready to go as soon as the previous game is over, so the NBA could crank out five (or six) games in one day at a neutral location no problem.
And, the NBA only has one Canadian team to deal with. The NHL has seven. And a majority of the players are Canadian, whereas the NBA is comprised mostly of Americans. So they need unrestricted travel between the two countries. (And they told all the European players they can go home, which creates a whole different set of travel issues.) Could they get special visas for the Canadian teams to enter the U.S. in order to have neutral-site games? Probably. But that wouldn't solve the larger issue of arena availability.
The NHL has told teams to look for arena dates into August, and the Olympic postponement certainly helps them in that it opened up broadcast windows on NBC/NBCSN that need to be filled in July and August. But the NBA has told its teams the same thing, so both leagues are looking at the same dates for their rescheduled games. And that's not even taking into account the concerts and other events at arenas that will have been dark for months and eager to recoup as much money as they can.
So, either way, it doesn't look possible for the NHL to have every team complete its regular season, then move on to the traditional four best-of-seven series for the playoffs. The Stanley Cup Playoffs take two months! Assuming they get the all-clear to start playing games again in mid-June, that would push the Stanley Cup Final into mid-August before you even factor in any regular season games.
Yes, they could condense that timeline by eliminating travel days or playing Games 1 & 2 or 3 & 4 back-to-back. But even that only buys maybe a week or two. So, either way, we're looking at, best case, an August finish one way or the other. Without even taking the regular season into account. Which is why it's impractical to think completing the regular season is possible.
However, cancelling the rest of the regular season outright doesn't seem like the fairest outcome either. Not with the playoff races being as tight as they are. Three teams are within two points of the wild cards in the East, and you've got teams on the outside-looking in out West who are close enough to second place in their division that they could end up with home ice in the first round! (Insert snarky comment here about how dumb the NHL's playoff format is.) Those teams deserve a chance to play their way in (or out).
Among the many theories/suggestions that have been thrown out there by journalists is to just cancel the remaining regular season games and, since not every team has played the same number of games, determine the playoff teams by points percentage (which would be incredibly unfair to the teams currently holding playoff berths based on total points). Another popular one is going by the current standings and having a "play-in" tournament for the two wild cards in each conference, which would still give those teams currently in ninth and 10th place a chance to make the playoffs proper.
While both of those proposals have their own merits, I'm not a fan of either. It's really the idea of simply abandoning the rest of the regular season that I don't like. Not just for the teams that are close to the playoffs and would be out. But the teams that are towards the bottom shouldn't be told "that's it, you're done" because of a global pandemic! When the NHL comes back, every team should get a chance to finish their season. Not just the playoff teams.
Although, like I said earlier, everybody finishing their season (meaning, playing a full 82 games) wouldn't be practical. Every team is has between 68 and 71 games played, so, even if they played every other night, that's still three weeks! Add that to two months of playoffs, and you're talking about three months once they finally start up again! That's simply too long, especially if you want next season to be as normal as possible. (And I'm sure they'll want to be done by Labor Day so they're finished before football starts.)
My proposal is to have one or two weeks of regular season games, then start the playoffs. And don't just pick up the schedule where you left off. Get everyone to the same number of games played--either 72 or 74 (74 would probably be better since some are at 71 right now). Yes, that would require some reconfiguring the schedule, but that, to me, is the fairest way to give the teams on the outside a chance to get into the playoffs, those who are in currently in the chance to defend their spot, and those who are out a chance to properly finish their season.
That way, you can have a normal 16-team playoffs without any controversy regarding who got in and who didn't. It also would give those teams that have already clinched playoff berths the chance to get some games in their legs before the intensity of the playoffs, which is something that'll be incredibly important after sitting around for two months!
Under the circumstances, there's no reason to play best-of-seven in every round of the playoffs, either. The Stanley Cup Final has to remain best-of-seven. So do the conference finals, I'd argue. But the first two rounds can easily be shortened to best-of-five. I understand that's not ideal, but in this situation, it's worth the one-year change in order to preserve as regular a playoff schedule as possible.
Whether or not there are fans in the arenas for these games is irrelevant. The NHL would obviously prefer that, but getting back on the ice is the priority. And, once they do get back on the ice, playing as many games as possible while still crowning a legitimate champion. My way lets them do both. But, as long as hockey comes back relatively soon, I don't really care what they decide to do!
No comments:
Post a Comment