Some clarity on return to play format

It looks like the New York Rangers will be playing hockey again.

Numerous published reports have provided some clarity on the future of this NHL season.  The league has decided on a format and presented it to the players union (NHLPA) and are waiting for aproval. It means that the New York Rangers will be playing again, it’s just a matter of when.

Here’s what we know so far.

1. There will be an expanded 24 team postseason.  The Rangers make the cut with the 18th overall percentage (.564).  That’s 11th overall in the East.   The seven teams that are out of it will not play any more games.  Their season is over.
2. Teams will be ranked according to points percentage.   The NHL is lucky that the top 24 teams are split evenly between the Eastern and Western Conferences.
3. The bottom 16 teams will play a best of five play-in series with match ups determined by points percentage.  In this case, the Rangers will play the Carolina Hurricanes in the play-in series.
4. The top four teams in each Conference will get a bye from any kind of play-in series, but will instead play a round robin of three games with the record from those games determining how they will be seeded for the first 16 team round of the playoffs.  That means if the Rangers can get through the play-in round, they could play Boston, Tampa, Washington or Philadelphia.
5. Once the pool is down to 16 teams, the Stanley Cup Playoffs will follow the standard four standard best of seven series.

Questions

There are a few questions that remain regarding format.  Is the Divisional format being completely abandoned or will the first round match ups be determined by Division?   Since the play-in round is based on points percentage, regardless of Division, a strict best versus worst bracket makes sense.

That is particularly relevant in the West where the three of the top four teams come from the Central Division.   In the East, it’s an even split between the Metropolitan and Atlantic Divisions.

Of course, the biggest questions are where and when.  The games will be played in several hub cities in front of no fans. There are many cities under consideration with COVOD-19 issues the determining factor.  Obviously, no NHL teams will be going anywhere near New York City.

Reports are the Edmonton, Toronto and Vancouver have bids in while Columbus, Las Vegas and Minneapolis-St. Paul are the front runners in the United States.

Timing will be crucial.  Almost one fifth of NHL players are outside North America and getting all of them back in time for a mini-training camp could be an endeavor.  It’s likely that the postseason will begin in July with the Stanley Cup Finals taking place in late August or early September.

Of course, that means that the 2020-21 season will be delayed, but Gary Bettman has said that the league expects to play a full season.

At this point, whether there will be any “warm up” games is a question.  One possibility is for the teams to be allowed to expand their rosters so that they can play scrimmages before playing for real.  With the AHL season cancelled, teams could add a dozen players from their farm system to get up to a sufficient number of skaters to play meaningful games.

Challenges

While only two points separate the Rangers and the Hurricanes, the disparity is much greater for other teams.  The 86 point Pittsburgh Penguins will take on the Montreal Canadiens with 71 points.  The possiblity of an upset by a far inferior team doesn’t sit well with some executives.   In the  West, 11 points separate Edmonton and Chicago.  Those are the only two match ups that could be called unfair.

Any objections will be disregarded for the simple fact that with the proposed format, it adds the New York, Chicago and Montreal television markets to the postseason.  That’s just good business at a time when the NHL will be desperate to generate some hockey buzz.

The ball is in the NHLPA’s court now.  It’s likely that the union will be more concerned about how the league will be re-starting as opposed to what the format will be.   The league can’t begin to deal with those monumental issues until they figure out a format and that’s the priority right now.