Rangers hockey is coming back: The latest on the return to play

New York Rangers hockey is on the horizon with a lot of details to work out

There was a lot of news Thursday about the return to play.  Both the NHL Board of Governors and the NHL players will have to vote on a final agreement and that should happen next week, but there was movement on many issues.  The bottom line is that the NHL is still intent on the New York Rangers and 30 other teams beginning to play games on January 13. Here are some headlines.

No pre-season games

With the priority getting the regular season started and with the time constraints facing the NHL, the word is that there will be no pre-season games.   That will make scrimmages more important than ever and will favor teams with lineups that are set.

For the Rangers, their forward lines are mostly established, but it’s on defense where a lack of a preseason schedule will hurt.   Based on the lineup that faced Carolina, the only question at forward will be who replaces Jesper Fast on the line with Strome and Panarin.  On defense, Jack Johnson slots into the third pair, replacing Marc Staal, but it’s who will partner with Jacob Trouba that is the biggest question facing the team.

Training camp dates

The seven teams that didn’t make the Stanley Cup Qualifier will get to open their training camps a few days earlier, reportedly on December 31.  The rest of the teams are supposed to start on January 3.

With all of the local COVID-19 restrictions, that means that players will have to get back to their home markets in the next few days especially if 14 day quarantine guidelines are in place.  Some teams have already seen players returning and for the Rangers, a number of players have been working out in the area already.

The schedule

A 56 game schedule looks like what the league is aiming for as that number fits perfectly with the three eight team and one seven team division alignment.   As previously noted, all teams will play within their own divisions.

The idea is that teams would play series of games like in baseball, to limit the amount of travel. In a 56 game schedule the Rangers would play each team in their division eight times,  meaning two trips to Boston, Washington, Pittsburgh etc.  The proximity of the Islanders and Devils does mean that the NHL has some flexibility when working out a schedule.

The NHL is aiming for the regular season to end before May with a buffer period before the playoffs for teams to make up postponed games.  The target date for the last day of the Stanley Cup Playoffs is still before the Tokyo Olympics begin on July 23.

COVID-19

There was a report late Thursday that the NHL wants to purchase a supply of the vaccine and would administer it to all players.  The news was tweeted by John Shannon, a hockey journalist in Canada.

Since the NHL would be aware of the optics of athletes “jumping  the line,” there has been some discussion of athletes (not just NHL players)  being “vaccine ambassadors” with them getting the vaccine as part of a movement to get people to accept it.

It’s an incredibly sensitive topic, but if all NHL players were able to get inoculated, it would eliminate many of the postponements and quarantine issues that have faced leagues that already resumed play in North America and Europe.

There’s also an issue of the league making all players get the vaccine.  That would be an issue for the NHLPA.

Unanswered questions

There are so many issues that need to be resolved it’s impossible to list them all, but here are just a few.

• Division alignment – Some teams have raised issues with the proposed divisional alignment. It’s likely that it is what it is, but there still could be some tweaks.  The one that everyone is talking about is the Wild moving to the West in a swap with the Blues.
• Taxi squads – With the pandemic issues facing the NHL, it’s probably that the teams will be allowed to expand their rosters as they did during the Stanley Cup Qualifier.  How that will work has to resolved.
• Trade deadline – Pandemic issues could make the trade deadline moot.  If a player would have to quarantine for a period after a trade, it may make the idea of  trade deadline in an abbreviated season almost irrelevant.
• Relocation – There is a question about teams having to relocate due to the pandemic.  In the NFL, the 49ers, Chargers and Rams may all have to play there games out of California due to restrictions in that state.  The Toronto Blue Jays had to relocate to Buffalo this summer.  Santa Clara County in California has imposed restrictions that may force the San Jose Sharks to move their practices and games to another location, but in this case it could be just moving to Oakland one county over.  If more counties impose restrictions on recreational activities, it could be a major issue.

Again, these are just a few of the issues facing the NHL as they work out their “Return to Play” protocol.  It’s going to be a busy week in the NHL with the league trying to finalize all of these issues so they can vote.